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this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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Historical Artifacts
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Why must have they been mass produced? Couldn't it be they're like the equivalent of standardise weights which are used to calibrate other, less accurate measuring devices?
So for instance perhaps these were made with extreme care, but people also had copper pots and pans with some specific size. Like, idk, 4 serving cups or something. But the way theyre made is less accurate and you can just check your bowl by filling one of these and pouring the water into your bronze bowl and seeing how it fits.
Like perhaps taverns always serve a serving size of two cups (500ml is what we used to give as a serving in the army on every meal, as in the woods it's always stew or mash or something else you can ladel.) and there's a city inspector who can go around checking that taverns aren't cheating people by having too small serving ladels of too small pints or something.
Idk thats more of a fantasy. Probably just a set for an apothecary. And this would've been somewhat rare, so definitely could get your measuring sets done custom. Which you probably needed to.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apothecaries%27_system
Sure, but I would think standardization of measurement wouldn't mean much if it was a single person. I guess they could be selling something and perhaps have various amounts. That would seem to be a lot of work for something like that though.
Well no, it's not a single person, but more like a rare person. How many people in the modern world own calibrating weights for scales? I don't, and I'd actually need to calibrate my scales (I just check em with several coins to get more or less a known weight. But have to do several coins so it averages out the dents and dirt the coins might have.)
I'm just saying I don't believe this accuracy is anything that would've been needed by an average citizen. So, not unique objects, but handmade specialised equipment. Probably most towns/cities would have only one or a couples of apothecaries, if any. These apothecaries on the other hand would have to get their specialised equipment either from knowing how to advice a craftsman how to make it, make it themselves, or get them from a bigger city.
I mean you still see the exact type of bottles in pharmacies as decoration. (Well we do here. I've gathered US pharmacies are a bit more... commercial.)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apothecaries%27_system#Origin
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_units_of_measurement
I'm thinking they're some of these:
Idk how lemmy will format but the numbers after mean unit, equal to, metric, imperial and US fluid:
acetabulum 1⁄48 congius 68 mL 2.39 fl oz 2.30 fl oz
quartarius 1⁄24 congius 136 mL 4.79 fl oz 4.61 fl oz
hemina or cotyla 1⁄12 congius 273 mL 9.61 fl oz 9.23 fl oz
sextarius 1⁄6 congius 546 mL 19.22 fl oz 0.961 pt 18.47 fl oz 1.153 pt
congius 1 congius 3.27 L 5.75 pt 0.719 gal 3.46 qt 0.864 gal
urna 4 congii 13.1 L 2.88 gal 3.46 gal