Rope stretcher

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.[1] Rope stretchers used 3-4-5 triangles and the plummet,[2] which are still in use by modern surveyors.

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

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.[3]

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. 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. 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.


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