by Nicholas Kollerstrom
Volume 12:4, Oct-Dec 2005
“Was the Earth measured in remote antiquity?” This was the stirring question with which Berriman opened his book, Ancient Metrology. [1] To be sure, the question had earlier been tackled in Nicholson’s Men and Measures, [2] as to whether a knowledge of Earth’s dimension had afforded the original basis for units of measure. Here we enquire, specifically, as to whether the ancient Greek units of measure were related to the circumference of the Earth. This hypothesis tends to be related to the notion that a global, maritime civilization had once existed in prehistory. Our enquiry is therefore in some degree related to the thesis propounded by Francis Bacon, in his New Atlantis: “You shall understand (that which you will scarce think credible) that about three thousand years ago, or somewhat more, the navigation of the world (especially for remote voyages) was greater than at this day.” [3] Could there have been a civilization of prehistory which vanished, but left behind its geodetically-defined units?
