108 WEIGHTS 



but one seeks a reason for the creation of weights to 

 represent 6 and 12 " British drachmae," i.e., ^/^ and \ of 

 the " British pound " respectively if there was no other 

 named standard than ^/i2 of the unit ("British uncia ") 

 and ^/gg (" British drachma "). And that there was some 

 other such named unit weighing ^/^ of this "British 

 pound " (298' 1 grains) seems at least suggested by the 

 markings on Nos. 12 and 20, which would then be the 

 weights of two and one such units respectively ; unhappily 

 No. 12 is nearly 8 per cent, under its proper weight, on 

 this hypothesis. It is also clear that the markings on 

 No. 8 vouch for the duodecimal system, as Mr. May points 

 out. But Nos. 20 and 28 are unimpeachable witnesses for 

 the quadratic system. 



Can we conjecture from this that we have here the 

 result of the imposition of the Roman system of 12 ounces 

 and 96 drachms upon a Keltic system of dividing the 

 pound into 16 parts? And that therefore the essential 

 characteristic of our modern "Avoirdupois" measure goes 

 back to the Early Iron Age ? I must be content to leave this 

 inference for students of metrology to develope or confute. 

 My obje'ct is primarily to provide material for their 

 enquiry, by a preliminary clearing of the ground. A 

 similar case of the imposition of Roman divisions upon a 

 local unit occurs at Pompeii; see The Mensa Ponderaria 

 of the Naples Museum, App. I. to my edition of the 

 remains of The Italic Dialects. And examples more im- 

 portant for northern lands will be found in Appendix C 

 of Prof. Ridgeway's Origin of Metallic Currency and 

 Weight Standards. 



No. 3, which has been considerably cut about, and does 

 not correspond in shape to No. 2, looks like a Roman 

 weight cut down to the Keltic standard. 



Here follow the weights which are certainly or probably 

 Keltic ; and after them two or three which I do not feel 

 able to identify with enough probability to insert them 

 in either category. 



