Description

The second volume of the CPAI Project presents the weights kept in the Department of Metal Objects of Istanbul Archaeological Museums covering a time span from the fourth century BC through the end of the Ottoman Empire. Of the 455 weights presented in the catalogue some were purchased or confiscated while some others were registered as excavation finds: 111 of the weights belong to the period of fourth century BC through the end of the Roman Empire; 196 date to the Byzantine period while 148 belong to the Seljuk and Ottoman periods. Among the examples of the Classical period only few are dated to the fourth century but most to the Hellenistic period and weights from Athens, Lysimachea, Byzantium, Cyzicus, Cyme and Miletus are the most interesting ones. Weights of double-truncated spheroid shape from the Roman Imperial period are quite numerous in the catalogue. Byzantine weights are presented under two headings as "coin weights" (nomisma and multiples) and "commercial weights" (litra, uncia). Islamic weights in the catalogue vary from 400-dirham to 1-dirham and have a variety of forms.