Even during the period when ancient advanced civilisations flourished in Mesopotamia and Egypt, standards for weights and measures used in trade were laid down and monitored by the state. What you're looking at here is an official Seleucid market weight. It's made of lead, has the form of a plaque and weighs 655 grammes or just over 23 ounces – the equivalent of one mina, an ancient Middle Eastern unit of weight.
Both sides bear inscriptions. The top shows the name of a ruler, King Seleucos the Sixth, and his bynames, Epiphanes Nicator. The anchor in the middle is a Seleucid dynastic symbol.
Official weights marked with a ruler's name were extremely rare in Hellenic times. To date, only three are known. This Seleucid mina is one of them.
The Seleucid Empire was one of the successor states that had arisen after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC. It was huge, stretching from Central Asia across Northern Syria and Mesopotamia to the Persian Gulf and the Indus River.
The underside of the weight is inscribed with the year 218 according to the Seleucid calendar. So this market weight was probably made in late 95 BC. That means the mina dates to the Seleucid Empire's final years, which were plagued by internal strife. There are some chronological uncertainties about this period. However, the weight proves that King Seleucos the Sixth was still in power in 95 BC.
Further Media
- Material & Technique
- Lead, moulded, perforated
- Museum
- Münzkabinett
- Location & Dating
- Syria, Antioch, 218 A.D. (95-94 B.C.)
- Inventory number
- 2009/1