Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Shekel came into the English language via the Hebrew Bible, where it is first used in Genesis 23. The term "shekel" has been used for a unit of weight, around 9.6 or 9.8 grams (0.31 or 0.32 ozt), used in Bronze Age Europe for balance weights and fragments of bronze that may have served as money. [2]
The Babylonian system, which the Israelites followed, measured weight with units of the talent, mina, shekel (Hebrew: שקל), and giru, related to one another as follows: 1 shekel = 24 giru; 1 mina = 60 shekels (later 100 zuz) 1 talent = 60 mina
The shekel and mina ("profane" or "sacred") were units of both weight and volume. A shekel or mina weight was equal to the weight of that volume of water. Note that the values given for the mina do not match the definitions. 1 shekel = 8.3 ml (approximately 1 cubic aiwas). 1 profane mina = 50 shekel = 500 ml (approximately 27 cubic aiwas).
Ancient Mesopotamian units of measurement originated in the loosely organized city-states of Early Dynastic Sumer. Each city , kingdom and trade guild had its own standards until the formation of the Akkadian Empire when Sargon of Akkad issued a common standard.
From earliest Sumerian times, a mina was a unit of weight. At first, talents and shekels had not yet been introduced. By the time of Ur-Nammu (shortly before 2000 BCE), the mina had a value of 1 ⁄ 60 talent as well as 60 shekels. The weight of this mina is calculated at 1.25 pounds (0.57 kg), or 570 grams of silver (18 troy ounces). [1] [2]
Pim weights were polished stones about 15 mm (5/8 inch) diameter, equal to about two-thirds of a Hebrew shekel.Many specimens have been found since their initial discovery early in the 20th century, and each one weighs about 7.6 grams, compared to 11.5 grams of a shekel.
A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly 11 grams (0.39 oz)—and became currency in ancient Tyre and ancient Carthage, and then in ancient Israel under the Maccabees. Subcategories This category has only the following subcategory.
An Attic weight talent was about 25.8 kilograms (57 lb). Friedrich Hultsch estimated a weight of 26.2 kg, [25] and Dewald (1998) offers an estimate of 26.0 kg. [26] An Attic talent of silver was the value of nine man-years of skilled work, according to known wage rates from 377 BC. [27]