weight systems

Indeterminacy and approximation in Mediterranean weight systems in the third and second millennia BC

Research on weight systems used during the Bronze Age, prior to the introduction of writing,
generally assumes that the widespread use of metal as ‘commodity currency’ eventually resulted
in the adoption of widely shared systems of measurement. Many studies aimed at the identification
of recurrent weight values as multiples and/or submultiples of theoretical standard units. This
approach faces two limitations: 1) the absence of written sources, or at least statistically sound

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