Sources & caveats

Burmese Weights & Measures

Length, weight, and volume figures follow the UN 1966–standardized values reproduced on Wikipedia's "Myanmar units of measurement," cross-checked against Sizes.com's independent unit reference and a BurmaNet-archived measurement-conversion thread for the volume-unit chain. The modern gold-trade figure for kyattha is confirmed separately against the Singapore Bullion Market Association's regional listings.

These were regional and inconsistently standardized units before 1966, so colonial-era sources sometimes quote figures 5–10% off from the tables used here. Land-area terminology in particular is thinly documented — the pè figures should be read as commonly-cited approximations, not a fixed legal standard. Myanmar announced a shift toward full metrication in October 2013; length, volume, and area units are now largely historical, while the weight system survives specifically in gold and jewelry trading.

Thai Weights & Measures

Length, weight, volume, and land-area figures follow the exact metric equivalents fixed by the Weights and Measures Act of 1923 (B.E. 2466), as reproduced on Wikipedia's "Thai units of measurement," cross-checked against Sizes.com's independent capacity-unit chart. The gold-trade baht weight and the rai-ngan-wah land-title convention are confirmed separately against a Bangkok legal-reference source and the Singapore Bullion Market Association's regional listings.

Unlike Myanmar's, Thailand's traditional units were tied to exact metric definitions by law in 1923, so the length, weight, and land-area figures here are precise rather than approximate. The volume chain is the one soft spot: an older "sat" basket (25 liters) ran in parallel to the thang (20 liters) before the two converged, so pre-1923 sources sometimes quote a different sat value. Length and general-purpose weight are now largely historical in everyday Thai life, while gold is still priced by the baht and land is still titled in rai-ngan-wah.

Chinese Weights & Measures

Length, weight, volume, and land-area figures follow the 市制 (shìzhì, "market system") values fixed by China's 1930 and 1959 standardization reforms, as reproduced on Wikipedia's "Chinese units of measurement," cross-checked against Wikipedia's dedicated "Jin (mass)" article for the historical sixteen-liang system and Hong Kong's divergent catty figure.

Unlike Myanmar's approximate pè or Thailand's single-Act rai, China's traditional units were reformed twice — first onto a base-10/base-150 metric scale in 1930, then from a sixteen-liang jin to a ten-liang jin in 1959 — so a figure quoted from a source older than 1959 (or from Hong Kong, which never adopted the ten-liang jin) can differ from the tables here. The chi in particular varied widely before standardization: from roughly 23 cm under the Han dynasty to over 35 cm depending on era and trade. Length and volume are now largely historical in everyday life, while jin and liang persist in retail markets and mu remains the working unit for farmland.

Ancient Indian Weights & Measures

Unit ratios follow Kautilya's Arthashastra directly, chapters 19 ("The Superintendent of Weights and Measures") and 20 ("Measurement of Space and Time") in R. Shamasastry's translation. Absolute metric values — grams for the weight ladder, meters for length, liters for volume — are scholarly reconstructions rather than figures Kautilya himself gives, cross-checked against Wikipedia's articles on the angula, the ratti, and the karshapana coin standard.

This is the least settled system on the site: Kautilya's own text gives at least three different lengths for "danda/dhanus" depending on the purpose (everyday surveying, ritual use, and land surveys), and separate gold and silver standards for "masha." Absolute metric values for the length, volume, and land-area ladders are modern scholarly estimates rather than a fixed legal standard, so figures from other sources can reasonably differ — the drona alone is cited anywhere from about 12 to 25 liters depending on the source, and even the ratio behind nivartana is read differently by different translators, with resulting acreage estimates ranging from about 4 to 4¾ acres. Treat the land-area figures here as commonly-cited estimates, in the same spirit as Myanmar's pè, rather than a settled standard.

Old English Weights & Measures

Figures follow the standard modern legal definitions of the pound (453.592 g), yard (0.9144 m), and their multiples/subdivisions, cross-checked against Wikipedia's articles on the furlong, the ell, and the tower/troy/avoirdupois pound distinction, plus the Magna Carta Project's translation of Clause 35 and the standard reference definitions of the Domesday-era hide and virgate.

This is the one system on the site where the "traditional" units and the modern reference units are mostly the same units — pound, ounce, acre, and mile never stopped being used, so they're listed here as the traditional ladder rather than duplicated as a separate modern column. The land-area units are the exception: virgate, oxgang, and hide were tax and labor assessments rather than fixed areas, so their acreage varied by soil quality and region — treat those figures as commonly-cited nominal values, not surveyed measurements, the same way this site treats Myanmar's pè.

Old Norse Weights & Measures

Figures follow the Icelandic branch of the system — the best-documented of the Old Norse-speaking regions, thanks to its Grágás law tradition — as reproduced on Wikipedia's "Icelandic units of measurement," cross-checked against the "Units of measure and relative value in the Viking Age" reference for the mörk/eyrir weight chain and Wikipedia's "Øre" article for the currency continuity.

This system is presented through its Icelandic branch specifically, not as a single pan-Scandinavian standard — Norway, Denmark, and Sweden all had their own regional variants, and the alin (ell) in particular is documented anywhere from about 47 to 64 centimeters depending on where and when it was measured, before later standardization settled on the figures used here. Weight and volume are closer to settled figures thanks to later Icelandic legal codification; length and land area carry the most regional variance, flagged as such on their pages.

Japanese Weights & Measures

Figures follow the exact metric fractions fixed by Japan's 1891 Weights and Measures Act, as reproduced on Wikipedia's "Japanese units of measurement," cross-checked against Nippon.com's reference article on traditional length and weight units and a separate check on the kan/hyō weight chain.

This is the most precisely documented system on the site after Thailand's: the 1891 Act fixed every unit to an exact metric fraction, and Japan's 1959 metrication deadline is a firm date rather than an estimate. The looser edges are pre-1891 — shakkanhō descends from Tang-dynasty Chinese units and the exact historical shaku length shifted over centuries before the 1891 figures were fixed — and the historical claim that one koku fed one adult for a year, which is a traditional rule of thumb rather than a precise dietary calculation.

Ancient Greek Weights & Measures

Figures follow the Attic standard used in Athens, as reproduced on Wikipedia's "Ancient Greek units of measurement," cross-checked against sources on the Solonian census classes and the Eratosthenes stadion problem for the historical claims in the callouts and lede text.

This is the least precisely fixed system on the site: unlike Japan's 1891 Act or Thailand's 1923 law, no single Greek-wide authority ever standardized these units. The Attic standard used here is the best-documented regional variant, reconstructed from surviving bronze and lead reference weights found in the Athenian Agora plus literary sources — but other Greek city-states (Aegina, Corinth, and others) used meaningfully different foot-lengths and weight standards for the same unit names, and the figures on these pages should be read as Athens-specific approximations rather than a single ancient Greek standard.

Ancient Egyptian Weights & Measures

Figures follow the New Kingdom weight standard and the commonly-cited royal cubit length, as reproduced on Wikipedia's "Ancient Egyptian units of measurement," cross-checked against separate sources on the Deir el-Medina deben economy, the Eye of Horus hekat-fraction system, Herodotus's account of Egyptian land-surveying, and the Wilbour Papyrus land register.

This is an approximate reconstruction rather than a fixed legal standard: the royal cubit itself shifted by a centimeter or so across periods and even between individual surviving cubit rods, and the deben's own weight changed from about 13.6 g in the Old and Middle Kingdoms to about 91 g in the New Kingdom. This page uses the better-attested New Kingdom weight figures and the commonly-cited 52.5 cm royal cubit throughout, and the figures should be read as representative rather than exact across all 3,000 years of pharaonic history.

Korean Weights & Measures

Figures follow the modern metric values fixed under Japan's 1910–1945 colonial administration, as reproduced on Wikipedia's "Korean units of measurement," cross-checked against separate sources on King Sejong's 1431/1446 hwangjonggwan pitch-pipe standardization, the geun's dual meat/produce values, and pyeong's 2007 real-estate-listing ban.

This page's exact metric values (cheok = 10⁄33 m, pyeong = 400⁄121 m², and so on) date only to Japan's early-20th-century colonial administration, which imposed its own shakkanhō fractions on Korea — they are not King Sejong's original 15th-century figures, which were set by a now-lost bronze pitch-pipe standard and are not precisely recoverable today. Treat the numbers here as the modern, commonly-cited values rather than a continuous measurement from the Joseon dynasty to the present.

Ancient Roman Weights & Measures

Figures follow the commonly-cited pes monetalis standard (pes = 296 mm, libra = 328.9 g), as reproduced on Wikipedia's "Ancient Roman units of measurement," cross-checked against separate sources on the Temple of Juno Moneta, the bronze as coin's original libral weight, the annona grain dole, and Roman centuriation's continued visibility in aerial and satellite photography.

Roman units varied by period and province more than most systems on this site: the pes itself is sometimes cited anywhere from about 294 mm to 297 mm depending on the source and era, and provincial variants (including a longer "Drusian foot" used in parts of Germania) existed alongside the pes monetalis. This page uses the commonly-cited Republican/early-Imperial figures throughout rather than tracking every regional or period variant.

Khmer & Angkor Weights & Measures

Length, weight, and volume figures follow 18th–20th century Cambodian units of measurement as reproduced on Wikipedia and cross-referenced against sizes.com's Cambodia charts and modern Cambodian gold-trading sources. The Angkor Wat hat (cubit) figure of 0.43545 m follows Eleanor Mannikka's published architectural analysis rather than the later, somewhat longer colonial-era cubit.

This is the most reconstructed system on the site: no distinct traditional Khmer land-area unit name is well attested in available sources, so the land-area page presents squared length units (hat karré, phyeam karré, sen karré) rather than a single named unit, unlike every other system here. The Angkor-era hat and the later 18th–20th-century Cambodian units documented elsewhere on this page are drawn from different eras and are not claimed to be the same standard continuously maintained across a thousand years.

Corrections

Found a figure that looks off, or have a better primary source? These pages are meant to keep improving — corrections are always welcome.