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    The Ancient Sumerian Roots of The Brit

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    The Ancient Sumerian Roots of the British - Pre- Imperial System of Measurement discusses the origins and history of measurement standards in ancient Sumer that were later adopted in Britain. It describes three key ancient Sumerian standards: [1] The Lunar Standard of Lagash from around 2175 BCE that defined the foot and became the Anglo-Saxon foot of 335.28 mm; [2] The Third Geodetic Foot of Lagash from circa 1650 BCE that was used in designs of the Great Pyramid and became the Etruscan measures adopted in Britain; and [3] These standards demonstrated sophisticated knowledge of measuring the Earth and were accurate to within 100 km over 5000 years ago.

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    The Ancient Sumerian Roots of The Brit

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    The Ancient Sumerian Roots of the British - Pre- Imperial System of Measurement discusses the origins and history of measurement standards in ancient Sumer that were later adopted in Britain. It describes three key ancient Sumerian standards: [1] The Lunar Standard of Lagash from around 2175 BCE that defined the foot and became the Anglo-Saxon foot of 335.28 mm; [2] The Third Geodetic Foot of Lagash from circa 1650 BCE that was used in designs of the Great Pyramid and became the Etruscan measures adopted in Britain; and [3] These standards demonstrated sophisticated knowledge of measuring the Earth and were accurate to within 100 km over 5000 years ago.

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    The Ancient Sumerian Roots of the British - Pre- Imperial System of Measurement discusses the origins and history of measurement standards in ancient Sumer that were later adopted in Britain. It describes three key ancient Sumerian standards: [1] The Lunar Standard of Lagash from around 2175 BCE that defined the foot and became the Anglo-Saxon foot of 335.28 mm; [2] The Third Geodetic Foot of Lagash from circa 1650 BCE that was used in designs of the Great Pyramid and became the Etruscan measures adopted in Britain; and [3] These standards demonstrated sophisticated knowledge of measuring the Earth and were accurate to within 100 km over 5000 years ago.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    35 views5 pages

    The Ancient Sumerian Roots of The Brit

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    jpg6983
    The Ancient Sumerian Roots of the British - Pre- Imperial System of Measurement discusses the origins and history of measurement standards in ancient Sumer that were later adopted in Britain. It describes three key ancient Sumerian standards: [1] The Lunar Standard of Lagash from around 2175 BCE that defined the foot and became the Anglo-Saxon foot of 335.28 mm; [2] The Third Geodetic Foot of Lagash from circa 1650 BCE that was used in designs of the Great Pyramid and became the Etruscan measures adopted in Britain; and [3] These standards demonstrated sophisticated knowledge of measuring the Earth and were accurate to within 100 km over 5000 years ago.

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    The Ancient Sumerian Roots of the British -

    Pre- Imperial System of Measurement


    R. A. Boucher May 25, 2022

    Just as the Metric System swept the world in the last 200 years, so did the British
    Imperial System. This is not a new phenomenon. New systems of measure have
    been introduced to the world many times in the last 5000 years of recorded
    history. It was not unusual for a new Sumerian Standard to travel to England 1 in
    the West and Japan 2 in the East. I have found one example where one Middle East
    standard reached the Americas, there may be many others.

    Three standards were in use in England at the time of the Magna Carta 3. These
    standards were coherent and precisely reproducible just as the metric system is
    today. In 1600 Queen Elizabeth I introduced a new set of Standards which used
    the existing standards for length and volume and a new standards for weight.

    In the English Navy, !A pint a pound the world around" would no longer be true,
    yet it was still taught in New England grammar schools 350 years later. A pint had
    been a pound for over 5000 years except for an ancient metric system where the
    liter (Sila) was 2 pounds.

    The English incorporated the lengths and volumes from the Lunar Standard of
    Lagash but chose the French Wool Pound dating back through the Etruscans to the
    Sumerian third geodetic foot of Lagash for their standard of weight.

    It is a mistake to lose the history of the 5000 years of ancient systems of measure
    which served the world. The system of measurement that gave us the pound, built
    the great pyramid at Giza, and gave us a measure of the polar circumference of the
    Earth, accurate to better than 100 km. out of 40,000 km. almost 5000 years ago.

    The Ancient measure that gave us the foot is the oldest Sumerian measure and may
    be much older than 5000 years

    For a deeper understanding of the theory and method which recreated


    nine ancient standards I refer you to the first four chapters of the book
    Ancient Measurement by the Author
    The Lunar Standard of Lagash

    One of the earliest Sumerian standards of measurement was the Lunar Standard of
    Lagash 4 which may have been much older than the city itself. Its length can be
    found on a statue of Guda, who was the governor of Lagash circa 2175 BCE.5

    It appears that Gudea#s Foot traveled to Europe where it became the Anglo-Saxon
    foot of 335.28 millimeters.6 This four-figure match in dimension is unlikely to have
    been the result of chance. It then traveled to England, where the furlong of 600
    Anglo-Saxon feet was used to establish all land boundaries. Later the British
    Imperial Foot would be defined as 1/660 Anglo Saxon furlongs, from which all
    British linear measures were derived.

    The Lunar Standard Step (yard) was based on the length of a pendulum adjusted to
    produce 60 swings in the time it took the Moon to travel one lunar diameter in the
    night sky. It was divided into 60 fingers as well as and into a 20-finger foot, and a
    30-finger cubit.7 The exact length of the Step and its derivatives can be obtained
    from three of Dr. Powell#s calibrated weights8, a statue of Guda with a tablet of
    measures on his lap, and a magnificent silver vase whose volume was 1/8 cubic
    foot.9 The length of that foot was 336.25 mm., which over 5000 years morphed into
    the 335.28 Anglo Saxon foot.
    Fig 1 Gudea’s Rule Fig 2 Entemena!s Vase

    Third Geodetic Foot of Lagash

    Just as the French chose the polar circumference of the Earth to establish their
    Meter and Kilometer, the citizens of the ancient city of Lagash did exactly the
    same thing. They had discovered that 360 of their yards (Steps) were just a little
    longer than 1/360 degree on the polar circumference of the Earth. Rather than
    change the length of their Step to make the correction, they established the polar
    circumference at 1000 x 360 x 360 or 129,600,000 geodetic feet. This distance was
    within 100 km of the modern value, measured with satellite data at the latitude of
    Lagash.10

    As with their earlier Lunar Standard, the citizens of Lagash chose a pendulum
    timed by a celestial object to establish its length, a method which would retain its
    accuracy throughout the passage of time. This new pendulum was adjusted to
    provide 366 swings in the time it took the Sun to move one degree in the sky. Its
    length was 307.25 mm.

    The exact length can be derived from the weight of the magnificent Octopus Talent
    of Babylon, which was discovered in Knossos, Crete, in 1901 by Sir Arthur Evans.
    This magnificent 29,000-gram talent weight from circa 1650 BCE may well have
    been commissioned to celebrate the thousandth anniversary of the building of the
    Great Pyramid at Giza.11

    Fig 3 Octopus Talent Weight

    Much to our surprise, we found that this geodetic foot, 1000 years earlier, had been
    used in the design of the Great Pyramid at Giza. Its perimeter at its base is almost
    exactly 3000 of these geodetic feet or 30 arc seconds on the polar circumference of
    the Earth.12

    This Geodetic Foot was the basis of the Etruscan measures of length, volume and
    weight. The Etruscan wool pound of 453.074 grams, or 6,992 grains, became the
    French wool pound used by British sheepherders. Queen Elizabeth I selected this
    pound in the sixteenth century as a prototype for the 7,000-grain British Imperial
    Pound.13
    Strange as it may seem, the length of a 64-pound cube of water today is that
    ancient Geodetic Foot, and 129,600,000 of them is still the circumference of the
    Earth when measured at 32 degrees north Latitude.
    References

    1 Boucher, Ancient Measurement, Archway Publishing, 20

    2 Full Sail online sci.lan.japan FAQ/12

    3 Zupko, British Weights and Measures, University of Wisconsin Press, 156

    4 Boucher, Ancient Measurement, Archway Publishing, 19, 20

    5 Berriman, Historical Metrology, J.M. DENT & SONS, 54, 54

    6 Boucher, Ancient Measurement, Archway Publishing, 20

    7 Boucher, Ancient Measurement, Archway Publishing, 19

    8 Powell, Sumerian Numeration and Metrology. 205

    9 Berriman, Historical Metrology, J.M. DENT & SONS ,63, 64

    10 The Earth according to World Geodetic Survey 1984

    11 Berriman, Historical Metrology, J.M. DENT & SONS 124, 135

    11 Evans Corolla Numisimatica Essay


    Minoan weights and Mediums of Currency 358

    12 Petrie, Inductive Metrology section 21-29 fig 13C

    13 Bee Wilson, Swindled Princeton University Table 12a line 3

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