length · Nahua / Central Mexico · pre-Hispanic tradition documented in colonial-era Nahuatl sources

Nahua matl / maitl

variant

Record: M632
Definition quality: Variant-dependent
Conversion mode: contextual
Calculator: Context required

Definition

Nahuatl documentary and dictionary sources identify matl as a hand-to-hand or outstretched-arm measure, often translated as braza/fathom. Reported colonial contexts do not support one timeless universal metric value.

History & use

Colonial Nahuatl records use matl in land/property descriptions. A scholarly dictionary entry gives approximately 1.67 m in one Culhuacan context, while other documentary relationships differ.

Modern use

Modern use is context-dependent and varies by region or measurement system.

Sources & evidence

Source tier — · confidence high

Harvey & Williams, Aztec land-measurement scholarship (Cambridge/Science) — https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.210.4469.499

Related measurements

metre

length · International · Modern

SI base unit of length. Its definition fixes the speed of light in vacuum at exactly 299,792,458 m/s, with the second defined from the caesium-133 hyperfine frequency.