hekat

The hekat or heqat (transcribed HqA.t) was an ancient Egyptian volume unit used to measure grain, bread, and beer. It equals 4.8 litres, or about 1.056 imperial gallons, in today's measurements.

==Overview== Until the New Kingdom the hekat was one tenth of a khar, later one sixteenth; while the New Kingdom (transcribed ip.t) contained 4 hekat. It was sub-divided into other units – some for medical prescriptions – the hin (1/10), dja (1/64) and ro (1/320). The dja was recently evaluated by Tanja Pommerening in 2002 to 1/64 of a hekat (75 cc) in the MK, and 1/64 of an (1/16 of a hekat, or 300 cc) in the NK, meaning that the dja was denoted by Horus-Eye imagery. It has been suggested by Pommerening that the NK change came about related to the replacing the hekat as the Pharaonic volume control unit in official lists.