Technikatörténeti szemle 10. (1978)

A MÉRÉS ÉS A MÉRTÉKEK AZ EMBER MŰVELŐDÉSÉBEN című konferencián Budapesten, 1976. április 27–30-án elhangzott előadások II. - Powell, M. A.: A mezopotámiai súlymértéktan modern szemszögből

cisely what norm the weightmaker was trying to incorporate, for, in fact, the vast majority of all Babylonian weights that have survived in good condition are specimens incorporating a mass of 8.4 grams or less. However, this data is of great significance for assessing the role of measurement in Babylonian civilization. Taken by themselves and torn out of their context, these little hematite weights are simply mute evidence of the attempt of the Babylonians to measure small units of mass. And the units of mass were small indeed, for the smallest unit yet discovered weighs 0.2923 grams, and there were certainly others incorporating units of mass as small as 23 milligrams, but all of these have been missed by archaeologists up to the present time because of their minute size. However, analysis of the small weights also tells us something important about the level of Babylonian technology. From the total evidence, it emerges that the Babylonians found little difficulty in measuring large units of mass, even up to as much as 60 kilograms and more, but the problem of measuring minute units of mass with accuracy lay beyond their technological abilities. The fact that tiny units of mass could not be measured with accuracy also played a significant role in defining the mechanism whereby the exchange of goods took place. The first metallic standard of value that emerges in Babylonia is copper, attested in documents from around 2500 BC, or perhaps a little earlier. By 2400 BC, silver has virtually replaced copper as a standard of value, and along with the appearance of silver, the fine units of mass also make their appearance. Nevertheless, the value of silver in relation to the commodities exchanged remained high throughout Babylonian history, and the wages of a worker for 30 days rarely ever exceeded one shekel of silver (8.4 grams). Thus, the daily wage would amount to no more than 0.279 grams. Given the inaccuracies of weighing, silver tended to change hands less frequently than the actual commodities themselves. It is obvious that the imprecision in weighing opened the door to all kinds of fraud, and the fact that such frauds were committed is indicated by laws prescribing punishment for the use of false weights and incantations designed to purify a person guilty of this crime. The Babylonian economy, therefore, remained, at least until the mid-first millennium BC, an economy in which silver functioned as an index of value rather than as the basic means of exchange, and it is not until after copper and bronze coins are introduced that a real money economy emerges in the ancient world as a whole. * * For documentation I refer the reader to my Sumerian Numeration and Metrology, Diss. Univ of Minnesota, 1972, which I plan to publish in the near future.