Hermione Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Petrie did find variants of the cubit ...

Yes we are all aware that he did find variants but what do those variants represent.

He spent a lotta time getting the KC royal cubit down to a few thousands of an inch and then realized that the chamber had been shaken out of true and even though he compensated for it to the best of his ability he later found it necessary to modified it with:

Chapter 20. Section 136.

p.178.

"The passage widths are so short and variable that little value can be placed on them, especially as they depend on the builder's and not on the mason's work. The lengths of the passages are very accurate data, but being only single measures, are of less importance than are chambers, in which a length is often repeated in the working. The chamber dimensions are rather variable, particularly in the Subterranean and Antechamber, and none of the above data are equal in quality to the King's Chamber dimensions. If a strictly weighted p 179 mean be taken it yields 20.620 ± .004; but taking the King's Chamber alone, as being the best datum by far, it nevertheless contracts upwards, so that it is hardly justifiable to adopt a larger result than 20.620 ± .005. "


There are many areas on the plateau where the royal cubit is not to be found, in the tombs where grids have been laid out, in the courses of the pyramid where block thicknesses have been cut and then, at Saqqara and on the Saqqara flake. So the conclusion is that other measures were in use.

That's what Petrie was up against. The page you drew attention to shows how the chamber measurements influenced Petrie to modify his best shot at the royal cubit (that which was available in the KC).





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2007 11:27AM by fmetrol.