Stacks of cut oil shale bricks were combustion retorted in a batch, pilot scale sized retort at low void volumes (overall voids ranged from 8.4% to 18.4%). Retort pressure drops increased during retorting at least one order of magnitude. The Ergun equation and Darcy's law have been used by several researchers and organizations as diagnostic tools on oil shale retorts. These equations were tested on the uniformly packed retort reported in this paper to evaluate how well the equations represented the experimental conditions. Use of the Ergun equation to estimate the average particle size from retort pressure drops gave answers that were only approximately correct. Calculation of retort pressure drops from Darcy's law during retorting at low void volumes will probably give answers that are several times too small. Thermal expansion of the shale during retorting decreases retort permeability greatly and calculation of the decreased permeability is not possible at the present level of technology.