Intrinsic, face and metrological value: asymmetric revamping of weights value
(2018) 24th Annual Meeting of the EAA, Reflecting Futures — Location: Barcelona (5.September.2018)
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- From the Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age some weighing tools are deposited in hoards or funerary burials in all Europe. During this period, weights and scales are clearly markers of a high social status and they are generally associated to other prestigious items in graves as well as in hoards. On the contrary, very few seem to be lost or forgotten, with the exception of those found in catastrophic contexts (violent destructions, shipwreck). Sometimes, the prestige of these objects could even exceed their metrological value. This is observable around the 3rd c. BC in the Iberian Peninsula where weights are voluntary modified rather than abandoned or recycled. These transformations can be quite radical and diverse (metal removal with chisel, addition of metal by fusion or plastic deformation) with consequences more or less important on the object mass. The purpose of these operations can be metrological of course: weights could have been adjusted in order to be deliberately falsified or to match different metrological systems, in particular to match the epichoric system with the roman one. If, in some cases, we can suppose a need of metrological adaptation, some of the weights present multiples modifications that left the mass of the object unchanged. As a consequence, we cannot limit our analysis to purely metrological considerations. These observations lead to the identification of at least three values of the object: - an intrinsic value, directly linked to the scale weight itself - a metrological value, sometimes revamped sometimes not - a face value, systematically destroyed by morphological changes The aim of this paper is to investigate the purpose of these transformations and their relation to ancient and new practices at a moment of fundamental social changes.
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Delanaye, L., & Poigt, T. (2018). Intrinsic, face and metrological value: asymmetric revamping of weights value. 24th Annual Meeting of the EAA, Reflecting Futures, Barcelona. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/125501