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- In many civilisations standard units of measurement have been based
on parts of the human body (and the study of systems of measurement
is known as metrology). Many of these are to be found here:
- Outstretched arms: a fathom (normally 6 feet, but here
7 times the foot shown on the relief), which is 2.08 metres here (assuming
the relief to have been symmetrical)
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- Elbow to fingertip: an ell (or cubit), which is 52 cm
here (and there are four of them in the fathom). This
is in fact the usual measurement not of the standard cubit, but of the
royal cubit (a hand's breadth in addition to the forearm measurement
of the standard cubit): which shows how distorted the figure really
is -- in real life his hands would probably have touched his knees.
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- A foot (over the right arm), which is here 29.7 cm.
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- A clenched fist (beneath the right wrist), which is
here 11 cm.
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