Occupational health regulations in ancient times

[Yehuda Lerman]

Dear Forum Members,
I am trying to receive information on occupational health regulations
in ancient times.
Specifically I am looking for a regulation that limit the loads that
can be lifted by workers or porters.
According to a discussion of a work accident in the Halachic
literature (Jewish Law) there was a TLV ( threshold limit value ) for
maximum allowable load equivalent to 40 Kg at the beginning of the 1st
Century.
My question to the group is if in your fields of research you know
about such regulations.
Sincerely yours,
Yehuda Lerman
972-522226588

[Leah Di Segni]

I know of no such regulations in the Greco-Roman world, but it may be just my ignorance and I should be happy to be enlightened. Regulations about loads must have existed, for the load (govmo") of an ass or a camel were standard units for tax purpose: e.g. in the Hellenistic tariff inscription in the collection of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University, published by I.L. Merker in IEJ 25 (1975) 238-244, and in the 2nd-c. CE Palmyra tariff edict (OGIS 629; J.F. Matthews, JRS 74 [1984], 157-180). Liquid commodities transported in jars were also taxed by container and no doubt the containers had to fit a known standard of capacity. A. Raban, in his paper ‘Jars and standard volume’, in Measuring and Weighing in Ancient Time (Museum Hecht, Haifa, 2001), 13-21 (Hebrew), 11*-14* (English), has shown, convincingly in my opinion, not only that jars were manufactured according to fixed sizes and volumes, but also that the size and volume were chosen to accommodate the porters. An amphora to be carried on a porter's shoulder would be as high as the average length of a man's arm, and its weight (container + liquid commodity) would not be such as to endanger the man — most likely not for his health sake but to avoid his dropping the jar and so causing the loss of the expensive commodity. Double amphoras were manufactured in size and volume (and shape) apt to be carried by two men: so were the lmlk jars made in Judah in the 8th-7th c. BCE. In other words, there must have been regulations pertaining to a man's load, as well as a beast's load, but their purpose would have been practical (mostly for tax, toll and custom purposes) not social or humanitarian.

Regards,

Leah Di Segni

PS: BTW, the full load of a mule in the 5th-6th c. CE was 12 modii of grain (105 litres, about 82-84 kg at the specific weight of wheat), and Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita Sabae 44, tells of an Herculean monk who could easily lift and carry one such load, and on one occasion, having killed the mule with a head punch in a fit of anger, carried home to the monastery not only the full load but also the pack saddle.

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@ Dr. Leah Di Segni                 DIS...@mscc.huji.ac.il

@ Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

@ Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel

[Simeon Chavel]

As long as the load of a pack animal has been brought into the discussion, you might have a look at Exod 23:5 and Rabbinic midrashic comments to it. There is a comprehensive reference 3-volume work for rabbinic comments to biblical passages by Aharon Heiman, in Hebrew.