{{Short description|Ancient egyptian surveyor}} [[File:Rope stretching.jpg|thumb|A rope being used to measure fields. Taken from the Tomb of Menna, ''TT69''.]] In ancient Egypt, a '''rope stretcher''' (or '''harpedonaptai''') was a surveyor who measured real property demarcations and foundations using knotted cords, stretched so the rope did not sag. The practice is depicted in tomb paintings of the Theban Necropolis.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n-4eWtgEXjoC&pg=PT282 |page=282 |title=Evidence and Procedures for Boundary Location |isbn=9780470901601 |last1=Robillard |first1=Walter G. |last2=Wilson |first2=Donald A. |last3=Brown |first3=Curtis M. |last4=Eldridge |first4=Winfield |date=31 January 2011 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons }}</ref> Rope stretchers used 3-4-5 triangles and the plummet,<ref>[http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/search/main/textresult.php?objectname=plumb&find_location=&amp;material=&amp;period=&amp;submit44=Search Petrie Museum website: plumbs]</ref> which are still in use by modern surveyors.

The commissioning of a new sacred building was a solemn occasion in which pharaohs and other high-ranking officials personally stretched ropes to define the foundation. This important ceremony, and therefore rope-stretching itself, are attested over 3000 years from the early dynastic period to the Ptolemaic kingdom.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fWKYBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA98 |page=98 |title=Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future: Volume I: Antiquity to the 1500s |isbn=9783319001371 |last1=Williams |first1=Kim|author1-link=Kim Williams (architect) |last2=Ostwald |first2=Michael J. |date=9 February 2015 |publisher=Birkhäuser }}</ref>

Rope stretching technology spread to ancient Greece and India, where it stimulated the development of geometry and mathematics.

== See also == * Gromatici * Surveying * Trigonometry

==References== {{reflist}} * {{cite book |first=Alistair |last=Macintosh Wilson |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nh7rwAEACAAJ |title=The Infinite in the Finite |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1995 |isbn=9780198539506 }} * ''The New Encyclopædia Britannica,'' Encyclopædia Britannica 1974 * James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Two, Chicago 1906 * Joel F. PAULSON, "Surveying in Ancient Egypt", FIG Working Week 2005 and GSDI-8, Cairo, Egypt April 16–21, 2005. [https://www.fig.net/resources/proceedings/fig_proceedings/cairo/papers/wshs_02/wshs02_02_paulson.pdf]

==External links== * [http://www.surveyhistory.org/roman_surveying1.htm surveying instruments] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20051105092410/http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/a%26r/knee/ch%205c proportions] "The knowledge of pleasing proportions of the rope stretchers was incorporated by the Greeks"

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rope Stretcher}} Category:Ancient Egypt Category:Ancient Egyptian technology Category:Surveying Category:Egyptian inventions

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