Page:Origin of metallic currency and weight standards.djvu/200

 Troy). The weight is a 3/4 obol, and therefore 30 grains went to the obol. This is the obol of the heavy Assyrian system, of which we shall presently speak. For the sake of clearness, I take M. Aurès' table.

30 grains = 1 obol. 6 obols  = 1 drachm. 2 drachms = 1 shekel. 10 drachms = 1 "stone." 60   "    = 1 light mina.

For our present purpose it is quite sufficient to call attention to the fact that this grain which forms the lowest unit of the Assyrian scale weighs ·042 gram (·95 ÷ 22·5) which is a very close approximation to the weight of the wheat-grain (·047). Making allowance for some loss which the weight may have sustained, it seems impossible to doubt that we have here the wheat-grain being used to form the smallest unit as it is in the modern Arabic system. The double obol of the Assyrians weighs 30 grains; we shall also find that the Hebrew gêrâh or obol (twenty of which made a shekel), weighed exactly 15 ''grains of wheat, that is the Hebrew gêrâh'' is the light obol which stood side by side with the heavy obol of 30 grains in the Assyrian system. Let us treat the matter from a slightly different point of view: As the light Assyrian obol contained 15 Assyrian grains, the light shekel contained 180 Assyrian grs. But as we know that this light Assyrian shekel weighed 8·4 grams, or 131 grains Troy, and as we know that the Troy grain is really the barley-corn and likewise that 3 barley-corns = 4 wheat grains, it is obvious that 131 grains Troy = 175 wheat grs. nearly, a very close approximation to the 180 Assyrian grs. Again as 180 Assyrian grs. = 8·4 grams, the Assyrian grain weighed ·046 gram, that is almost exactly the weight of a wheat grain (·047 gram).

But let us see for a moment in what fashion M. Aurès accounts for the presence of corn-grains in a system so elaborately scientific as he and his school maintain.

Starting as usual with the old assumption that all weight standards come from the measures of capacity and all measures