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In ], a '''rope stretcher''' (or '''harpedonaptai''') was a ] who ] ] demarcations and ] using ]s, stretched so the rope did not sag. The practice is depicted in tomb paintings of the ].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-4eWtgEXjoC&pg=PT282 |page=282 |title=Evidence and Procedures for Boundary Location |isbn=9780470901601 |last1=Robillard |first1=Walter G. |last2=Wilson |first2=Donald A. |last3=Brown |first3=Curtis M. |last4=Eldridge |first4=Winfield |date=31 January 2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons }}</ref> Rope stretchers used ] and the ],<ref></ref> which are still in use by modern surveyors.
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The commissioning of a new sacred building was a solemn occasion in which pharaohs and other high-ranking officials personally stretched ropes to define the foundation. This important ceremony, and therefore rope-stretching itself, are attested over 3000 years from the ] to the ].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fWKYBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |page=98 |title=Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future: Volume I: Antiquity to the 1500s |isbn=9783319001371 |last1=Williams |first1=Kim|author1-link=Kim Williams (architect) |last2=Ostwald |first2=Michael J. |date=9 February 2015 |publisher=Birkhäuser }}</ref>
{{cleanup-date|August 2005}}


Rope stretching technology spread to ] and ], where it stimulated the development of ] and ].
]


==Stretching the rope == == See also ==
* ]
* ]
* ]


==References==
In ancient Egypt '''Rope stretchers''' were ] who ]d out the sides of fields 3ht using ] which they stretched in order to take the sag out of the rope and keep the 3ht measures uniform. As far back as the ]s of ] and the ] the Egyptians document the process the royal surveyors used to restore the boundaries of fields after each innundation or ].
{{reflist}}
* {{cite book |first=Alistair |last=Macintosh Wilson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nh7rwAEACAAJ |title=The Infinite in the Finite |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=9780198539506 }}
* ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica,'' Encyclopædia Britannica 1974
* James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, Chicago 1906
* Joel F. PAULSON, "Surveying in Ancient Egypt,", ] Working Week 2005 and ]-8, Cairo, Egypt April 16-21, 2005.


⚫ ==External links==
==to survey the fields==
⚫ *
⚫ * "The knowledge of pleasing proportions of the rope stretchers was incorporated by the Greeks"


{{DEFAULTSORT:Rope Stretcher}}
* ]
]
]
]
]


] and the Scorpion ] portray themselves controlling the land through their control of the water that irrigates the land. On the ] palette ] assists ] by opening the ways of '''3kr''' the personified god of the land itself shown in the image to the right as a man with a field growing out of his head.


{{AncientEgypt-stub}}
The ] pose (]) is a man striding forward with raised mace toward a subservient subject, which in this case is labled st3t or a field whose kht is 100 royal ]s.
: 1 ] = 1 side of an 3ht of length 100 ]s
: 1 st3t = a field of side 100 royal cubits.

"Of the officials, some are market commissioners, others are city commissioners and others are in charge of the soldiers. Among these, the first keep the rivers improved and the '''land remeasured''', as in Egypt, and inspect the closed canals from which the water is distributed into the conduits, in order that all may have an equal use of it. The same men also have charge of the hunters and are authorized to reward or punish those who deserve either. They also collect the taxes and superintend the crafts connected with the land -- those of wood-cutters, carpenters, workers in brass, and miners. '''And they make roads, and at every ten stadia place pillars showing the by-roads and the distances.''' Strabo. "The Geography"

]

Many people think the Romans invented the idea of the milestone but here we can see that it may have originated as a benchmark used by rope stretchers to reastablish the metes and bounds of fields after all other references had been washed away by flood.

The idea of surveying fields using benchmarks would be to establish them along a baseline so that from any one a bearing could be taken and a distance measured out to the place where the next should be. Baselines could be laid out by sighting on the sun or stars, Very likely this would be accomplished by the use of mekhert and bey the Egyptian sighting instruments which preceeded the Greek Dioptra and Roman Groma. The Egyptians also used hayt of ten cubits which were very similar to what modern surveyors call stadia rods and served the same purpose. The Egyptians also used the plumet and 3 - 4 - 5 triangles which are still in use by modern surveyors. The plumet can be used with a square ruled off into intervals on tounge and blade to get a unit rise and run or angle when taking an elevation to a distant point as with a modern sextant.

⚫ * ]

=== Metrological references ===

* R. A. Cordingley{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1951|Title=Norman's Parrallel of the Orders of Architecture|Publisher=Alex Trianti Ltd|ID=}}
* Gardiner{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1990|Title=Egyptian Grammar|Publisher=Griffith Institute|ID=ISBN 0900416351}}
* H Arthur Klein{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1976|Title=The World of Measurements |Publisher=Simon and Schuster|ID=}}

=== Mathmatical references ===

* Lucas N. H. Bunt, Phillip S.Jones, Jack D. Bedient {{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1976|Title=The Historical Roots of Elementary Mathematics|Publisher=Dover|ID=ISBN 0486255638}}
* Somers Clarke and R. Englebach{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1990|Title=Ancient Egyptian Construction and Architecture|Publisher=Dover|ID=ISBN 0486264858}}
* Francis H. Moffitt{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1987|Title=Surveying|Publisher=Harper & Row|ID=ISBN 0060445548}}
* Gillings{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1972|Title=Mathematics in the time of the Pharoahs|Publisher=MIT Press|ID=ISBN 0262070456}}

=== Linguistic references ===

* Anne H. Groton{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1995|Title=From Alpha to Omega|Publisher=Focus Information group|ID=ISBN 0941051382}}
* J. P. Mallory{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1989|Title=In Search of the Indo Europeans |Publisher=Thames and Hudson|ID=ISBN 050027616-1}}

=== Classical references ===
* Strabo{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=|Title=The Geography|Publisher=|ID=}}
* Vitruvius{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1960|Title=The Ten Books on Architecture|Publisher=Dover|ID=}}
* Claudias Ptolemy{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1991|Title=The Geography|Publisher=Dover|ID=ISBN 048626896}}
* Herodotus{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1952|Title=The History|Publisher=William Brown|ID=}}

=== Historical references===

* Michael Grant{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1987|Title=The Rise of the Greeks |Publisher=Charles Scribners Sons|ID=}}

=== Archaeological references===

* Lionel Casson{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1991|Title=The Ancient Mariners|Publisher=PUP|ID=ISBN 06910147879}}
* James B. Pritchard, {{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1968|Title=The Ancient Near East|Publisher=OUP|ID=ISBN }}
* Nelson Glueck{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1959|Title=Rivers in the Desert|Publisher=HUC|ID=ISBN}}

=== Medieval references===

* Jean Gimpel{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1976|Title=The Medieval Machine|Publisher=Holt Rheinhart & Winston|ID=ISBN 0030146364}}
* H Johnathan Riley Smith{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1990|Title=The Atlas of the Crusades |Publisher=Swanston|ID=ISBN 0723003610}}
* Elizabeth Hallam{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1986|Title=The Plantagenet Chronicles|Publisher=Weidenfield & Nicholson|ID=ISBN 1555840183}}
* H.W. Koch{{Section:Book reference after author|Year=1978|Title=Medieval Warfare|Publisher=Prentice Hall|ID=ISBN 0135736005}}
⚫ ===External links===
⚫ * ] "The knowledge of pleasing proportions of the rope stretchers was incorporated by the Greeks"

Latest revision as of 07:38, 24 April 2024

A rope being used to measure fields. Taken from the Tomb of Menna, TT69.

In ancient Egypt, a rope stretcher (or harpedonaptai) was a surveyor who measured real property demarcations and foundations using knotted cords, stretched so the rope did not sag. The practice is depicted in tomb paintings of the Theban Necropolis. Rope stretchers used 3-4-5 triangles and the plummet, which are still in use by modern surveyors.

The commissioning of a new sacred building was a solemn occasion in which pharaohs and other high-ranking officials personally stretched ropes to define the foundation. This important ceremony, and therefore rope-stretching itself, are attested over 3000 years from the early dynastic period to the Ptolemaic kingdom.

Rope stretching technology spread to ancient Greece and India, where it stimulated the development of geometry and mathematics.

See also

References

  1. Robillard, Walter G.; Wilson, Donald A.; Brown, Curtis M.; Eldridge, Winfield (31 January 2011). Evidence and Procedures for Boundary Location. John Wiley & Sons. p. 282. ISBN 9780470901601.
  2. Petrie Museum website: plumbs
  3. Williams, Kim; Ostwald, Michael J. (9 February 2015). Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future: Volume I: Antiquity to the 1500s. Birkhäuser. p. 98. ISBN 9783319001371.
  • Macintosh Wilson, Alistair (1995). The Infinite in the Finite. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198539506.
  • The New Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica 1974
  • James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, Chicago 1906
  • Joel F. PAULSON, "Surveying in Ancient Egypt,", FIG Working Week 2005 and GSDI-8, Cairo, Egypt April 16-21, 2005.

External links


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