DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1036#0040
32
INSCRIPTION OF PTOLEMAIS.
mile across with high mounds. The surface pottery is
of the Illrd and IVth cent. A.D. and it must have
been founded some centuries before that to allow of
such accumulation. As it is by the road into the
Fayum this might well be an older town of the time
before the lake was dried up. I noticed a mass of
deep foundation of stone. The tombs east of it are
visible for some distance; they are cut in a low cliff
facing south; about six or eight chambers; no
ornaments or inscriptions.
62. Kom Wezim, No. 7, has been a great town, the
most important of all the district. It is about half a
mile across, and the top of the mound is about a
hundred feet above the plain below, some of which
height is artificial accumulation of ruins, about fifteen
feet in parts. The most remarkable matter is the
number of great weights lying about in the ruins.
They are of the round dome-top type of late Egyptian
weights. One is 19 "8 inches across base, 22-3 across
top, sides average 11 • 9 high, and dome 4 • 8 high.
This will be therefore 5146" cubic inches. The stone
is a local shelly limestone; and assuming its specific
gravity at 2-3, it would weigh about 2,990,000 grains.
It has a mark w on the side, which may be M inverted.
A piece of another such weight, now broken up, lies
near this. A third weight has the top broken off; 12
across base, and still 9^ high. If in similar pro-
portion to the other it would weigh '223 of the
larger; so it might be either a quarter or a fifth of it.
A fourth great weight is about 19 across base, and
22 across top, 12'2 high on side, and dome 4*0 high,
or evidently the same as the first one. The standard
of this weight can hardly be settled from one example.
If the mark is m it would mean 40 if Greek, or 1000
if Roman: 40 leads to no known standard ; but
divided by 1000 it yields 2990 grains or the unit of
the Nusa, or double uten, which was common at
Memphis. (See " Season in Egypt" and " Hawara").
Besides these weights I noted the bases of stone
columns, 30 inches across; and a curious slab of
stone with a rudely-cut figure of a man in relief on it,
arms crossed on breast, but legs not developed. It
is quite un-Egyptian, and probably Roman.
Behind Kom Wezim, on the hill to the north, are
many tomb chambers and graves, several of which
had just been looted before I went there. The
meaning of such an important town at this side of the
lake seems intelligible on seeing that the present road
from the Natron Lakes runs close to this. Before
the lake was lowered this would be the port of the road
to Nitria, from which boats would sail across the lake
and out through the canal into the Nile. Whatever
traffic in grain or heavy goods went either way the
large weights would be needed for it. In short, Kom
Wezim was the port of Nitria in the pre-Roman times.
In the hills, to the N.E. of this, the ground is most
curiously weathered into domes, several feet diameter,
which stand crowded together all over the surface ; at
a little distance they appear almost like the dome
roofs of a village. The white spot marked is a dis-
tinguishing point on the range of low hills in the desert.
All this side of the country is utter desert; the eye
wanders over miles of undulating sand and rock,
gradually rising in steps higher and higher to the
north.
The restoration of this district of the Fayum to its
former fertility would be a very easy and inexpensive
matter ; a few miles of new canal, and a clearing of
the old bed, is all that is required in order to pro-
vide for many thousands of people.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII.
INSCRIPTION OF PTOLEMAIS.
By the Rev. Canon Hicks.
63. (See the facsimile of the original stone, and the
restored transcription on PL. XXXII.) This inscription
is a dedication in honour of the Emperor Nero,
dated A.D. 60, from the town of Ptolemais in Middle
Egypt. The dedication is made by the town at
large ' in the person of or ' by the hands of (dia)
the 6470,' and ' by the whole body of men who came
to the age of 18 in the 2nd year of the Emperor
Claudius' (A.D. 42).
The phrasing of the dedication is very brief, and
the meaning of the allusions obscure. Who were
' the 6470' ? Why are the ephebeukotes of A.D. 42
so prominently mentioned ? And why is that year
brought so closely into connection with the seventh
year of Nero's reign ?
To these questions we may hazard a conjectural
answer. In the first place Egypt was one of the
chief granaries of Rome. One-third of the annual
corn-supply came to Rome in Alexandrian vessels,
Mr. Petrie also discovered, from the large number
of corn-mills and other indications, that Ptolemais,
standing as it did at the end of the Canal, must have
been an important lading-place for the corn-produce
of Middle Egypt. But moreover, Egypt had to bear
under the Romans, as indeed she has always done
INSCRIPTION OF PTOLEMAIS.
mile across with high mounds. The surface pottery is
of the Illrd and IVth cent. A.D. and it must have
been founded some centuries before that to allow of
such accumulation. As it is by the road into the
Fayum this might well be an older town of the time
before the lake was dried up. I noticed a mass of
deep foundation of stone. The tombs east of it are
visible for some distance; they are cut in a low cliff
facing south; about six or eight chambers; no
ornaments or inscriptions.
62. Kom Wezim, No. 7, has been a great town, the
most important of all the district. It is about half a
mile across, and the top of the mound is about a
hundred feet above the plain below, some of which
height is artificial accumulation of ruins, about fifteen
feet in parts. The most remarkable matter is the
number of great weights lying about in the ruins.
They are of the round dome-top type of late Egyptian
weights. One is 19 "8 inches across base, 22-3 across
top, sides average 11 • 9 high, and dome 4 • 8 high.
This will be therefore 5146" cubic inches. The stone
is a local shelly limestone; and assuming its specific
gravity at 2-3, it would weigh about 2,990,000 grains.
It has a mark w on the side, which may be M inverted.
A piece of another such weight, now broken up, lies
near this. A third weight has the top broken off; 12
across base, and still 9^ high. If in similar pro-
portion to the other it would weigh '223 of the
larger; so it might be either a quarter or a fifth of it.
A fourth great weight is about 19 across base, and
22 across top, 12'2 high on side, and dome 4*0 high,
or evidently the same as the first one. The standard
of this weight can hardly be settled from one example.
If the mark is m it would mean 40 if Greek, or 1000
if Roman: 40 leads to no known standard ; but
divided by 1000 it yields 2990 grains or the unit of
the Nusa, or double uten, which was common at
Memphis. (See " Season in Egypt" and " Hawara").
Besides these weights I noted the bases of stone
columns, 30 inches across; and a curious slab of
stone with a rudely-cut figure of a man in relief on it,
arms crossed on breast, but legs not developed. It
is quite un-Egyptian, and probably Roman.
Behind Kom Wezim, on the hill to the north, are
many tomb chambers and graves, several of which
had just been looted before I went there. The
meaning of such an important town at this side of the
lake seems intelligible on seeing that the present road
from the Natron Lakes runs close to this. Before
the lake was lowered this would be the port of the road
to Nitria, from which boats would sail across the lake
and out through the canal into the Nile. Whatever
traffic in grain or heavy goods went either way the
large weights would be needed for it. In short, Kom
Wezim was the port of Nitria in the pre-Roman times.
In the hills, to the N.E. of this, the ground is most
curiously weathered into domes, several feet diameter,
which stand crowded together all over the surface ; at
a little distance they appear almost like the dome
roofs of a village. The white spot marked is a dis-
tinguishing point on the range of low hills in the desert.
All this side of the country is utter desert; the eye
wanders over miles of undulating sand and rock,
gradually rising in steps higher and higher to the
north.
The restoration of this district of the Fayum to its
former fertility would be a very easy and inexpensive
matter ; a few miles of new canal, and a clearing of
the old bed, is all that is required in order to pro-
vide for many thousands of people.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII.
INSCRIPTION OF PTOLEMAIS.
By the Rev. Canon Hicks.
63. (See the facsimile of the original stone, and the
restored transcription on PL. XXXII.) This inscription
is a dedication in honour of the Emperor Nero,
dated A.D. 60, from the town of Ptolemais in Middle
Egypt. The dedication is made by the town at
large ' in the person of or ' by the hands of (dia)
the 6470,' and ' by the whole body of men who came
to the age of 18 in the 2nd year of the Emperor
Claudius' (A.D. 42).
The phrasing of the dedication is very brief, and
the meaning of the allusions obscure. Who were
' the 6470' ? Why are the ephebeukotes of A.D. 42
so prominently mentioned ? And why is that year
brought so closely into connection with the seventh
year of Nero's reign ?
To these questions we may hazard a conjectural
answer. In the first place Egypt was one of the
chief granaries of Rome. One-third of the annual
corn-supply came to Rome in Alexandrian vessels,
Mr. Petrie also discovered, from the large number
of corn-mills and other indications, that Ptolemais,
standing as it did at the end of the Canal, must have
been an important lading-place for the corn-produce
of Middle Egypt. But moreover, Egypt had to bear
under the Romans, as indeed she has always done