This is the cubit rod (aka ruler) of Maya, “treasurer of king Tutankhamun.” He also served under Tutankamun’s two successors, Ay and Horemheb. The cubit rod was an important part of being a treasurer because the Egyptian government was built on land management, and taxes were mainly agricultural products. To know how much to tax, you had to know how to measure the field, and the unit of measurement was the cubit.
This rod measures the royal cubit of seven palm-lengths (52.3 cm) and the common cubit of 6 palm-lengths. There are also a number of gradations shown including “digits,” palm-lengths, and fractions of digits from halves to sixteenths. Just in case Maya needed to measure really small distances.
