Clive,


I believe that your statement: "there is no evidence of a segment inscribed on a Royal cubit sample "containing" (7) or (10) units that the user of the ruler could refer to...as you may be implying" is not quite accurate.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding what you mean here, but the royal cubit does appear to have been inscribed with the "remen" hieroglyph at the 5 "palm" (ie, 20 "finger") division, and as you note, the rod itself is 7 palms long. By using multiples of these two quantities, it is then child's play to quickly measure out the sequence 10/7, etc. referred to. For references on this see F.L. Griffith, "Notes on Egyptian Weights and Measures", Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, v. XV (1892-3), 301-336; and also Nora E. Scott, "Egyptian Cubit Rods", Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1 (1942), 70-75.


Sorry for my delay in responding.

Best,

Lee Cooper