Hi Jon,

I agree with your analysis.

The first part seems logical, the second part (albeit someone elses) is problematic as you say.

The main problem is that there are no standardised measures evidenced anywhere other than in Egypt at the early period when the Old Kingdom pyramids were built. (some would claim the 'Nippur Ell' is a standard, but it's not - it's only during the reign of Guidea that rules are evidenced in Mesopotamia).

The second problem is that these Syrian measures etc are far from clearly evidenced in any period let alone during the Old Kingdom. None of the measures he mentions is ever really securely established, but the period in which he is writing (1920s) is notable for many published papers claiming various measures, usually attached to theories of certain races, and to Mesopotamia in particular. German Archaeologists in particular were pushing Mesopotamian standard measures in the literature, and this was attached to their ideology in which developments were made in the north, and then diffused to other places - hence the 'Northern Foot' which is poorly attested anywhere, yet Petrie mentions it several times.

In fact, when studying standard measures its often better to go back to mid 19th century literature than examine the early 20th century stuff which is heavily influenced by racism and ideology. This is what I have been doing for the last couple of years.

Shorthly after this article,in 1926, Petrie published "Ancient Weights and Measures" which is much more circumspect than this article, or even than his earlier work 'Inductive Metrology' 1877, and in 'Wisdom of the Egyptians' in 1938 he does not mention any foreign standards.

I would doubt the existence of any foreign measures being in existence during the Old Kingdom let alone being present and evidenced in Egypt.

Dave L



Edited 8 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2007 06:37AM by Dave L.