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Author Topic: Hellenistic lead weights of Syria-Phoenicia  (Read 5889 times)

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Offline glebe

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Hellenistic lead weights of Syria-Phoenicia
« on: December 12, 2017, 07:49:34 am »
Readers may be interested in several recent (2014-15 and ongoing) articles by Gerald Finkielsztejn on the lead weights of Syria-Phoenicia in the Hellenistic to early Roman period.

They are available on Academia and list most of the known weights, arranged by city, together a full account of the various weight standards. The main standards are some of the usual suspects from Tekin's book on the Aegean cities, with minas of 460, 510, 560 and 650 gm, the last being the Mina = double litra also featuring at Athens and elsewhere from the late 2nd century B.C. onwards.

The two main articles (on Syria and Phoenicia) are in Englsh, but there is also a useful article in French which summarises the other two plus the southern Levant, with pictures of the various standard types. This is worth translating with Google, although note that etalon (standard) becomes stallion, shekel becomes century (or island) and the Phoenician letter tet becomes head (naturally).

One point I found particularly interesting concerns the odd-looking symbols on the weights inscribed in Phoenician characters (like Hendin 278 and 282) which Elayi & Elayi describe simply as "balances" (type A and B). According to Finkielsztejn these symbols are actually monograms of the adjacent cities of Marathos and Arados respectively, with Hendin 278 and 282 coming from Arados, like the mina from the Louvre shown below, while this one in the BNF is from Marathos:

https://tinyurl.com/ydc4vmd8

Ross G.


Offline glebe

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Re: Hellenistic lead weights of Syria-Phoenicia
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2018, 12:20:58 am »
And here is a 100 shekel Dimina (Phoenician standard) from Marathos (Qedar 1983 5071).

Ross G.

Offline djmacdo

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Re: Hellenistic lead weights of Syria-Phoenicia
« Reply #2 on: June 26, 2018, 06:53:30 am »
Thank you for posting these--very interesting and something quite different from my usual interests--and more so for that.

 

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