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In ancient Egypt Rope stretchers were surveyors who measured out the sides of fields (Egyptian 3ht) using knotted cords which they stretched in order to take the sag out of the rope and keep the 3ht measures uniform. As far back as the palettes of Narmer and the Scorpion King (perhaps the same as Narmer, see article) the Egyptians document the process the royal surveyors used to restore the boundaries of fields after each innundation or flood.
Narmer and the Scorpion King portray themselves controlling the land through their control of the water that irrigates the land.
The Narmer pose (narmer pose on den palette) is a man striding forward with raised mace toward a subservient subject, which in this case is labled st3t or a field whose side is a khet of 100 royal cubits.
- 1 st3t = 1 square khet
The knowledge of pleasing proportions of the rope stretchers was incorporated by the Greeks. From the personal website of Peter Brooke:
- "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." —
Now that is kind of interesting because many people think the Romans imvented the idea of the milestone.