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More recently one has come to realize that a number of documents indicate the use of a unit equal to 1 1/3 royal cubit. In my opinion this mysterious unit is a cubit of two hybrid feet, that is, 37 1/3 natural basic fingers, 700 mm. The name of this unit is nb, nebiu, which means “carrying" and indicates that the original unit of length was the carrying yoke; the term for cubit in Semitic languages and in Greek means the arm of the carrying yoke, that is, the half of it. On Egyptian cubit rules, the position of the hybrid foot it indicated by the sign of the forearm rmn; the term means “cubit,” but it corresponds to the idea of “to carry” and it also means “half”, indicating that essentially it signifies the half of the carrying yoke.

My explanation of the unit nebiu is supported by a neglected specimen of the Metropolitan Museum of New York. This object is listed in the catalog as a a cubit of 27½ American inches (698.6 mm). It is a double hybrid foot (rmn) or a “carrying yoke” of 7000 mm. It consists of a simple round rod of plain wood divided by lines cut with a saw into 7 parts; the seventh at the meddle is further divided into two parts, so that the rod is divided at the center in two halves of 3½ sevenths.

Stecchini