Iteru

Iteru in hieroglyphics
Old empire	iteru jtrw egyptian mile
Spelling variant	iteru jtrw egyptian mile
Spelling variant	iteru n seqedut jtrw n sqdwt Egyptian river mile
Greek	σχοῖνος Schoinos

In ancient Egypt, the Iteru represented a measure of length as well as a measure of time combined with the sun . It is usually assumed that one iteru was equal to 20,000  meh, or about 10.5 km.

Greek tradition

Herodotus called this measure Schoinos and said that it was equal to 60 stadiums , or about 11 km. Strabo reported that, according to Artemidor of Ephesus, the Schoinos were assigned different lengths in different places. A Schoinos is said to have been 120 stadia between Memphis and Thebes , 60 stadia between Thebes and Syene, and 30 stadia between Pelusium and the Nile Delta . This, and the fact that Iteru also means river or Nile , could indicate that the unit of measurement corresponded roughly to the distance that could be covered by ship in an hour.

Jerome reports that there were stations on the Nile, with crews pulling the ships upriver on ropes, from which the Greek name Schoinos (Greek σχοῖνος = rope ) is said to be derived. Christian Ludwig Ideler concluded that the distance between these stations was related to the gradient of the river and that this is where the reason for the variation in the length of the Schoino is to be found.

Peter Wesseling concluded from the information in the Antonini Itinerary that the distance from the Pentaschoenon station (Greek Πεντασχοινον = five Schoinen ), which was exactly between Pelusium and Mount Casius and was 20 Roman miles away from both places, was five Schoinen to these places and therefore 1 Schoinos was equivalent to 4 Roman miles or 5.93 km. Heron of Alexandria confirms this statement and says that a Schoinos is 30 stadia long. Even with Gaius Pliny Secundus there are similar statements, he should Eratosthenes a schoinos with 40 stages (40 × 192.3 m = 7.65 km) and some 32 Olympic stadiums (32 x 192.3 m = 6.15 km).

If you check the ancient distances, it turns out that a schoinos often corresponded to about 30-45 stages.

Comparison: ancient distance information to actual distance

places	Distance in Schoinos	actual distance in km	Length of a schoino in km	Length of a Schoino in stadiums (192.3 m)
Gulf of Plinth - Serbonissee	60	about 370	6.17	32
Pelusium - Heliopolis	25th	about 165	6.6	34
Heliopolis - Thebes	81	722.5	8.92	46
Mediterranean coast - Thebes	102	around 890	8.73	45
Thebes - Elephantine	30th	about 220	7.33	38
Perseuswarte ( Abukir ) - Pelusium	40	about 270	6.75	35

background

From the writings of the Amduat it emerges that the sun god Re covered a distance of 309 Iteru (almost 3,245 km) in one hour during his nightly journey through the Duat , which is why 309 Iteru as a temporal measure of length also correspond to an hour at night. After entering the Duat, twelve hours of night passed until sunrise .

This period corresponds to a total distance of 3708 Iteru (almost 39,000 km), which almost corresponds to the actual circumference of the earth . It remains unclear how these distances were determined by the Egyptians and whether a method in connection with land surveying served as the basis, which was considered a great achievement of the Egyptians.

See also

• Ancient weights and measures (ancient Egypt)
• Beru
• Danna

literature

• Jan Assmann : Stone and Time: Man and Society in Ancient Egypt . Fink, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-7705-2681-3 .
• Rainer Hannig : Large Concise Dictionary Egyptian-German: (2800–950 BC). von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-1771-9 , p. 1319.
• Christian Ludwig Ideler: About the length and area of ​​the ancients. Third part. In treatises of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences from 1826. Berlin 1829, pp. 1–18 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Herodotus: Historien , 2, 6.
2. ↑ Strabon, Geographica , 17, 1, 24.
3. ↑ Hieronymus, Commentariorum in Ioelem prophetam , Volume VI.
4. ^ Christian Ludwig Ideler: About the length and area of ​​the ancients. Third part. In treatises of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences from 1826. p. 3.
5. ↑ Petro Wesselingo: Vetera Romanorum Itineraria, sive Antonini Augusti itinerarium, cum integris Jos. Simleri, Hieron. Suritae, et and. Schotti Notis. Itinerarium Hierosolymitanum, et hieroclis grammatici synecdemus , Amsterdam 1735, p. 152 ( online ).
6. ↑ Heron Alexandrinus, Analecta Graeca sive Varia Opuscula Graeca hactenus non edita. , Paris 1688, p. 315 online .
7. ^ Gaius Plinius Secundus, The Natural History , Book 12, Chapter 30 ( online ).
8. ↑ Herodotus, Historien , 2, 7; Herodotus gives the distance as 1500 stadia, which according to his calculation corresponds to 25 Schoinoi.
9. ↑ Herodotus, Historien , 2, 9
10. ↑ Herodotus, Historien , 2, 9; Herodotus gives the distance as 6120 stages, which, according to his calculation, corresponds to 102 Schoinoi.
11. ↑ Herodotus, Historien , 2, 9; Herodotus gives the distance as 1800 stages, which according to his calculation corresponds to 30 Schoinoi.
12. ↑ Herodotus, Historien , 2:15
13. ^ ^{A b} Jan Assmann: Stone and Time: Man and Society in Ancient Egypt . P. 65.