APC Image: AK 1139: Public Standard of Measure from Well M. It is made of heavy fabric, well polished, but unglazed on the outside, and covered with a black glaze on the inside. The outside decoration consists of a band of seven ridges at the top, and a similar band at the bottom, where the lowest ridge is widened to form a kind of base. The sides curve in slightly at the middle, and this feature is emphasized by the ridged bands. On the inside the walls are more nearly straight, though somewhat uneven. Slightly above the middle of the pot the inscription DE [M} OSION is painted in letters 0.012 m. high. There is a punctuation of three dots at the end of the word and a somewhat larger dot at a lower level, probably an accidental splash. At the top a triple bar is set in and fastened in the walls of the vase. The bars ar wedge-shaped in section are covered, like the inside of the vase, with black glaze on their slanting sides, but their upper flat surface is unglazed. They were inserted into wedge-shaped holes cut in the rim, and at the points where the ends of the bars are fastened to the walls of the vase a slight projection interrupts the ridges of the upper band. At one of these points there is a small diamond-shaped seal impression with the owl of Athena in the centre. The inscription on the outside, the stamp with the public seal, and the similarity with the measures found in the Agora Excavations in the vicinity of the Tholos show beyond a doubt that this is one of the public standards of measure. The contents of this measure has been calculated to be approximately 3.200 1, which coincides very closely with the Attic chous (3.283 I) as given by F. Hultsch in his GR. U. ROM. METROLOGIE, but the form of the vessel seems to preclude its use as a liquid measure. Inasmuch as both the liquid and the dry measure are based on a kotyle with equal value for both, there would be good reason for using a dry measure of three choinikes corresponding to the chous of liquid measure. This tentative identification is strengthened by comparison of our measure with a water-clock identified among the finds from the Athenian Agora. The latter bears an inscription which appears to indicate a contents of two choes. It is found, by actual experiment, to hold the contents of our measure exactly twice.