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Hi All
I came across a reference to Prof Robin
Connor's book on this list, and joined in the hope of getting feedback on some
of my own current thoughts on historical metrology. I apologise that these
are a minority interest matter, and a bit off topic.
My story runs like this - I have been interested in
Early Indian coins for about 30 years - but only about 2 years back I discovered
strong evidence that the Indian weight system had gone little changed
for about 4,000 years, and indeed does not seem to have changed at all from
about 2000 BC to 200 BC. But also that almost all academic specialists
seemed to be judging the matter on their preconceptions, within limited time
frames, and ignore or miss the evidence, and report an un-standardised and
fragmentary system.
So I turned to the European situation - and quickly
discovered that the standard pound (mina) of Shulgi (Mesopotamia c. 2100 BC) was
close to 500 grams - the same as that of Darius (c 500 BC) and the same as that
of Napoleon (metric pound = 500 grams). And that a minority of scholars
over the generations had taken this matter seriously, whilst the majority I
consulted rejected it out of hand (as an 'accident')
No time here to go further into the details of
this - but my current thoughts are that there are very deep impulses in
human nature towards universal common standards - and also very deep
impulses to deny them. And that these conflicting impulses are
vividly displayed in the study of historical metrology itself [- which
seems to me to be determined far more by modern pre-conception than by
fact]
Apologies again if this is too far off topic - I'd
welcome feed back from anyone on or off list who has taken an interest in these
matters (or onward links).
Robert Tye |
