Search

Cancel
Minelab

Byzantine weight from Hippos, Israel

15 Feb 2014

5-6 cent CE Byzantine official weight of 6 metric ounces, 150 grams, inlay of silver and copper, a cross above the Golgotha in between two columns and an arch, a gamma and a sigma. The piece is of bronze, while the knob on the reverse, the gamma, sigma and the silvery dots are of silver. The cross was in silver inlay as well but now it's lead! Someone concealed the cross with some lead paste leaving the rest exposed.

Such occasion very well may have had happened during the post Byzantine period, at the Umayyad caliphate when they still did not have their own weight neither numismatic systems and used the Byzantine ones – during the 7th cent.

Nice story of one piece that tells us the local narrative of a polis.

" It was found at an amazing depth of almost 2,5 feet. I had nearly given up when the weight was finally located. It showed the detector's amazing signal penetration, as I was thrilled at the find. Only after conservation did we appreciate the importance of the find."

Return to Top

arrow_back Minelab
arrow_back Main Menu
arrow_back Minelab
arrow_back Product Filters
arrow_back Minelab
arrow_back Filters