Eckhard Unger was a German assyriologist.
In 1916, as curator of the Archeological Museum of Istanbul, he identified and described a copper-alloy object in the museum collection as an ell

Ell

An ell , is a unit of measurement, approximating the length of a man's arm.Several national forms existed, with different lengths, includingthe Scottish ell ,the Flemish ell ,the French ell...

 or measuring rod from Nippur

Nippur

Nippur was one of the most ancient of all the Sumerian cities. It was the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the "Lord Wind," ruler of the cosmos subject to An alone...

. Dating to the first half of the third millennium BC or even earlier, possibly the oldest known measuring device, it supposedly defines the Sumer

Sumer

Sumer was a civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age....

ian cubit

Cubit

The cubit is a traditional unit of length, based on the length of the forearm. Cubits of various lengths were employed in many parts of the world in Antiquity, in the Middle Ages and into Early Modern Times....

at about 518.6 millimetres.

Published works

The many published works of Eckhard Unger include among others:

• Zum Bronzetor von Balawat. Beiträge zur Erklärung und Deutung der assyrischen Inschriften und Reliefs Salmanassars III (thesis) Leipzig: Eduard Pfeiffer 1913
• Zwei babylonische Antiken aus Nippur [s.l.] 1916. (Publikationen der Kaiserlich Osmanischen Museen)
• Katalog der babylonischen und assyrischen Sammlung Kaiserlich osmanische Museen Istanbul: Ihsan 1918
• Die Wiederherstellung des Bronzetores von Balawat [Leipzig]: [Hinrichs], 1920
• Welt und Mensch im alten Orient Berlin: Witting [n.d.]
• Hettitische und aramäische kunst [Berlin] [1923]
• Sumerische und akkadische Kunst Breslau: Hirt 1926
• Assyrische und Babylonische Kunst Breslau: Hirt 1927
• Das Stadtbild von Assur Leipzig: Hinrichs 1929 (Der alte Orient, 27:3)
• Babylon. Die heilige Stadt nach der Beschreibung der Babylonier 1931 (2nd ed. Berlin: De Gruyter 1970)