Poids commerciaux antiques d'Athènes : étude du système métrologique athénien aux époques classique et hellénistique
(2022)
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- Authors
- Supervisors
- Doyen, Charles
- Abstract
- The Athenian lead and bronze weights, dated from the end of the Archaic period until the adoption of the Roman weight system in the 1st c. BC, form a consistent and singular whole among the ancient Greek weights. On the one hand, they form the most important corpus of ancient commercial weights preserved today, totalling more than 850 objects scattered in a few large museum collections. On the other hand, unlike the weights of other Greek cities, the symbols represented on the Athenian weights do not refer to the parasemon - the emblem - of the city but to a specific denomination. Furthermore, previous works have revealed several changes in the Athenian weighing system, which are reflected namely in the steady increase of the weight reference measurement (mina) between the 5th and 1st c. BC. However, the identification of the different Athenian weight standards, the establishment of their chronology and the understanding of the reasons behind the metrological reforms remain controversial. Our study is based on the constitution of a large corpus of Athenian commercial weights. In addition to statistical analysis, we carried out a typological and iconographic study of the material. We examined the provenance of the objects, the contexts of production and use, as well as the modalities of control and diffusion of the commercial weights. We have also studied the structure of the Athenian weight system and the accounting mechanisms that underlie its operation. Finally, we sought to determine the chronology of Athenian metrological reforms and to identify their causes and consequences, from the critical examination of archaeological and textual sources.
- Affiliations
Citations
Willocx, L. (2022). Poids commerciaux antiques d’Athènes : étude du système métrologique athénien aux époques classique et hellénistique. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/242220