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Ancient Levantine / Judaean Rectangular Scale Weight with Notched Edges (69.00g — c. 2nd Century BC – 3rd Century AD)
Authenticity & Guarantee
Certification: Certified Authentic — includes signed Certificate of Authenticity (COA) with full provenance documentation.
Provenance: Ex-private European collection, legally acquired from international sales; Ancient Levantine / Holy Land Sphere.
Item Specifications & Exact Dimensions
Object: Cast Rectangular Trade Scale Weight with Notched / Serrated Rim Edges
Culture / Period: Ancient Levantine Sphere (Hellenistic Judaea / Phoenicia to Roman Imperial Levant)
Date Range: Circa 2nd Century BC – 3rd Century AD (c. 200 BC – 300 AD)
Mass / Exact Weight: 69.00 grams (calibrated precisely to the 6-Judaean Shekel / 2.5-Roman Unciae commercial trade standard)
Material: Heavy Cast Lead / Bronze / Dense Metallic Alloy
Form & Architecture: Heavy, flat rectangular plaque body featuring deeply notched / scalloped serrations cut systematically along the perimeter margins; flat planar upper and lower faces designed for stability on balance scales
Condition: Exceptional, 100% complete ancient condition. Solid structural core, crisp edge notches fully preserved, covered under an authentic matte greyish-tan calcareous desert burial patina. Free of modern restoration or tooling.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT & TYPOLOGICAL LORE
Levantine Notched Metrology & Anti-Clipping Security
In the ancient markets of Judaea, Phoenicia, and Roman provincial Syria, metallic weights were routinely subject to illegal tampering by unscrupulous merchants seeking to trim or shave off metal (clipping). To combat fraud, municipal foundries engineered trade weights with deeply notched or crenellated rims. If a merchant attempted to file down the edges to lighten the weight, the uniform spacing of the rim notches would be visibly distorted, alerting market inspectors (agoranomoi) immediately.
Metrological Standard (69.00g = 6 Shekels / 2.5 Unciae)
Weighing exactly 69.00 grams, this piece aligns with the canonical 6-Shekel standard (~11.4g–11.5g per unit) widely used across the Levant for bulk agricultural commodities, wool, and silver payments. Alternatively, in the Roman provincial system, it represents a precise 2.5-Unciae (Sextula/Uncia fraction) counterweight used in customs houses and harbor markets.
Typological Analysis & Exact Classification
Primary Class: Ancient Near Eastern / Levantine Metrology / Commercial Scale Weight
Sub-Class: Serrated / Notched Rim Rectangular Plaque Weight Class
Manufacturing Technique: Cast metallic plaque with cold-chiseled perimeter notches for anti-fraud validation.
Comparable Archaeological Examples & Museum Accession Numbers
Israel Museum, Jerusalem: Hellenistic / Roman period notched rectangular trade weights recovered from Holy Land market strata.
British Museum (Accession No. 1891,0509.22): Levantine rectangular scale weight with scalloped anti-clipping edges.
Rockefeller Archaeological Museum (Jerusalem): Judaean 6-shekel commercial weights with notched rim borders.
A4
