Axel
Bergmann: Cotyla quid? Zur
Vorgeschichte des spätmittelalterlichen Medizinalhohlmaßes
As can be made evident
chiefly by their comparative numerical examination, the Egyptian pyramids (the
step pyramids being excluded for the present purpose) have been, from the
beginning up to the Egyptian fashion in early Imperial Rome, designed and built
with the additional intention of physically manifesting a volume of P ·
10k · (average value)
0.96824 cm3, where k is either a
positive integer or zero, and where P is a short product,
following very restrictive formation rules which to some extent are traceable
in the papyrus Rhind, of prime numbers. Conceptually (but not really as to the
Hin at least) this establishes the capacity units 1 [2]Heqat = 9682.4 cm3 and 1 Hin = 484.12 cm3 already for the Old Kingdom. It is shown
further that the Attic Medimnos as introduced in the course of finishing
Solon’s reforms is identical with the Egyptian volume system’s
standard unification: PV =
2 · 3 · 5 · 7 · 11 · 23, and k = 0, so that
1 Medimnos = about 51443 cm3.
Accordingly and by means of some adjacent considerations a Kotyle / Cotyla of
269 cm3 ± 1 cm3 is established for the Hellenistic, early
Arabic, and Medieval Latin medicine.