[German version] Properly Mene-tekel-ufarsin, a cryptic Aramaic inscription in the literary context of Dan 5:25-28 (within an Aramaic apocalypse in Dan 2-7), written by a supernatural hand on the wall of the palace during a banquet given by Belsazar, the heir to the Babylonian throne. The elements of this writing have been interpreted as cuneiform signs for weights (Neo-Babylonian manû‘mina’, šiqlu‘shekel’; mišlu/ zūzu‘half’/‘to share’), or as Aramaic terms in cuneiform script, in the order mina, shekel, half-shekel. Daniel interpreted the writing as a play on the words manû ‘to c…

Kyrieleis, Helmut (Berlin RWG) [German version] A. General (CT) The Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI) is one of the oldest German research institutions and is currently the most important establishment in Germany in the field of international archaeological research. Its origins go back to 1829. The DAI is a scholarly corporation with its own charter; it is under the authority of the Foreign Office, and has its head office in Berlin. The focus of its activity lies on the Mediterranean region and the Near East. Kyrieleis, Helmut (Berlin RWG) [German version] B. Structure and Or…

[German version] [1] Unit of weight and coinage The mina (μνᾶ/ mná), with its multiples and divisions, was the most common Greek unit of weight alongside the stater. It was set on the one hand by the theoretical weight of the drachma coin minted in the city concerned, and on the other hand by the number of Drachmai which equated to a mina. The view long current in research that every mina weighed 100 drachmai, has been refuted. On Aegina, the mina (coin and weight) amounted to 70 drachmai (70×6.237 g = 436.6 g); the Corinthian mina was probably commensurate to it, equating to 150 drachmai (150×2.91…

[German version] (λύτρον/ lýtron, mostly used in the plural λύτρα/ lýtra). The ransom for prisoners of war was called lytron in Greek (similarly: ἄποινα/ ápoina). The expression was also used for buying the freedom of victims of piracy. Buying the freedom of prisoners was, alongside exchanging prisoners, enslaving or killing, a common practice in Greek warfare from Homeric (Hom. Il. 6,425ff.; 11,106) to Hellenistic times. According to Ducrey [1], selling into slavery was, of course, more common than buying a person's f…

[German version] (τάλαντον/ tálanton; Latin talentum). The talent was the biggest Greek unit of measurement for the monetary system and for commercial weights. Thus, the word tálanton was used in the Greek Bible translation as a synonym for the highest weight level of the Hebrew text (Hebrew kikkar, cf. 2 Sam 12,30; 1 Kings 9,14; 9,28 et alibi; cf. Mt 25,14-30), without any connection to its actual weight. A talent was always worth 60 minai ( mína [1]) regardless of their weight. The silver coin-talents from Aegina, Euboea, Attica and probably Corinth, too, consistently…

[German version] (Greek σίγλος/ síglos, σίκλος/ síklos, or neuter σίκλον/ síklon; Latin siclus, sicel, from Akkadian šiqlu = shekel, Hebrew לקש). Ancient oriental weight, 1/60 of a light or heavy mina [1], or 1/50 of a mina among Jews (Ez 45,12) and Greeks, where 1 mina was the equivalent of 100 drachmai. As a coin standard, siglos was the name of various silver coins. The autonomous large silver coins of the Phoenician cities were sigloi as tetradrachms (Tetradrachmon), e.g. in Sidon (units of coins from 2 down to 1/64 siglos) and Tyre (units of coins from 1 down to 1/24 siglos), which were m…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient and Egypt As early as the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC metals (copper and silver, later also tin and gold) fulfilled monetary functions as a medium of exchange, a means of payment for religious, legal or other liabilities, a measure of value and a means of storing wealth. Until the 1st millennium fungible goods, primarily corn, also served as a medium of exchange and measure of value. Economies in the Near East and Egypt were characterised by subsistence production, self-sufficient palace and oîkos economies. The need for goods or services w…

Relates to the systems of weights upon which ancient coinage was based. [German version] A. Greece In the Greek coinage system ( Money;  Minting), there were various standards; however, the designations of the nominal values and  weights were uniform and usually had the following ratios: 1  talent = 60 minai, 1  mina = 50 staters, 1  stater = 2 drachmas, 1  drachma = 6  oboloi [1. 159]. The determination of ancient standards of coinage is based on the average weight of the largest possible number of well-preser…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient In Mesopotamia and its neighbouring regions, weights were made of stone (primarily haematite [Haematite], or else limestone and others) or metal (bronze, copper), often in the form of a barleycorn or a loaf, or figuratively as a duck (3rd to 1st millennia), and in Assyria from the 1st millennium also as a lion. Weights could be inscribed with a numerical value with or without indicating the unit, as well as with an inscription of a ruler, an institution, or an offic…

[German version] Named after his geometric krater, formerly in the Cesnola collection (h. 114.9 cm with lid, from Kourion/Cyprus, now in New York, MMA, Inv. 74. 51. 965;  Geometric pottery). The work of the anonymous vase painter combines motifs from the Middle East with those from mainland Greece and the Greek islands. In the past, both the unusual form of the eponymous krater and the combination of decorative motifs led to discussion as to its date and origin, but these are now confirmed by ana…

(Τρίπολις/ Trípolis; literally, 'triple city'). [German version] [1] Perrhaebic T. The three cities of Azorus, Doliche and Pythium [2] in the small valley south of the Titarus and west of the Olympus [1] were referred to as the 'Perrhaebic T.' The locations of the cities are attested archaeologically, some in inscriptions as well. Up to the 3rd cent. BC, the T. belonged to the Macedonian Elimiotis, then to the alliance of the Perrhaebi and therefore to Thessalia. Literary documentation of T. exists only for the 3rd Macedonian War in 171 BC (Liv. 42,53,6; 42,67,7). Kramolisch, Herwig (Epp…

Rendtel, Constanze [German version] A. Subject Area (CT) Pilgrimage is common to all great civilizations and appears to be among the anthropological constants. It stems from a desire for contact with the numinous and the idea that certain sites can convey a blessing. People hope that by visiting such a site they might be helped in times of illness or other distress, or obtain advice on difficult decisions (oracle). A pilgrimage is based on religious motives and remains distinct from other reasons for tr…

[German version] Although ἐμπόριον ( empórion, Lat. emporium) could originally be translated by ‘port/trading centre’, there arise a variety of problems of definition because of the changing meaning in antiquity due to regional differences and historical developments, and this caused the term to become a reflection of economic and cultural structures. Consequently, in modern research emporion is neither used as a topographical term, or as a distinct form of settlement, nor as a well-defined economic institution, but only to cover some fundamental, distinctive features: 1. An empo…

[German version] (δαρεικός, δαρικός, δαριχός, dareikós, darikós, darichós). Greek name, deriving from Darius I, (Hdt. 4,166; 7,28f.; Thuc. 8,28) for the generally bean-shaped gold coins (στατήρ, statḗr) of the Great King of Persia. The occasionally used terms dareikoi Philippeioi and argypoi dareikoi are incorrect. The first coins, minted in c. 515 BC and the same weight as the kroiseios ( c. 8.05g), which did not replace the latter until 30 years after the fall of the Lydian Empire, show a symbolic representation of the Persian king on the obverse ─ kne…

A&A Antike und Abendland A&R Atene e Roma AA Archäologischer Anzeiger AAA Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology AAAlg S. Gsell, Atlas archéologique de l'Algérie. Édition spéciale des cartes au 200.000 du Service Géographique de l' Armée, 1911, repr. 1973 AAHG Anzeiger für die Altertumswissenschaften, publication of the Österreichische Humanistische Gesellschaft AArch Acta archeologica AASO The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research AATun 050 E. Babelon, R. Cagnat, S. Reinach (ed.), Atlas archéologique de la Tunisie (1:50.000), 1893 AATun 100 R. Cagnat, A. Merlin (…

[German version] I. Name Strabo was the first to refer to the peninsula of Asia Minor (AM) west of the  Taurus (Str. 2,5,24; 12,1,3; cf. Plin. HN 5,27f.; Ptol. 5,2) as a single unit by the name of Asia in the narrower sense, as opposed to the continent of Asia. The term of Asia minor in this sense is first used in Oros. 1,2,26 (early 5th cent. AD). Olshausen, Eckart (Stuttgart) [German version] II. Geography AM is the westernmost part of the Asian continent between 36° and 42° northern latitude, and 26° and 44° eastern longitude, stretching from the Aegean to the Euphrates ( c. 1,200 km), and fro…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Ḫattusa | Mesopotamia | Aegean Koine ( Ras Šamra) is the name of an ancient city on the Syrian coast (11 km north-east of al-Lāḏiqīya), which was discovered in 1928. U. was continuously inhabited from c. 6500 to c. 1180 BC. The strategically advantageous position at the intersection of trade routes from the north (Asia Minor) to the south (Palaestina, Egypt) and from west (Cyprus, Mediterranean world) to east (Mesopotamia) facilitated the growth of U. into a significant commercia…

[German version] [1] Unit of weight (also pondus, ‘pound’, metonymic ‘what has been weighted’; Greek equivalent: λίτρα/ lítra). Terminus technicus for the unit of weight of 327,45 g of the Roman measuring system; a libra corresponds to the as , which in the duodecimal system was divided into 12 unciae of 27,28g [2. 706 fig. XIII]. The standard very likely remained unchanged until early Byzantine times, as evidenced by weighing coins of precious metals and silver implements. [3. 222]. As weights, we find librae of bronze and of lead, also of stone. They are to be differentiated…

[German version] I. Ancient Middle Eastern origins The early Semitic alphabet seems to have developed in parallel lines from various early stages of the proto-Canaanite language: ancient Hebrew (Gezer, Lachic, Shechem, Izbet Ṣarṭah in Palestine 17th-12th cents. BC) and proto-Sinaitic (Serabit el-Ḫadem c. 15th cent. BC). As its counterpart, cuneiform scripts from Ugarit (14th-13th cents. BC), Bet Shemesh/Palestine, Tell Nebi Mend/Syria and Sarepta/Phoenicia (13th-12th cents. BC) have also been found. The alphabet from these scripts ranged from between 27 and 30 characters. T…

[German version] I. Ancient Orient Measures of volume were used to measure liquids and especially grain and other bulk solids (dates, etc.). Therefore, they were employed in the administration of grain, including the issuing of rations. According to cuneiform sources, ordinary measuring vessels (especially the sea) were made of wood. Special measures for liquids can only be identified locally with a standard ‘vessel’ usually containing 20 or 30 litres. Despite all temporal and local differences, a relatively constant absolute size of the small unit (Sumerian sìla, Akkadian qû = c.…