To be honest, everyone one did back then, often with different body parts. Feet were the "banana for scale" back in the day.

Back then, very few measuring systems were accurate in favor of accessibility. Everyone's got feet. Everyone walks (a mile is roughly 1000 steps), so on and so forth.

Eventually measurements started being used for design, where accuracy was paramount, so archaic measurements became standardized.

It sounds crazy but a lot of stuff back then was made with zero measurements. I'm into woodworking and back then they used references. You'd literally look at a board, and draw a line where it looks about right. Then you'd reference the rest of the components, so the sides may be 2/3 the length of the apron, and the top would be around waist height. Story sticks were also used, where you'd continually add marks to a stick whenever you needed to transfer a measurement. Its called story sticks since you'd make a new one for every project, and it tells a story on how the piece was made, from every measurement and marking.

It's also no coincidence that metric was designed right before the industrial revolution. I just wish everyone adopted it instead of slapping a bandaid onto old systems.

Infodump over