DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.619#0079
NAtJKRATIS.
expected in treating the produce of only the first
season in such a site, yet I have endeavoured to
treat the subject in a manner more complete and
intelligible than the publication of other collec-
tions, as a sample of the method by which such
materials should be studied. We should treat
ancient weights as we should a set of astronomical
observations,—with the same care in the elimi-
nation of errors in our material,—with the same
consideration of the proper methods for educing
various results from them of different kinds,—
with the same unbiassed search for facts which
they may show us,—and, above all, with the same
regard for the extent of their errors and the
amount of uncertainty or certainty in our results.
It would be as reasonable to refuse to apply
modern powers of calculation to ancient obser-
vations of an eclipse, because the observer would
not have had an idea of our process, as it would
be to reject exact and scientific methods of treating
our materials in ancient metrology because the
people who made the weights had no idea of
scientific accuracy. We apply our exactitude in
order to find out their errors.
Further, we are here debarred from a final
treatment of the whole subject not only by our
expectations, but also by what we at present
possess not yet worked out. Besides all the
Egyptian weights hitherto published (of which but
twenty-three are rightly attributed) there are over
twenty more in Bulak, four in the British Museum,
eighteen in my collection, and a few more also in
private hands. Of Assyrian shekel weights I have
twenty-six, and there are six or eight others un-
published. Of various Greek standards and the
Roman there are a large quantity unpublished in
the British Museum, several in Turin, over forty
Greek and thirty Koman in my collection, and
several in other hands. Hence it is useless to
attempt a complete statement until all this mate-
rial shall have been thoroughly treated; but as
the weights from Naukratis have a special value
in themselves, as a class entirely belonging to
one place and covered by a small range of Egyptian
history, their details are of value for study, apart
from the weights found in other places.
86. The first stage in examining weights is to
ascertain accurately their present weight. For
this purpose I weighed all those weights below
10,000 grains in a chemical balance, which shows
rV grain with this load. All fractions of a grain
were read by a rider weight of 2 grains on the
beam-arm. The equality of the arms was always
read by double weighing two or more of the
heaviest weights of each batch of weighings, and
applying the correction thus found to all the other
weighings of that batch. The modem weights
used had all been carefully compared together,
and the heaviest of the series was kindly verified
for me at the Standards Office, and by Messrs.
Oertling; small corrections to reduce to the true
standard were always applied. I have not thought
it needful to state any weight in less terms than
TVth of a grain, nor in those over 5000 grains to
less than single grains. The heavier weights
were weighed in scales which would show a
difference of 1 in 5000, which is doubtless a
far less amount than the errors of their forma-
tion.
87. On looking at a collection of ancient weights
or coins, it is at once manifest that they have
undergone changes of various extent since their
original formation and adjustment. These changes
cannot be avoided by ignoring them, as has been
done by all writers on metrology, and in all
published lists of weights. If we are to draw any
precise conclusion as to the relationships, exact
or approximate, of various ancient standards of
weight, it can only be done after taking account
of the changes that our remaining examples have
undergone. To estimate these changes we must
observe their nature and extent: the first by
reference to the chemical composition of the com-
pound before us, if the mass be of metal; the
second by measurement and calculation. The
compounds most usually met with, and their
weights in British grains, are as follow:—
expected in treating the produce of only the first
season in such a site, yet I have endeavoured to
treat the subject in a manner more complete and
intelligible than the publication of other collec-
tions, as a sample of the method by which such
materials should be studied. We should treat
ancient weights as we should a set of astronomical
observations,—with the same care in the elimi-
nation of errors in our material,—with the same
consideration of the proper methods for educing
various results from them of different kinds,—
with the same unbiassed search for facts which
they may show us,—and, above all, with the same
regard for the extent of their errors and the
amount of uncertainty or certainty in our results.
It would be as reasonable to refuse to apply
modern powers of calculation to ancient obser-
vations of an eclipse, because the observer would
not have had an idea of our process, as it would
be to reject exact and scientific methods of treating
our materials in ancient metrology because the
people who made the weights had no idea of
scientific accuracy. We apply our exactitude in
order to find out their errors.
Further, we are here debarred from a final
treatment of the whole subject not only by our
expectations, but also by what we at present
possess not yet worked out. Besides all the
Egyptian weights hitherto published (of which but
twenty-three are rightly attributed) there are over
twenty more in Bulak, four in the British Museum,
eighteen in my collection, and a few more also in
private hands. Of Assyrian shekel weights I have
twenty-six, and there are six or eight others un-
published. Of various Greek standards and the
Roman there are a large quantity unpublished in
the British Museum, several in Turin, over forty
Greek and thirty Koman in my collection, and
several in other hands. Hence it is useless to
attempt a complete statement until all this mate-
rial shall have been thoroughly treated; but as
the weights from Naukratis have a special value
in themselves, as a class entirely belonging to
one place and covered by a small range of Egyptian
history, their details are of value for study, apart
from the weights found in other places.
86. The first stage in examining weights is to
ascertain accurately their present weight. For
this purpose I weighed all those weights below
10,000 grains in a chemical balance, which shows
rV grain with this load. All fractions of a grain
were read by a rider weight of 2 grains on the
beam-arm. The equality of the arms was always
read by double weighing two or more of the
heaviest weights of each batch of weighings, and
applying the correction thus found to all the other
weighings of that batch. The modem weights
used had all been carefully compared together,
and the heaviest of the series was kindly verified
for me at the Standards Office, and by Messrs.
Oertling; small corrections to reduce to the true
standard were always applied. I have not thought
it needful to state any weight in less terms than
TVth of a grain, nor in those over 5000 grains to
less than single grains. The heavier weights
were weighed in scales which would show a
difference of 1 in 5000, which is doubtless a
far less amount than the errors of their forma-
tion.
87. On looking at a collection of ancient weights
or coins, it is at once manifest that they have
undergone changes of various extent since their
original formation and adjustment. These changes
cannot be avoided by ignoring them, as has been
done by all writers on metrology, and in all
published lists of weights. If we are to draw any
precise conclusion as to the relationships, exact
or approximate, of various ancient standards of
weight, it can only be done after taking account
of the changes that our remaining examples have
undergone. To estimate these changes we must
observe their nature and extent: the first by
reference to the chemical composition of the com-
pound before us, if the mass be of metal; the
second by measurement and calculation. The
compounds most usually met with, and their
weights in British grains, are as follow:—