Ancient Linear Measures. 49 



applicable than the nearest Egyptian cubits, given by 

 Petrie as 18-92 and 20-63. 



I have collected about twenty-five of the best ancient 

 Trojan measures I can obtain from Dr. Schliemann's works 

 on Troy, and, having reduced them to English feet and 

 inches, I have obtained a remarkably well-marked cubit of 

 19-85 inches : intermediate as between Dorpfeld's and 

 Petrie's. It is interesting, however, that from thirteen 

 measures of archaic tombs at Spata in Attica, as given by 

 Dr. Schliemann in his "Troja," p. Ill, I also get, very 

 satisfactorily, a cubit of precisely the same length as this 

 old Trojan one ; and from eight measures from Tiryns (see 

 " Mycena? Tiryns," Chap, i.), also an exactly similar cubit. 

 These buildings must date back from B.C. 800 to 1200, and 

 are all more or less Cyclopean in character ; and may be all 

 included in the term Pelasgic. Still more interesting would 

 appear to be the fact that from an examination of nearly 

 seventy of the best measures given by Dr. Schliemann, taken 

 during his excavations at the ancient acropolis of Mycense, 

 precisely the same cubit of 19 - 85 again is clearly obtainable. 



From an examination of the measures, some seventy in 

 number, of Etruscan tombs, as given by Dennis in his 

 " Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria," it is very evident that 

 this same cubit of 19 - 85 must also have been employed. It 

 is, I believe, usual to include under Pelasgic a good deal of 

 the archaic Etruscan architecture; and this remarkable 

 persistency of the same unit of measure goes far to show 

 an intimate connection with ancient Greece and Asia Minor. 



I have, as yet, not been able to obtain measures of Lycian 

 and Lydian tombs to carry on the further examination of 

 this part of the subject. This cubit of 19-85 must have had 

 some connection originally with the Assyrian. In my first 

 letter I showed that the Hittite foot was probably = 12f 

 English inches, probably derived from an old Babylonian 

 cubit of -533 metre = 21 inches, and also, very probably, 

 connected with the Olympic foot of a similar derivation. 

 This Pelasgic cubit was probably more nearly connected 

 with the old Assyrian cubit of 19*7, first described by 

 Dorpfeld. 



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