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An official system of weights and measures was established[ citation needed ] in the ancient Persian Empire under the Achaemenid dynasty (550-350 BCE). 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. The talent was a measure of weight used for large amounts of coinage. Some related units were used in Persia in the 19th century, and are still used in contemporary Iran.
| Persian unit | Persian name | Relation to previous unit | Metric Value | Imperial Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| digit finger | انگشت (angosht) [1] | ≈ 20 mm[ citation needed ] | ≈ 0.8 in | |
| hand | dva | 5 aiwas | ≈ 100 mm[ citation needed ] | ≈ 4 in |
| foot | trayas | 3 dva | ≈ 300 mm[ citation needed ] | ≈ 1 foot |
| four-hands | remen | 4 dva | ≈ 400 mm[ citation needed ] | ≈ 16 in |
| cubit (five-hands) | pank'a dva | 5 dva | ≈ 500 mm[ citation needed ] | ≈ 20 in |
| great cubit (six-hands) | (k)swacsh dva | 6 dva | ≈ 600 mm[ citation needed ] | ≈ 2 ft |
| pace | pank'a | 5 trayas | ≈ 1.5 m [ citation needed ] | ≈ 5 ft[ citation needed ] |
| ten-foot | daca trayas | 2 pank'a | ≈ 3 m[ citation needed ] | ≈ 10 ft |
| hundred-foot | chebel | 8 daca trayas | ≈ 24 m[ citation needed ] | ≈ 80 ft |
| league, the distance a horse could walk in one hour.[ citation needed ] | parasang | 250 chebel | ≈ 6 km [ citation needed ] | ≈ 3.75 miles [ citation needed ] |
| mansion, one day's march on the Royal Road. | (Greek stathmos) | 4 or 5 parasang | ≈ 24–30 km | ≈ 14–18 miles |
| Asparsa | Asparsa [2] [3] [4] | ≈ 187–195 m and = 360 cubits |
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.
The talent was a measure of weight used for large amounts of coinage (bullion, bulk coin), rather than an individual coin. Seven Babylonian talents equalled ten Attic talents, according to a list of the revenues of Cyrus the Great (Cyrus II of Persia) recorded in Herodotus. [5] [6]
𐎣𐎼𐏁 (karša) or 𐎣𐎼𐏁𐎹𐎠 (karšayā) is a unit of weight equal to 10 Babylonian shekels or 1⁄6 Babylonian mina weighing approximately 83 g (2.9 oz). [7]
Some related units were used in Persia in the 19th century, and are still used in contemporary Iran.
The litre or liter is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). A cubic decimetre occupies a volume of 10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm and is thus equal to one-thousandth of a cubic metre.
A tablespoon is a large spoon. In many English-speaking regions, the term now refers to a large spoon used for serving; however, in some regions, it is the largest type of spoon used for eating.
Biblical and Talmudic units of measurement were used primarily by ancient Israelites and appear frequently within the Hebrew Bible as well as in later rabbinic writings, such as the Mishnah and Talmud. These units of measurement continue to be used in functions regulating Jewish contemporary life. The specificity of some of the units used and which are encompassed under these systems of measurement have given rise, in some instances, to disputes, owing to the discontinuation of their Hebrew names and their replacement by other names in modern usage.
The cubic inch is a unit of volume in the Imperial units and United States customary units systems. It is the volume of a cube with each of its three dimensions being one inch long which is equivalent to 1/231 of a US gallon.
Shekel or sheqel is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly 11 grams —and became currency in ancient Tyre and ancient Carthage and then in ancient Israel under the Maccabees.
The quart is an English unit of volume equal to a quarter of a gallon. Three kinds of quarts are currently used: the liquid quart and dry quart of the US customary system and the imperial quart of the British imperial system. All are roughly equal to one liter. It is divided into two pints or four cups. Historically, the exact size of the quart has varied with the different values of gallons over time and in reference to different commodities.
The talent was a unit of weight used in the ancient world, often used for weighing gold and silver, but also mentioned in connection with other metals, ivory, and frankincense. In Homer's poems, it is always used of gold and is thought to have been quite a small weight of about 8.5 grams (0.30 oz), approximately the same as the later gold stater coin or Persian daric.
Cyrus II of Persia, commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the First Persian Empire. Under his rule the empire embraced all of the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Western Asia and much of Central Asia. Spanning from the Mediterranean Sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, the empire created by Cyrus was the largest the world had yet seen. At its maximum extent under his successors, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of the Balkans and Southeast Europe proper in the west to the Indus Valley in the east.
The "Plan for Establishing Uniformity in the Coinage, Weights, and Measures of the United States" was a report submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives on July 13, 1790, by Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson.
The parasang is a historical Iranian unit of walking distance, the length of which varied according to terrain and speed of travel. The European equivalent is the league. In modern terms the distance is about 3 or 3½ miles.
The Attic talent, also known as the Athenian talent or Greek talent, is an ancient unit of weight equal to about 26 kilograms (57 lb), as well as a unit of value equal to this amount of pure silver. A talent was originally intended to be the mass of water required to fill an amphora, about one cubic foot (28 L).
The mina is an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight, roughly equivalent to a pound, which was divided into 60 shekels. The mina, like the shekel, was also a unit of currency.
The ancient Roman units of measurement were primarily founded on the Hellenic system, which in turn was influenced by the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian systems. The Roman units were comparatively consistent and well documented.
The earliest recorded systems of weights and measures originate in the 3rd or 4th millennium BC. Even the very earliest civilizations needed measurement for purposes of agriculture, construction and trade. Early standard units might only have applied to a single community or small region, with every area developing its own standards for lengths, areas, volumes and masses. Often such systems were closely tied to one field of use, so that volume measures used, for example, for dry grains were unrelated to those for liquids, with neither bearing any particular relationship to units of length used for measuring cloth or land. With development of manufacturing technologies, and the growing importance of trade between communities and ultimately across the Earth, standardized weights and measures became critical. Starting in the 18th century, modernized, simplified and uniform systems of weights and measures were developed, with the fundamental units defined by ever more precise methods in the science of metrology. The discovery and application of electricity was one factor motivating the development of standardized internationally applicable units.
The Battle of Opis was the last major military engagement between the Achaemenid Persian Empire and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which took place in September 539 BC, during the Persian invasion of Mesopotamia. At the time, Babylonia was the last major power in Western Asia that was not yet under Persian control. The battle was fought in or near the strategic riverside city of Opis, located north of the capital city of Babylon in modern-day Iraq, and resulted in a decisive victory for Persia. Shortly afterwards, the Babylonian city of Sippar surrendered to Persian forces, who then supposedly entered Babylon without facing any further resistance. The Persian king Cyrus the Great was subsequently proclaimed as the king of Babylonia and its subject territories, thus ending its independence and incorporating the entirety of the fallen Neo-Babylonian Empire into the greater Achaemenid Empire.
The Battle of Hyrba was the first battle between the Persians and Medians, taking place around 552 BC. It was also the first battle after the Persians had revolted. These actions were led by Cyrus the Great, as he shifted the powers of the ancient Middle East. The Persian success in the battle led to the creation of Persia's first empire and began Cyrus's decade long conquest of almost all of the known world. Though the only authority with a detailed account of the battle was Nicolaus of Damascus, other well-known historians such as Herodotus, Ctesias, and Strabo also mention the battle in their own accounts.
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire was the ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC, also known as the First Persian Empire. Based in Western Asia, it was the largest empire the world had ever seen at its time, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometres from the Balkans and Egypt in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east.
A medimnos was an Ancient Greek unit of volume, which was generally used to measure dry food grain. In Attica, it was approximately equal to 51.84 litres, although this volume was frequently subject to regional variation. For example, the Spartan medimnos was approximately equal to 71.16 litres. A medimnos could be divided into several smaller units: the tritaios, the hekteus, the hemiektos, the choinix and the kotyle
The mĕnē, also mina, is an ancient Mesopotamian unit of weight for gold or silver and one of the earliest written words for money. The mĕnē, like the shekel, was also a unit of currency. Before it was used as currency, a mene was a unit of measurement, equal to 567 grams. Terms in other Mesopotamian languages include the Hebrew māneh, Aramaic mĕnē, Syriac manyā, Ugaritic mn, and Akkadian manū. The measurement was adopted by the Ancient Greeks as the mina.
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