The Weight Standards of the Hellenistic Levant, Part One — The Evidence of the Syrian Scale Weights

Abstract

This is the first of three planned articles presenting most of the known inscribed lead scale
weights from the Hellenistic Levant. The standards and units on which they were based are
deduced from their weighed masses, from the values that are inscribed on these weights or
according to values on parallel weights from the same or very similar classes. In a fourth
article, the origins of the standards, the relations between them and the evolution of some of
them will be discussed, as well as suggestions for some historical conclusions.