DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.619#0096
LJSVELS AND MEASUREMENTS.
87
higher half of the examples of weights; and as
the coin weights were continuously rising as time
went on, we cannot suppose that the coins were
made as light as possible to save silver. Eather
we should conclude that the primitive Attic
standard was too light to agree with the same
standard elsewhere, and hence the hulk of the
weights are of a higher value, and the coins were
continually raised as their circulation increased,
to bring them into better conformity with the
more general value of the standard. This greater
value of the weights in general, and the approach
of the coins to the higher value, seems distinctly
to show that the Attic is not derived from the
Assyrian standard. The difference of position in
the curves is distinct, and more than could be
expected by a chance difference. While the in-
creasing approximation of the coins to the weights,
in face of the resemblance to the Assyrian
standard always pulling the other way, strongly
shows that the Attic was an entirely separate
standard, sufficiently distinct for the Greeks never
to confuse or amalgamate the two.
101. A new and interesting result of ascertaining
the original weights of a large set of coins, all of
one city and one period, is the determination of
the errors of the mint. The average variation of
the weight from the mean is but 6 grain on
264 grains, or 1 in 410, equal to -16 on the
drachma. This compares well with even our
modern machine-made coinage ; the English legal
remedy of the mint, or extreme variation allowed,
being 1 in 583 for gold, and 1 in 240 for silver.
Thus four-fifths of the coinage of Athens, in the
fifth century B.C., would have passed as legally
true by the regulations of the coinage of England
in the nineteenth century a.d. It is much to
be wished that in all large finds of coins of one
period, a series of accurate weighings, with due
precautions, should be made. The only other find
that I have examined for this purpose is that of
13 small, rude Gaulish silver from Chalons-sur-
Saone; they average 29-85 grains, and their mean
variation is but *33 grains, or 1 in 90. Such a
test as accuracy of mintage would give us an ex-
cellent comparative, and, to some extent, an
absolute, test of the capability of different races
and of different ages in mechanical arts;—a test
everywhere alike in its importance, its nature, and
the readiness with which we can apply it.
CHAPTEE X.
LEVELS AND MEASUREMENTS.
102. For levelling in the excavations of the town,
the usual way was to transfer the level of the
point to be fixed, or some level just above it, to
the nearest steep side of the excavated hollow, by
means of a vertically suspended mirror; then to
measure up the almost vertical side of the cutting,
using the mirror, if needful, to transfer the line a
few feet laterally, and, finally, sight to the horizon
over a large mass of Eoman brickwork, which I
adopted as a datum point, high up above most of
the mound. Eemombering the dip of the horizon,
and that this brickwork is 17 feet above the plain,
the top of it was sighted to near the top of the
trees that skirt the horizon, at a distance of two
or three miles. This method gives results within
a few inches on short distances such as I needed
in the town; but for the more distant points of
the Great Temenos and buildings in it a theodolite
was used. The advantage of an approximate but
ready way of levelling, as above, is that the level
of anything found can be at once fixed in a minute
or two without any delays, and quite as accurately
as is necessary. The top of the brickwork was
called zero, and the levels read and entered as
minus quantities in the work, and in marking
pottery; but for publication, all levels are read as
plus quantities above an arbitrary point, the pre-
vious zero being 600 in the new scale; this sim-
plifies all the statements, and every level published
is on this basis.
103. The principal points of the levelling are—
87
higher half of the examples of weights; and as
the coin weights were continuously rising as time
went on, we cannot suppose that the coins were
made as light as possible to save silver. Eather
we should conclude that the primitive Attic
standard was too light to agree with the same
standard elsewhere, and hence the hulk of the
weights are of a higher value, and the coins were
continually raised as their circulation increased,
to bring them into better conformity with the
more general value of the standard. This greater
value of the weights in general, and the approach
of the coins to the higher value, seems distinctly
to show that the Attic is not derived from the
Assyrian standard. The difference of position in
the curves is distinct, and more than could be
expected by a chance difference. While the in-
creasing approximation of the coins to the weights,
in face of the resemblance to the Assyrian
standard always pulling the other way, strongly
shows that the Attic was an entirely separate
standard, sufficiently distinct for the Greeks never
to confuse or amalgamate the two.
101. A new and interesting result of ascertaining
the original weights of a large set of coins, all of
one city and one period, is the determination of
the errors of the mint. The average variation of
the weight from the mean is but 6 grain on
264 grains, or 1 in 410, equal to -16 on the
drachma. This compares well with even our
modern machine-made coinage ; the English legal
remedy of the mint, or extreme variation allowed,
being 1 in 583 for gold, and 1 in 240 for silver.
Thus four-fifths of the coinage of Athens, in the
fifth century B.C., would have passed as legally
true by the regulations of the coinage of England
in the nineteenth century a.d. It is much to
be wished that in all large finds of coins of one
period, a series of accurate weighings, with due
precautions, should be made. The only other find
that I have examined for this purpose is that of
13 small, rude Gaulish silver from Chalons-sur-
Saone; they average 29-85 grains, and their mean
variation is but *33 grains, or 1 in 90. Such a
test as accuracy of mintage would give us an ex-
cellent comparative, and, to some extent, an
absolute, test of the capability of different races
and of different ages in mechanical arts;—a test
everywhere alike in its importance, its nature, and
the readiness with which we can apply it.
CHAPTEE X.
LEVELS AND MEASUREMENTS.
102. For levelling in the excavations of the town,
the usual way was to transfer the level of the
point to be fixed, or some level just above it, to
the nearest steep side of the excavated hollow, by
means of a vertically suspended mirror; then to
measure up the almost vertical side of the cutting,
using the mirror, if needful, to transfer the line a
few feet laterally, and, finally, sight to the horizon
over a large mass of Eoman brickwork, which I
adopted as a datum point, high up above most of
the mound. Eemombering the dip of the horizon,
and that this brickwork is 17 feet above the plain,
the top of it was sighted to near the top of the
trees that skirt the horizon, at a distance of two
or three miles. This method gives results within
a few inches on short distances such as I needed
in the town; but for the more distant points of
the Great Temenos and buildings in it a theodolite
was used. The advantage of an approximate but
ready way of levelling, as above, is that the level
of anything found can be at once fixed in a minute
or two without any delays, and quite as accurately
as is necessary. The top of the brickwork was
called zero, and the levels read and entered as
minus quantities in the work, and in marking
pottery; but for publication, all levels are read as
plus quantities above an arbitrary point, the pre-
vious zero being 600 in the new scale; this sim-
plifies all the statements, and every level published
is on this basis.
103. The principal points of the levelling are—