(
Frankfurt, ). Historically, the human body has been used to provide the basis for units of length. The
foot of an adult European-American male is typically about 15.3% of his height, giving a person of a foot-length of about , on average. Archaeologists believe that in the past, the people of
Egypt,
India, and
Mesopotamia preferred the
cubit, while the people of
Rome,
Greece, and
China preferred the foot. Under the
Harappan linear measures,
Indus cities during the Bronze Age used a foot of and a cubit of . The Egyptian equivalent of the foot—a measure of four palms or 16 digits—was known as the and has been reconstructed as about . The Greek foot (, ) had a length of of a
stadion, one stadion being about ; therefore a foot was about . Its exact size varied from city to city and could range between and , but lengths used for temple construction appear to have been about to . The
standard Roman foot () was normally about , but in some provinces, particularly
Germania Inferior, the so-called (foot of
Nero Claudius Drusus) was sometimes used, with a length of about . (In reality, this foot predated Drusus.) Originally both the Greeks and the Romans subdivided the foot into 16
digits, but in later years, the Romans also subdivided the foot into 12 (from which both the English words "
inch" and "
ounce" are derived). After the fall of the Roman Empire, some Roman traditions were continued but others fell into disuse. In 790
Charlemagne attempted to reform the units of measure in his domains. His units of length were based on the and in particular the , the distance between the fingertips of the outstretched arms of a man. The has 6 (feet) each of . He was unsuccessful in introducing a standard unit of length throughout his realm: an analysis of the measurements of
Charlieu Abbey shows that during the 9th century the Roman foot of was used; when it was rebuilt in the 10th century, a foot of about was used. At the same time, monastic buildings used the Carolingian foot of . The procedure for verification of the foot as described in the 16th century posthumously published work by
Jacob Köbel in his book is:
England and Wales standards erected at the
Royal Observatory in
Greenwich in the 19th centuryThe
Neolithic long foot, first proposed by archeologists
Mike Parker Pearson and Andrew Chamberlain, is based upon calculations from surveys of
Phase 1 elements at Stonehenge. They found that the underlying diameters of the stone circles had been consistently laid out using multiples of a base unit amounting to 30
long feet, which they calculated to be 1.056 of a modern
international foot (thus 12.672 inches or 0.3219 m). Furthermore, this unit is identifiable in the dimensions of some stone
lintels at the site, and in the diameter of the "southern circle" at nearby
Durrington Walls. Evidence that this unit was in widespread use across southern Britain is available from the
Folkton Drums from
Yorkshire (Neolithic artifacts made from chalk with circumferences that exactly divide as
integers into ten long feet) and a similar object, the
Lavant drum, excavated at
Lavant, Sussex, again with a circumference divisible as a whole number into ten long feet. The measures of
Iron Age Britain are uncertain, and proposed reconstructions such as the
megalithic yard are controversial. Later
Welsh legend credited
Dyfnwal Moelmud with the establishment of
their units, including a foot of 9 inches. The Belgic or North German foot of was introduced to England either by the
Belgic Celts during their invasions prior to the
Roman conquest of Britain (AD 43) or by the
Anglo-Saxons in the 5th and 6th centuries. Roman units were introduced following their conquest. After the
Roman withdrawal and the
Saxon invasions, the Roman foot continued to be used in the construction crafts, while the Belgic foot was used for land measurement. Both the Welsh and Belgic feet seem to have been based on multiples of the
barleycorn, but by as early as 950 the English kings seem to have (ineffectually) ordered measures to be based upon an iron yardstick at
Winchester and then
London.
Henry I was said to have ordered a new standard to be based upon the length of his own arm and, by the act concerning the
Composition of Yards and Perches traditionally credited to
Edward I or
Edward II, the statute foot was a different measure, exactly of the old (Belgic) foot. The barleycorn, inch,
ell, and
yard were likewise shrunk, while
rods and
furlongs remained the same. The ambiguity over the length of the
mile was resolved by the 1593
Act against Converting of Great Houses into Several Tenements and for Restraint of Inmates and Inclosures in and near about the City of London and Westminster, which codified the statute mile as comprising 5,280 feet. The 1959 adoption of the international foot completed a redefinition of the foot in terms of the meter. ==Definition==