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PROF. ARCHIBALD R. S. KENNEDY, M.A., D.D., ON 



on later writers, among whom Josephus is pre-eminent, for the 

 valuation of these in terms of the better-known Greek and 

 Roman measures. 



The aim of this lecture is to provide a summary of our 

 present knowledge of the weights and measures current in 

 Palestine from the Hebrew conquest to the end of the Jewish 

 state in a.d. 70, distinguishing at the same time results that are 

 certain, or fairly certain, from those to which only varying 

 degrees of probability can be assigned. Where my results differ 

 from those of other students in this field, I shall do my best to 

 state as clearly as possible the evidence on which these results 

 are based. 



Before proceeding to details, however, I wish to make two 

 remarks of a general nature. The first is a reminder that the 

 Hebrews were the heirs of the older Canaanites, whom they 

 dispossessed of their land and whose advanced civilization they 

 adopted. When, therefore, we speak of the weights and 

 measures of the Hebrews, in the pre-exilic period of their 

 history at least, we are really dealing with the metrology of the 

 earlier inhabitants of Canaan. The second remark is this : the 

 key to the metrology of Palestine is found in its geographical 

 position. From the earliest times, Palestine was the meeting 

 place of the two great civilizations of the ancient world, the 

 Babylonian and the Egyptian. It is natural, therefore, to expect 

 that its metrology would reflect this fact of history, and such we 

 shall find to be the case. 



I. — Hebrew Weights. 



Passing now to the more detailed exposition of the three 

 main systems of weights, measures of length, and measures of 

 capacity, I propose to begin with the department of Palestinian 

 metrology for which the monumental evidence is most abundant 

 and most decisive, viz. : the weight-standards of Palestine. 



The excavations carried out in the last twenty years or more 

 by our own Palestine Exploration Fund, and by the Germans, 

 Austrians and others, have brought to light a very large number 

 of ancient Palestinian weights. Professor Macalister's great 

 work, The Excavation of Gezer (ii, 278-292), alone contains a 

 descriptive list of well over two hundred weights. These, with 

 similar material from other sites in south-west Palestine, from 

 Taanach, Megiddo, Jericho and Jerusalem itself, await the 

 attention of an expert metrologist. A modest beginning was 

 made by myself two years ago (see Expository Times, xxiv, 



