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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EWC3, post: 4591914, member: 93416&quot;]I have been looking at Bar Kokhba weights recently – so will post some rather tantalising ideas - in case anyone has any reaction</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are a couple of free-to-access relevant papers:</p><p><br /></p><p>Official Herod Weight: <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27925217?seq=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27925217?seq=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.jstor.org/stable/27925217?seq=1</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Bar Kokhba weight: <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27926171?seq=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27926171?seq=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.jstor.org/stable/27926171?seq=1</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Individual old weights themselves are too variable to offer a lot of confidence – but in the case of this series running through from Herod to Bar Kokhba we seem to have corroboration from Josephus that they were probably aiming at 15 Roman ounces (or 30 Roman ounces in his particular case) thus theoretically a mina of c. 408g/816g. That is quite an interesting weight – as it is a useful conversion to both Roman (15 ounces) and Attic (96 coining drachms at 4.25g) standards. Given Jewish history – it is easy enough to see how such a cross cultural conversion might be useful in Judea at that time.</p><p><br /></p><p>The oddity is that we see this matter replicated long after all over medieval Europe too. Charlemagne’s coining pound was c. 408g – dividing to 240 pennies, (which at 1.7g was half of Nero’s denarius:&nbsp; 15 oz = 120 denarii). But we find the same c. 408g pound at Stockholm and Moscow, but dividing into 96 “Viking mithcals” of 4.25g. But of course 4.25g is prior to that the weight of the Islamic dinar. For many years I thought this European conversion matter was a kind of happy coincidence – just a way for Christians and Moslems to carry out trade.</p><p><br /></p><p>Only recently I noticed two things</p><p><br /></p><p>1) as mentioned at the start – this medieval European conversion set up seem to exactly replicate what was going on 500 years earlier in Judea</p><p><br /></p><p>2) several very early Islamic texts mention a Jew called Samayr/Samair (Samir) who it was claimed devised the metrological system adopted by ‘Abd al-Malik.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now around 698 when the new Islamic weight standards were devised. Abd al-Malik was busy building the world’s oldest Great Mosque – in Jerusalem. And he was planning an assault on Constantinople. So its reasonable to think he might have been teaming up with other people who might have had a long standing grievance about Roman rule. Surely it is at least thought provoking to consider that when he fixed his dinar at 4.25g he was specifically reviving a standard from the anti-Roman Bar Kokhba revolt. A standard preserved in Jewish traditions - still understood by such as Samayr.</p><p><br /></p><p>Note that the launch of the Islamic Dinar was only the second major revaluation of the gold standard in 500 years. In 309 Constantine had melted pagan aurei, (c. 5.45g) to make his lighter Christian solidus (c. 4.54g). Then in 698 ‘Abd al-Malik melted Christian solidi to make his lighter Islamic dinar (4.25g). Religion and finance running hand in hand……..</p><p><br /></p><p>Rob T[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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