Events in the Historical Development of Weights and Money
- PDF / 6,164,876 Bytes
- 12 Pages / 420.48 x 639 pts Page_size
- 68 Downloads / 186 Views
EVENTS IN THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF WEIGHTS AND MONEY H-,G.WIEDEMANN AND G. BAYER **Mettler Toledo AG, CH-8606 Greifensee, Switzerland Inst. of Crystallography, ETH Zdrich, CH-8092 ZVrich, Switzerland ABSTRACT The characteristic features and importance of weights and money in different cultures will be illustrated with examples from ancient Egypt, Babylon, Israel and China. In most of these cultures there was a gradual change of the names of weights to the names of money. The weight stones and figures were calibrated with seeds of barley or wheat in the Mediterranean and seeds of millet or rice in China. The weight of such seeds is rather constant and varies litunder different climatic conditions as could be proved from tle our own investigations. Later these granular weight units were replaced by solid weight standards (e.g. stones or figures) which again were calibrated with counted seeds. Different materials were used such as basalt, agate, bronze, lead, silver and gold. The metallic weights gradually developed into coins and were used sometimes as weight and as money like the silver Shekel. Chemical analysis with EDAX and X-ray diffraction analysis were carried out on some of these ancient also allowed materials. The use of this combination of methods to distinguish between genuine, original materials and imitations. INTRODUCTION This paper refers to the ancient times when the measuring systems were developed. The starting point must have been the linear measuring system. Later on this was extended to the square and cubic measures from which the dry and liquid measures were developed. Finally the more universal system of balance and weights was introduced and the procedure of weighing was created. Initially specific quantities of grains of cereals were used as weight. Later, stone weights (e.g. of granite, hematite, etc.) in the shape of grains or loaves of bread and in the form of animals were used. with the knowledge of producing bronze, Based on these, the weight stones changed from stone to metal. units of weights were derived with specific designations which were used later on also for the names of coins and money. Historically, Egypt was classified as a country without a monetary system. Materials and wares were exchanged according to their value. In the old Egyptian language [1] one finds the phrase "paying". The words "paying" and "payment" were in common use already in the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms as is well-documented. The Abusir papyri [2], known as the oldest inscribed documents in Egypt (5./6. Dynasty, 2465-2150, Old Kingdom), mention the payment of the monks according to their service per day in the temple. About 1000 years later a workmen's village, Der el Medineh [3,4), was founded by Amenophis I. in Thebes, upper Mat. Res. Soc. Symp. Proc. Vol. 185. '1991 Materials Research Society
742
Barley Prices In Copper Deben 19J20. Dynasty / Rarnesldlc Era
Equivalence of Deben 1 gold Deben 2.5 silver Deben 200 copper Deben
Pharaohs (Year of Regency) Ramnses 1I 36.)
Salaries / month
Merenpt
Data Loading...
