On 1/25/2022 6:27 PM, Aditya Mahajan via ntg-context wrote:
Some of the units, particularly for measurement of land area, are still in use as they are effectively codified in the land records. Wikipedia has some summary of the ancient and medieval systems in India. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_units_of_measurement
the same in nl ... for instance farmers still use old measures (e.g. when selling or buying land), also because for instance lots are defined that way
But it got more complicated than that (particularly for time). See, for example: https://sites.google.com/site/mathematicsmiscellany/time-measurement-in-anci...
There is also this fascinating book which covers the non-European history of mathematics (a lot of which in ancient times was to do with units and measurements but more importantly, calculations):
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691135267/the-crest-of-the-p... also nice ... all gets figured out independent and multiple times over time
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