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III.—Had the People of Pre-historic Mycenae a Weight Standard?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Extract

In a former paper in this Journal (Vol. viii.) it was maintained that the Greeks had a weight standard long before the introduction of coined money from Asia, the unit of which was the same as the Attic-Euboic system (130—135 grains Troy) of historical times, and that in the Homeric poems the gold Talanton and cow represented the same value, the unit of metal being adjusted to the more primitive unit of barter. The evidence then adduced was of a purely literary nature, as it was not in my power to appeal to any actually existing weights. I have since obtained some data of a concrete kind which, I think, lends some support to my former contention.

Dr. Schliemann (Mycenae and Tiryns, p. 354) found (in the tomb south of the Agora at Mycenae) ‘four spirals of thick quadrangular, and seven spirals of thick round gold wire, five plain gold rings, and a similar one of silver, of which a selection is represented under No. 529. ‘I remind (adds Dr. Schliemann) the reader that similar spirals and rings of thick gold wire occur in the wall paintings of the Egyptian tombs. They are supposed to have served as presents, or perhaps as a medium of exchange.’ These rings are now at Athens, and my friend Mr. E. A. Gardner of Gonville and Caius College, the Director of the British School at Athens, has kindly procured for me their weights. Before going further I wish it to be clearly understood that I do not assume the rings to be what is called ring-money, but I think that I am justified in assuming that they are ornaments probably made on a given weight.

Type
Metrological Notes
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1889

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References

page 90 note 1 I wish likewise to express my gratitude to M. Kumanudes for his kindness in giving Mr. Gardner every facility for weighing the rings.