Ahatmose Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I thought there was two cubits. A regular cubit of
> approximately 18 inches (17.72 will do) and The
> Royal Cubit of continuing debate (between
> apparently 20.5 and 20.67448 (mine for Meidum) and
> 20.70.

It would be likely that all projects under the supervision of the royal architect of that time used whatever he wanted as a cubit. I can't see him setting up a new cubit every time he built something (and the suggestion elsewhere that scribe palettes were a cubit long makes quite a bit of sense in this respect, since they would be marking things on the job site and can't call the chief architect over for every little detail.)

>
> If we accept 17.72 as a length in our inches for
> the regular cubit and there are 24 digits in this
> cubit then The Royal Cubit should be 17.72 / 24
> then times 28 and yields 20.673333
>
> We cannot lose sight of the fact that we are
> dealing with two different cubits.
>
> I think, although I am quite often wrong, that The
> Royal Cubit originated at Sakkara with the
> building of The Step Pyramid. I do not believe The
> Royal Cubit is attested in either The First or
> Second Dynasty. This leads to, as I have stated,
> that the Royal Cubit originated with the building
> of the first pyramid.
>
> A good question to ask ourselves is why ?

Digital Giza (http://giza.fas.harvard.edu/) has papers (most of them from Napoleon) that has dimensions of the tombs there, which were built using cubits (known individuals and dynasty during which they lived.)


>
> ... and now a check on Petrie's measurements at
> Giza. He has from the centre of G1 to the centre
> of G2 as 19168.4 inches HOWEVER when the
> co-ordinates of the centre as posted on Wiki are
> used they give us a value of 18393.408 inches, a
> major discrepancy
>

You'd have to see when that measurement was taken. I suspect it's based on a more recent digital survey (possibly even satellite) and may be based on having additional areas cleared; areas that were not cleared when Petrie was there.

-- Byrd
Moderator, Hall of Ma'at