Works of Art
Babylonian Stone Weight
Period: Circa 1400-1200 B.C.
Culture: Mesopotamian
Category: Array
Dimensions: Height: 44.4 cm
Price: CHF 69000
Provenance:
Ex-E. Boustros collection, acquired in the 1970s
Description
This impressive weight, of an unusually large size, is carved from a monolithic block of pointed form; the surface is smooth and partially stained with bitumen. The top is pierced by a horizontal hole that may have served to transport and/or to suspend it.
A small inscription, in four columns of cuneiform script, is engraved on the upper part of the weight: "one talent weight, calibrated, of the god Enlil, king of all countries".
Some other Babylonian weights of this size are known, but they are carved in the shape of ducks; the Babylonian talent officially weighed 30.520 kg.
Bibliography
On the ancient ponderal syrods:
Measuring and Weighing in Ancient Times, Haifa, 2001.
SOUZO M.-G., Etude des monuments pondéraux de Suse, in Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse XII, 1911, pp. 1-50 (see in particular p. 31; p. 40, n. 1-2).