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Ancient weights and measures

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Ancient Weights and Measures

Many of the ancient weights and measures used throughout history are variations on a common theme sharing the same system. Despite a number of different civilisations making adjustments to serve their own purposes the accuracy and agreement of definitions improved over time.

Measurements that are used to define property are often used to impose taxes or tithes resulting in there being one measure for ordinary transactions and another for royal or religious transactions. Though throughout history people and their various representatives in guilds and lobbys, have been very scrupulous in defending the value of their possessions, governments and religions are even more scrupulous about getting their cut.

The first measures were the lengths of the ditches that bordered and defined the fields. Since people tend to pace off a distance differently, knotted cords were used to measure their sides and cord stretchers became the first surveyors.


Ancient Cultures sharing similar systems of measurement

Later developments of the original systems

Unrelated systems

References

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External links

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