When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Ancient Judaean / Phoenician Bronze Rectangular Bar Weight (8.73g — c. 8th–4th Century BC)
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 Bronze Rectangular Bar / Plaque Scale Weight (Shekel / Siglos Standard)
Culture / Period: Ancient Levantine Sphere (Iron Age II to Persian / Hellenistic Judaea & Phoenicia)
Date Range: Circa 8th Century BC – 4th Century BC (c. 800 BC – 300 BC)
Mass / Exact Weight: 8.73 grams (calibrated precisely to the 1-Siglos / Levantine Temple trade standard)
Material: Cast Bronze (Copper Alloy)
Form & Architecture: Dense, cast rectangular bronze brick/bar form with crisp straight edges and flat faces; engineered for precision balance scales in ancient temple treasuries and maritime trade ports
Condition: Exceptional, 100% complete ancient condition. Intact rectangular geometry, solid structural core, preserved under a thick, authentic pale -white to sandy-tan calcareous burial encrustation over a dark bronze matrix. Free of modern restoration or tooling.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT & TYPOLOGICAL LORE
Levantine Metrology & Temple Trade Standards
Across the maritime ports of Phoenicia (Tyre, Sidon, Byblos) and the hill country of First and Second Temple period Judaea, cast bronze weights were indispensable tools for merchants, money changers, and temple treasurers. Before standardized state coinage became widespread across the Levant, transactions were conducted by weighing out weighed silver bullion (hacksilber), gold, and precious trade goods against verified metallic weights on balance scales.
The 8.73g Siglos / Shekel Standard
Weighing 8.73 grams, this weight aligns directly with the canonical Persian Siglos / Levantine Shekel standard (~8.35g–8.75g) that dominated Holy Land commerce during the Achaemenid and Late Iron Age eras. Rectangular bar weights of this specific mass were utilized in temple marketplaces to measure official silver dues, agricultural tithes, and international trade commodities passing between Phoenician ports and Levantine inland trade hubs.
Typological Analysis & Exact Classification
Primary Class: Ancient Levantine Metrology / Commercial Scale Weight
Sub-Class: Rectangular Cast Bronze Bar / Brick Weight Class
Manufacturing Technique: Cast copper alloy rectangular bar with hand-finished metrological calibration.
Comparable Archaeological Examples & Museum Accession Numbers
Israel Museum, Jerusalem: Iron Age II / Persian Period bronze bar weights recovered from Judaean market contexts.
British Museum (Accession No. 1891,0509.14): Phoenician / Levantine bronze rectangular trade weight.
Rockefeller Archaeological Museum (Jerusalem): Rectangular bronze scale weights from ancient Holy Land strata.
1-4
