502 ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



used in computation, for it was called " remen," or the upper arm. 

 This was a measure of 5 palms, whereas the royal cubit contained 7 

 palms, so that their squares contained 25 and 49 square palms, re- 

 sj^ectively, or a proportion of nearly 1 to 2. At Aneiba, a village 

 nearly opposite Ibrim in Nubia, there are some tomlDs in which the 

 extent of certain estates is represented by notched rectangles. Each 

 subdivision thus formed represented, doubtless, a set or aroura. Small 

 areas, such as a well or tank, were given in square cubits. 



Thus, the units in use in ancient times for land measurement were : 



Length : 



Royal cubit, equals 20.6 inches. 



Khet (100 cubits), equals 57.2 yards. 



Area : 



Square cubit, equals 0.305 square yard. 



Cubit of land (100 square cubits), equals 30.5 square yards. 



Set or aroura (100 cubits of land) , equals__.3.050 square yards. 

 The " thousand," or 10 arourse,- equals 6.3 acres. 



In Roman times, we have several additional units, which are given 

 in a papyrus (No. 669) found at Oxyrhynchus (Bahnessa) in 1903, by 

 Professor Grenfell and Doctor Hunt, and which dates from about 

 290 A. D. : 



2 palms make a X^xas. 



3 palms make a a-mOanT). 



4 palms make a -kovs. 



5 palms make a cloth-weaver's cubit. 



6 palms make a public and a carpenter's cubit. 



7 palms make a nilometer or royal cubit. 



10 palms make a /3^^a, or the distance of the outstretched feet. 



3 cubits make a public iv\ov. 



4 cubits make an op-^via. 

 ? cubits make a KaXafios. 

 6§ cubits make an dKaipa. 



40 cubits make an afifia. 



96 cubits make a schoenium of land surveying. 

 100 cubits make a schoenium. 



The schoenium, like the khet in earlier times, was the side of the 

 square aroura or set, and measured 100 royal cubits of 20.6 inches; 

 and the aroura contained about 3,050 square yards, or five-eighths of 

 an acre. But the papyrus just quoted says that schceniinn used in 

 land surveying was a square of 96 cubits ; one probable reason for the 

 change being the greater convenience in estimating the thirty-second 

 and other fractions of the aroura. 



But these measurements are not those which are in use to-day. 

 Though the ancient measure of the aroura is referred to in papyri as 

 late as the sixth and seventh centuries, in an Arabic papyrus from the 

 Fayum, dated 724 A. D., the feddan is used to define areas. It is very 

 remarkable that the older measures, which had been so long in use. 



