The people of Mesoamerica are said to
have used the Babylonian cubit as a standard measure in their
construction projects. If true, this is another correlation between
the ancient Americans and Mesopotamia, lending credence to my theory
of Jaredite origins in Sumeria.
Archaeologist V. Garth Norman, writing
for the Ancient America Foundation (also in the Book of MormonArchaeological Forum), claims that all the ancient monuments that he has investigated in Mesoamerica appear to have been
constructed using the Babylonian cubit of 49.5
cm.
Norman
began his studies at the site of Izapa, in Chiapas, and later studied
measurements at many other sites and museums. All his measurements
appeared to be consistent using a standard unit of length.
Discussing
his discovery Norman relates: “During
an eleven year study of the Izapa Project (1965-1976), Southern
Mexico with the BYU-New World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF), I
produced accurate drawings of all the Izapa monuments ... On my
numerous trips to Izapa ... I started measuring glyphs and figures as
well as distances between sky and base panels on the low relief
carvings. During my Izapa sculpture study ... I measured comparable
figures on different monuments as well as distances between sky and
base panels and discovered consistent dimensions. This implied the
use of a standard measure ... In the final analysis I decoded two
Izapa standards -- 49.5 cm. and 52.5 cm. ... I found that the
prevailing standard measures were used in divisions of half, quarter,
eighth, sixteenth, etc. In
later comparative library study I was startled to find that these two
standards were identical to the Royal Babylonian and Royal Egyptian
cubits!”
Norman then goes on to correlate his
findings with measurements used in Israel, which he feels link the
Mesoamerican sites with the Nephites, whose origin was, of course, in Jerusalem.
However, I feel it is much more logical to link the sites with the
Jaredites who originated in Sumer. They would have been familiar
with such standard measurements, which were probably developed by the
Sumerians.
The cubit measure was apparently an
early invention by the Sumeria craftsmen. They subsequently passed
on this knowledge to neighboring cultures. We have several examples of
these ancient tools, one from Sumer, and another from Egypt.
 |
| Nippur Cubit Rod from Wikipedia Commons |
In 1916 a German Assyriologist,
excavating at the ancient Sumerian site of Nippur, found a graduated
copper-alloy bar. He claimed that it was an ancient Sumerian cubit
measure. It measured the cubit as 51.86 cm. I have been unable to
find a date for this ruler, but the site of Nippur was flourishing
about 2000 BC.
 |
| Egyptian Cubit Rod from Wikipedia Commons |
The second is found in the Louvre
Museum in Paris. It is from the time of Tutankhamun (about 1300 BC).
It measures 52.3 cm long.
These measurements are not exactly equivalent to Norman's findings, however are fairly close. There seems to
be a great deal of variation in reported cubit lengths measuring
anywhere from 46 to 52.5 cm.
There is an excellent site dealing
specifically with the cubit, it's history and the various lengths
used by different groups. It can be found here. One additional item
of interest from this site is the Egyptian numbering system. It
seems to have similarities with the Mesoamerican system.
 |
| Maya Numbering |
