Material
Copper alloy (bronze or brass)
Shape
Disc or similar (ellipse, etc.)
Metrology
Mass (g) |
Mass (grain) |
Date of measurement |
Reference |
fragmented |
cleaned |
reference weight |
82.34 |
- |
April 1, 2010 |
Kroll 2012 |
No |
No |
Yes |
82.52 |
- |
- |
Hultsch 1905 |
No |
No |
No |
Iconography
Symbol |
Technique |
Direction |
Position |
Number |
Synecdoche |
Bull / Cow / Calf |
Relief |
FACING |
|
|
Head |
Handle
No
Suspension hole
No
Recarved mould
No
Recarved weight
No
Intentionally destroyed
No
Archaeological description
Kroll 2012: The earliest surviving Corinthian market weight is the bronze weight in the collection of the Numismatic Museum of Athens illustrated in figs. 1 and 2. It is a one-fifth of a mina cast in the form of a thick disk with the head of a bull in raised relief. Around the bull’s head is inscribed in archaic Corinthian letters πενπ-ταῖ-ον. The underside is inscribed Ϙορίνθον in carefully spaced letters that encircle a slightly larger zeta in the middle. Excellently preserved, with a hard, dark green patina, the weight measures 4.0 cm in diameter and 1.3 cm in thickness (0.7 cm thickness of the disk alone). The original publication recorded its mass as 82.52 g. Reweighing in April 2010 gave a marginally lighter 82.34 g, which is only to be expected from handling in the interim. Upon acquiring the weight for the Athens collection, the director, J. N. Svoronos apparently sent a plaster cast of it to Friedrich Hultsch, who promptly published the weight in 1905 in a two-page note with photos of the cast (fig. 2). Either because the weight had been insufficiently cleaned or because the cast was made from a weak impression, the cast of the underside did not show the initial qoppa of the ethnic, and suggested that the letter in the center was an iota.