Pre-modern measuring devices let objects indicate their own quantity without abstract scales.

Evidence

Similarly, with the jars of grain used for cooking: to tell the quantity of grain they held, these jars have holes down the side, so that the grain itself can indicate its level. The quantity is not measured by some measuring device, or represented on an abstract scale whose arbitrary divisions would ‘stand for’ a certain amount. Nothing is arbitrary in that sense. The grain indicates its own level by a direct reference or repetition. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 699

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the distinction between direct self-referential measurement and abstract representational scales — a concrete instance of Mitchell’s larger thesis about representation.
• XREF: Connects to the idea of direct, non-representational knowledge found in the milgrom law-merchant material and in critiques of representational epistemology.