[Avodah] Length of Archeological Ammah

[Micha Berger]

So, here's some of the data...

Yechezqel's tunnel:
    Measured: 537.6 m (Conder 1870)
    Inscription: 1200 ammah
    1 implied ammah = 44.8 cm = 17.64"

Admittedly 1200 ammah is clearly a rounded number. So we're dealing
with approximations.

The smallest shitah we have today is RCNaeh's 48 cm, or 1120 ammos for
the length of the tunnel. It's a stretch to say it was "rounded up"
to 1200 when 1100 would have been closer to the real value. Obviously
the CI's ammah is further from the measurement - 53.98cm would yeild a
tunnel of only 996 ammos.

More modern measurements of the tunnel, I should point, out are smaller.
    Gitt 2001:  525m implying 1 ammah = 43.75 cm
    Baker 1988: 533m    "     "   "   = 44.4  cm

However, Baker could have been prejudiced, since 44.4 cm is the length
of a Roman cubit, the source of the word we all use to translate "ammah"
into English.

In one of the sides of the presumed Even Shesiyah there are two holes
43.7 cm apart, and there is a niche in it that is 131 cm = 3 * 43.7 cm
long. Two slabs of rock used in the eastern wall are 2.6 m (6x) long,
six times 43.3 cm. And these, I am told, are only a few of many many
examples. Which would only make sense if 43.5 cm +/- 2mm were a standard
unit of measure -- an even smaller ammah!

For much of the BHMQ, the ammah was overestimated by 1/2 etzba (see
Pesachim 86a), as the workmen wanted to err on the side that would
avoid me'ilah.

In a small underground room under the north east corner of the current
platform, the recurring unit of measure is 42.8 cm. Implying that the
43.7 cm length was the overestimate, not the ammah.

All in all, you see the basic pattern... R' Chaim Na'eh's ammah is
slightly above the archeological range, but possibly within the margin
of error. The CI's shiurim are well beyond the evidence.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 42nd day, which is
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