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MEASUREMENT · 18TH DYNASTY · MAYA

Maya's cubit

A measure that does not change arms

A ruler divided into seven spans and twenty-eight fingers allowed the same measurement to be repeated.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

MAYA'S ELBOW · ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH ON BLACK · LOUVRE N 1538

Documentary original · Exact correspondence

Rama, Maya’s cubit, Louvre N 1538. Photograph in the black background variant published by the author himself; no AI restoration. Cracks, losses, measurement marks and visible hieroglyphics are preserved. Only format conversion and reduction for web. It does not constitute a metric model nor does it document hidden faces.

branch · Musee du Louvre · Inventory: N 1538 · CC BY-SA 3.0 FR

Source and provenance ↗Terms of use ↗
Maya’s cubit, Louvre N 1538: photograph of the complete object on a black background, with scale, hieroglyphics and losses preserved.
MAYA'S ELBOW · ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPH ON BLACK · LOUVRE N 1538

Documentary original · Exact correspondence

Rama, Maya’s cubit, Louvre N 1538. Photograph in the black background variant published by the author himself; no AI restoration. Cracks, losses, measurement marks and visible hieroglyphics are preserved. Only format conversion and reduction for web. It does not constitute a metric model nor does it document hidden faces.

branch · Musee du Louvre · Inventory: N 1538 · CC BY-SA 3.0 FR

Source and provenance ↗Terms of use ↗

History and context

Measure a board with your forearm and give it to another person to repeat the work: if their arms are different, the result can be different too. A shared pattern reduces that uncertainty. The wooden ruler inscribed in the name of Maya represents the Egyptian royal cubit, divided into seven palms and twenty-eight fingers. The Louvre records 52,3 centimeters for this specimen; The 52,5 centimeters common in disclosure are an approximation of the unit, not its exact measurement.

Maya managed the treasury under Tutankhamun and Horemheb. His cubit belongs to the group of ceremonial rulers: it brings together measurement, prestige and religious knowledge. We do not know whether he used it personally on a building project. Repeating a measurement matters as much to someone cutting an object as to someone checking a delivery or surveying land. As a modern example, one hundred cubits of 52.3 cm total 52.3 m; one hundred of 51.8 cm total 51.8 m. A small difference becomes half a metre: before measuring together, people must agree on which cubit to use.

Evidence and interpretation

Inventory N 1538 identifies the owner, dimensions, chronology and wood. The Louvre marks the provenance ‘Maya’s tomb’ with a question mark. The ruler’s ceremonial character means it cannot be presented as a tool with demonstrated everyday use. The bodily origin of the name does not make an open hand or a closed hand universal definitions of the royal and small cubits.

Catalogue facts

Date
1330–1295 BCE · end of the 18th dynasty
Location
Saqqara-North · Egypt; attribution to Maya tomb uncertain
Object dimensions
52,3 × 3,2 × 2,4 cm · Louvre N 1538
Material
African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon), identified in 2022
Owner
Maya · director of the treasury under Tutankhamun and Horemheb
Compare · Egypt
Small cubit ≈45 cm: 6 palms / 24 digits. Royal cubit ≈52.3–52.5 cm: 7 palms / 28 digits. Maya’s example measures 52.3 cm.
Compare Nippur
≈51,8 cm between reference marks; The complete bar measures about 110 cm. They are not two measurements of the same section.
Compare · Mesopotamia
The historical tables also record ≈53,3 cm and ≈49,6 cm for the so-called Babylonian/Lagash cubit. They should not apply to all of Mesopotamia or to any date.
Compare Persia
≈50 cm in comparative tables; at Persepolis, patterns of ≈52,1–52,2 cm have been reconstructed from architectural marks. ‘Persian’ does not identify a single longitude.
Compare · Greek worlds
≈46,3 cm for one of the variants; There were other local patterns as well. The word pēchys does not by itself guarantee a universal conversion.
Compare · Rome
≈44,4 cm for the cubitus of 6 palms / 24 fingers, equivalent to a Roman foot and a half.
Compare · Later Arab traditions
The tables distinguish, among other variants, a black cubit of ≈54 cm and a hāšimī of ≈65 cm. They are not Sumerian or Egyptian pharaonic units, nor should they be automatically confused with the one attributed to Omar.
How to read these equivalences
They are modern approximations of patterns from different periods and uses. Tunisia, Morocco, Calcutta and Ceylon also had local measures: without dating them and identifying their use, assigning each territory a single number is misleading.

A SHARED TOPIC, DIFFERENT MOMENTS

Objects connected through time

Follow a topic across the collections. A shared tag is a way to compare objects, not proof that one culture influenced another.

The order uses the midpoint of each approximate date range; ranges can overlap. Spacing does not represent elapsed time. Swipe, scroll or use the arrows. With the sequence focused, use ← / →, Home or End.

Wood13 dated objects

6 / 13In the centre: Maya's cubit

Also connected, without a comparable date (4)

These objects are not placed after the others: an unknown date does not mean a more recent object.

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: .

A working ruler cannot be identified by its markings alone

To compare Maya’s ceremonial cubit to a practical tool, Annette Imhausen's study examines the Kha folding ruler, found with a leather sheath. Its articulation allowed it to be reduced by half for transport. Detailed measurements cited in the article show that its seven palms are not exactly the same length, especially in the hinge area. Therefore, the ideal division of the unit does not guarantee physically perfect marks on each object. Shape, mobility, support and context allow you to investigate how a ruler was used, in addition to converting its length to centimeters.

Location and territory

Physical world map with routes of human evolutionPresent-day world coastline from Natural Earth in an equirectangular projection. The overlaid markers let you explore each milestone.Map base: Natural Earth 1:110m · public domain · present-day reference coastline

DEBATED LOCATION

Saqqara-North EgyptArea of origin indicated by the Louvre; the attribution to Maya's tomb has a question mark in the catalogue.

Where it is held

Musée du Louvre · Department of Egyptian Antiquities

Item or group in the record · Documented collection

Paris · inventory N 1538. Membership in the collection does not guarantee permanent exhibition.

The holding institution is documented; public display may change. Check its official record before visiting.

Sources and references

Consult the documentation for this part

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