The stremma ( stremmata; , ''strémma'') is unit of land

area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...

used mainly in

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, equal to 1,000

square metre The square metre ( international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or square meter ( American spelling) is the unit of area in the International System of Units (SI) with symbol m2. It is the area of a square ...

s or approximately ¼

acre The acre ( ) is a Unit of measurement, unit of land area used in the Imperial units, British imperial and the United States customary units#Area, United States customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one Chain (unit), ch ...

History

The

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

equivalent was the square plethron, which served as the Greeks' form of the

. It was originally defined as the area plowed by a team of oxen in a day but was nominally standardized as the area enclosed by a square 100 Greek feet ('' pous'') to a side. It was the size of a

Greek wrestling Greek wrestling (), also known as Ancient Greek wrestling and Pále (πάλη), was the most popular organized sport in Ancient Greece. A point was scored when one player touched the ground with his back, hip or shoulder, or conceding defeat due ...

square. The

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

or Morean stremma continued to vary depending on the period and the quality of the land, but usually enclosed an area between . It was originally also known as the "plethron" but this was eventually replaced by "stremma", derived from the verb for "turning" the ground with a Byzantine plow. The Ottoman stremma, often called the Turkish stremma, is the Greek (and occasionally English) name for the

dunam A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; ; ; ), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area analogous in role (but not equal) to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amo ...

, which in turn is probably derived from the Byzantine unit. Again, this varied by region: some values include , and 1,600 m². Costas Lapavitsas,

Conversions

One modern stremma is equivalent to:

Metric

*1,000

s *0.1

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

s *0.001 square kilometres

Imperial

*10,763.9 square feet *0.247 105 38

s *0.000 386 102 square miles

Bibliography

{{reflist Units of area Human-based units of measurement Metricated units

History

Conversions

Metric

Imperial

See also

Bibliography