WEIGHTS The whole subject of weights as treated here is based on the Egyptian material, as that is by far the earliest and the best known historically, and in amount the largest published. The arrange ment found in Egypt serves best to classify the standards of other countries. The broad view is that each people or tribe had a separate standard, and that these were brought into differ ent countries by invasion or trade. Those standards which were most alike gradually approximated by errors of copying, and lost their individuality entirely before any of the literary records. Thus 17 standards in Egypt which had originally come from various foreign sources, became simplified to 8. They are here described in the order of their amount.
The peyem standard is marked P.Y.M. on three Palestine weights. The varieties named grammes 116, here were all known before the 6th dynasty; 121, 7.86, the two heavier were mixed at the loth dy 124 nasty, the lighter one joined in the 26th. 806 There are twelve weights known marked with numerals, and the standard, called shoti in Egypt, is named on papyri as being 12 In Greek use there was a lighter form for coinage, 133, and a heavier form in trade, centring on 135. The names of obelos and drachma, or a dart and a handful (of darts), show how objects were used for weights in Greece. The names must have arisen in the use of iron or bronze weapons, and the silver coins were the exchange values. This standard passed into Italy, where it was halved for the Etruscan and Sicilian libra, and divided into 12 unciae. It was the talanton of Antioch and of the Ptolemies, and survived in Egypt as the rotl, divided duodecimally as in Italy, and so producing the dirhem which was the standard coin of Arabic Egypt.
144 The qedet was the national standard of Egypt, 9.33 brought in by the dynastic people. There are very few marked weights because it was so usual. Though there were not distinct groups in early times, yet there were local differ ences, as weights "of Heliopolis" are on 140 unit, while one of Amasis is I 5o. Alabaster cones are the earliest, belonging to the 1st dynasty; they are multiples of a third of the qedet; from Ur are six small weights that are multiples of a twelfth of the qedet so the division in thirds comes from Babylonia. There are many qedet weights from Gezer and Gerar, also from Knossos and Troy. A large knuckle-bone of bronze from Gela, inscribed "I am of the Gelonians" is zoo qedets. The unit, however, did not spread much in other countries, nor start other standards.
The deben was binarily divided in Ethiopia for the gold trade, down to the pek, which was A set of measures for gold dust gives every stage of this division.
The necef is named on six Palestine weights.
154.4 ' 10.0,it may be the nusa weight mentioned in the 162 10.5 Harris papyrus. It was first identified by the weight of Syrian tribute to Tehutmes III. being in odd numbers of qedet, but soluble as multiples of this amount. The two varieties of this unit did not blend till the 26th dynasty; the lighter was the Syrian standard of named weights, and was the earlier one at Gezer. The system was decimal, multiplying up to I,000, and halving down to 1-th. By the tribute lists it was North Syrian, and in later times is found at Berytus and Anti och, Cilicia (pre-Persian), Asia Minor, and a bronze lion from Abydos of 2,500 necef. On going west there is a necef at Knos
sos. It appears in the jewellery of the 17th dynasty at Thebes, a collar of gold weighing io X '58.5, and bangles 2 X 161.3, 162.9. This collar is of the same form as the three Swedish collars weigh ing 6o X 158.2, 70X155.9 and 8o X 158.7, all on the necef basis. Where all this necef jewellery was made is yet unknown, but it was entirely foreign both to Egypt and to Sweden. There are about 5o Irish gold objects on the heavy necef of 162 to 169. The Greek system was: grains A mark sz is often used for this unit, but the grammes 171, name is not known in full. As many copies of 11.08, 185 cowry shells are on this (but on no other) 12.00 standard, it is called the khoirine, and perhaps the monogram is XO, as those letters were in use long before Greek writing. The bulk of the early examples is from 176 to 19o; but there was a rarer form at 171-3, down to the 18th dynasty, and not blended with the majority till the 23rd. Three very fine num bered weights from Gerar closely agree in giving 179.3 to 179-8; the stone cowries are the same, but rather more divergent, 777.7 to 180.o. The multiples in Egypt are decimal up to I,000, and fractions down to i In later times it became the Persian silver standard, but all the theories of the derivation of an 86 grain weight, from the ratio of gold to silver, are blown away by the fact that this standard is thousands of years older. At Khorsabad silver plates are 4o khoirines in weight. As a mone tary unit it is known at Arados, Cilicia, Lydia and Macedonia. It is known as the Chian standard, with a mina of 8,410 to 8,886. It was used on the Danube in Roman. times, and recognized as a mina of 20 unciae. The classical system was: 196 The oldest standard known is the beqa, found 12.70 210 in early Amratian graves in Egypt (700013.61 8000 B.c.), and named upon three weights in Palestine. This is often called the gold standard because many of these weights bear the hieroglyph for gold. The names of kings are more frequent on this than on other standards. The lighter and heavier forms were not unified until the 23rd dynasty, though both were used before for royal weights. The system was decimal up to 2,000 beqa, with fractions down to A. The earliest weights (Amratian) are short cylinders with domed ends; later (Gerzean) is a dome with convex base. From the marks, the variety of forms, and fine work, this is the most attractive series of weights. Abroad the standard is often found at Gerar and there are several weights from Knossos (194-205) ; in the west are six double axes from Elbe and Rhine, on a unit of 191, and 5o examples of Irish gold, on 200 to 202. The iron currency bars found in Celtic England are stated to be on multiples of 191, though they vary rather widely. Some of these western forms are due to the Greek adoption of the beqa as the standard of Aigina (199), which was widely spread by trade in Asia Minor and Ionia, as well as in Greece (the old mina of Athens), and passed on to Italy. There as the Etruscan pound (it originated the Roman libra), which at its lightest was 25 X 187, divided into I2 unciae.