Vintage measures of length and weight

In ancient times a man used to measure weight and length; Weight - how much he can lift on his shoulders, the length - at what distance stretches his hand.

The ancient measures of length were represented by a system that includes such concepts as verst, sazhen, arshin, span, elbow and top.

So, let's look at the basic terms. Arshin is a measure of length, which is 0.7112m (in the modern dimension). For arshin it was customary to take a dimensional ruler, on which the divisions in the tops were marked.

The ancient measures of length have different versions of their origin. The first interpretation of the arshin is the length of the human step while walking through the flat terrain at an average pace (about seventy centimeters). The same definition was adopted as the basic value for designating such terms as verst and sazhen. Even when considering the structure of the word "arshin", we can see that its root "ar" from Old Russian means "surface of the earth" or "earth", which confirms the opinion of linguists that the ancient Russian measures of length were used to determine the distance traveled on foot.

There was another name for this measure - a "step", i.e. The account was carried out by the steps of an adult person ("small fences" or "state fences").

The Old Russian distance measure is a verst, denoting the distance that was passed from one turn of the plow to the other in the process of plowing. In parallel with the synonym of "field", these two concepts have long been used as ancient measures of length. During the reign of Peter the Great, one verst was equated to 500 fathoms (1066.8 m in modern terms). In 1649, a "bench verst" was adopted, equaling a thousand fathoms. Somewhat later (the 18th century), such a notion as a track verst (five hundred versts) began to be used.

As a small measure of length in Russia as a base value, the "span" was used, which from the XVII century was considered to be "a quarter of a yard". Hence appeared such ancient measures of length as two inches (half of a span) and a verst (a quarter of a span).

One of the most common measures of length in Russia was the "sazhen," which differs by its purpose and size. There were up to ten such differences. For example, the "swing sazhen" was the distance between the ends of the widely spaced fingers of an adult male. And the term "oblique sazhen" is determined by the distance from the toe of the left leg to the middle finger of the right hand, raised up.

There is also such a definition of length in ancient Russia, as an "elbow", which was equal to the length of the hand from the tips of fingers to the elbow. Its value, according to various sources, ranges from 38 to 47 cm. However, already from the XVI century this term was replaced by the term "arshin".

The ancient measures of weight in Rus were represented by the following terms:

- fraction (0.044 g);

- a slide valve (4.27 g);

- pound (hryvnia), equal to 96 goldsmiths (0.41 kg);

- pood, equivalent to 40 pounds (16.38 kg).

The share was the smallest old Russian unit of mass measurement and equaled 1/96 of the slide. The spool, in turn, was equated to 1/96 pound and denoted a gold coin.

The pound was a designation and a measure of weight, as well as a monetary unit. This term is often used in determining the weight in retail trade. It was used for weighing precious metals (silver and gold).

Pud was equated to forty pounds.

There was also a measure of weight, like "Berkovets", actively used in wholesale trade for weighing large volumes of goods (for example, wax or honey). In Russia, under this term, a weight of ten poods was accepted, which equaled the weight of the barrel with wax, rolled up by one person to a merchant's rook. The first mention of Berkovets was found in sources dating from the 12th century (the charter of the Novgorod merchant class from Prince Vsevolod Gavriil Mstislavovich).