Wzorce i jednostki miar w antycznej Grecji

Starożytni Grecy zostawili po sobie ogromne dziedzictwo kulturowe. W muzeach na całym świecie można oglądać tego dowody. Wśród licznych eksponatów niekiedy trafia się pojedynczy odważnik, waga lub jej pozostałości. Bardzo rzadko spotyka się wzorce objętości. Nie ma wśród nich ani jednego wzorca długości. W poszukiwaniu starożytnych greckich miar autor odwiedził wiele muzeów. Efektem tego jest zbiór fotografii i strzępy informacji pochodzące z ich opisów. W niniejszym artykule autor postara się je uporządkować.

In the paper the author presents the current state of knowledge about ancient, Greek standards of units of measures. It is possible to divide the ancient Greek standards of measures into official and commercial ones. The official standards were made of bronze. They were stored at main temples of cities. The access to them was limited, because they were symbols of the independence. The commercial standards were made of cheaper and more universal materials as: wood, clay, rocks or lead. They were stored in special buildings in the ancient agora. They were supervised, as a rule, by a town clerk called the metronome. Paradoxically, more commercial than official standards have survived to this day. A great diversity of measures is a common feature of ancient cultures, both considering the quality as well as the quantity. Apart from standards of the length there also existed measures of the distance. They used separate measures for measuring dry materials, different than those for liquids. The measures of mass often show diversity depending on the purpose (pharmacy or trade) or the value of measured goods (gold or common goods). In ancient Greece two systems of measures gained the greatest significance, namely: Aeginetic and Attic/Euboean. They differed in the absolute values of individual measures, while the division of measures was comparatively permanent.