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The Greek Metrological Relief in Oxford

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Eric Fernie
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Summary

The demeanour of the figure represented on the Greek metrological relief in the Ashmolean Museum indicates that it must have been made before the Athenian decree regulating weights and measures, variously dated between 449 and 420 B.C. All the dimensions of the slab imply the use of a cubit of 52·3 cm, the length of the Egyptian royal cubit which in a Greek context suggests a provenance on Samos. Finally, the slab was not used for the practical purpose of comparing or checking measures. The width and the angle of the surface point to its being set over a door, perhaps the entrance to a room devoted to the control of weights and measures.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 61 , Issue 2 , September 1981 , pp. 255 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1981

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References

NOTES

1 Vertue, George, Description of Easton Neston (London, 1758),Google Scholar quoted from Michael Vickers' display in the Ashmolean Museum. I would like to record my thanks to Mr. Vickers for his help and suggestions.

2 Michaelis, A., ‘The metrological relief at Oxford’, J.H.S. iv (1883), 335–50.Google Scholar Michaelis begins his essay with the same apt quotation from Vertue as given above.

3 Ibid., 339, 342, and Michaelis, A., Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (1882), pp. 185–204.Google Scholar On the agent's movements see also Haynes, D. E., The Arundel Marbles (Oxford, 1975), pp. 4–7Google Scholar.

4 Michaelis, 1883, 337-9, 342-3, and 335-6; Herodotus, 11, 149. Pollux, Dictionary, 2.158 (in Hultsch, F., Metrologicorum Scriptorum Reliquiae 1 (Leipzig, 1864), p. 179. See alsoGoogle ScholarSchilbach, E., Byzantinische Metrologie (1970), p. 22).Google Scholar Suida repeats the formula later in the first millennium ( Hultsch, F., Griechische und Romische Metrologie (1882), p. 341). The Oxford relief proves that the definition is of much greater antiquity than Pollux's reference to itGoogle Scholar.

5 Michaelis, 1883, 339; Herodotus, 11, 168.

6 Michaelis, 1883, 335-7 and 339.

7 Michaelis, 1883, 340, 349 and 350.

8 Wesenberg, B., ‘Zum metrologischen Relief in Oxford’, Marburger Winckelmann-Programm (1975-1976), pp. 15–22.Google Scholar The relief also features prominently in Lorenzen, E., Technological Studies in Ancient Metrology, Vol. 1 (Copenhagen, 1966), pp. 66f.,Google Scholar but to no effect.

9 Wesenberg, pp. 18, 20 and 22.

10 Wesenberg, pp. 20-22.

11 Both Michaelis (1882, 344-49) and Wesenberg (p. 18) discuss anatomical proportions. I have avoided the subject both because of the warning issued by Stewart, A., ‘The Canon of Polykleitos’. J.H.S. xcviii (1978), 122–31,Google Scholar and because of that represented by Lorenzen, 1966 (see note 8).

12 For a demolition of Lepsius's system of attributing marble to particular sites see Renfrew, C. and Peacey, J. Springer, ‘Aegean marble: a petrological study’, Annual of the British School at Athens, lxiii (1968), 45–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Michaelis, 1883, 350 and Wesenberg, p. 20.

14 Robinson, E. G., ‘Athenian currency decree and coinages of the allies’, Hesperia, Supplement 8 (1949), 324 and 338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Mattingly, H. B., ‘The Protected Fund in the Athenian Coinage Decree’, American Journal of Philology, 95(3) (1974), 280–5, andCrossRefGoogle ScholarErxleben, E., ‘Das Münzgesetz des delisch-attischen Seebundes’, Archiv für Papyrusforschung, xix (1969), 91–139;Google Scholar xx (1970), 66-132; xxi (1971), 145-62; see especially xxi, 160. The text of the decree is available in Meiggs, R. and Lewis, D., A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions (Oxford, 1969), number 45Google Scholar.

16 Wesenberg, pp. 20-22: ‘Wenn das Nebeneinander der beiden Mass-systeme auf dem Oxforder Relief nicht den Bedürfnissen eines blühenden Handels verdankt wird, so bietet sich als eine andere, weniger harmlose Erklärung an, an einen Mass-Oktroi zu denken, wie es schon Michaelis in seiner endgültigen Interpretation des Reliefs getan hat. Nach Bekanntwerden des athenischen Dekrets über die Zwangseinfiihrung athenischer Masse, Münzen und Gewichte in den Städten des Seebundes wird man allerdings den Fusse-abdruck auf dem Oxforder Relief weniger mit der Niederwerfung des samischen Aufstands im Jahre 439 verbinden wollen, als vielmehr mit eben jenem Dekret, das bestimmte, dass eine Abschrift in Stein auf den Märkten aller Bundesstädte aufgestellt wurde.’

17 See Dörpfeld, W. ‘Beiträge zur antiken Metrologie, l’, Athenische Mitteilungen, vii (1882), 277–312,Google ScholarStazio, A., ‘La Metrologia’, Enciclopedia Classica, Sez. I, Vol. III (1959), p. 549,Google ScholarOlynthus, VIII (1938), pp. 45–51,Google ScholarDidyma 11, pp. 46 and 68, and Fernie, E., ‘Historical metrology and architectural history’, Art History, i (1978), 391.Google ScholarKienast, H., ‘Der Tunnel des Eupalinos auf Samos’, Architectura, vii (1977), 113,Google Scholar offers 34·95 cm. for a Samian foot, but without supporting evidence.

18 The 64 cm. height given in figure 1 is that to the original tip of the relief. It consists of the 26·15 cm. height of the side plus the 37·85 cm. height of the remaining triangle. A triangle with angles of 200, 700 and 900 and a base of 104·5 cm. will have a height of 38 cm., 1·5 mm more than the height as measured. The slab however is considerably worn which renders all the dimensions approximate to within a millimetre or two.

19 Robertson, D. S., Greek and Roman Architecture (Cambridge, 1943), pl. XXIIIb and figs. 87 and 98.Google Scholar Wesenberg, 1975, p. 21 note 26, mentions a Greek relief in Zurich of similar shape to that in Oxford.

20 See Hubert, J., L'Art Pré-Roman (1938), pl. xv,Google Scholar for th e last three examples. My thanks are due to George Zarnecki for this reference.

21 The side and base are however entirely smooth.

22 For th e length of the Roman foot and for the two monument s see Raper, M., ‘An enquiry into the measure of the Roman foot’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, li, pt ii (1760), 774–823,Google Scholar and for illustrations of the tombstones, Jones, H. Stuart, A catalogue of the municipal collections of Rome: the Museo Capitolino (Rome 1912), pl. 15 and pp. 72–77Google Scholar.

23 The lintel to the rebate is 24 cm. thick at its thickest, but 14 cm. thick at the carving.