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The weights of Darius’s empire, from the shekel to the talent. Part of the Ancient Measures collection.
Every unit converts through grams: shekel = 8.33 g (the daric norm), karsha = 10 shekels, mina = 60 shekels, talent = 60 minae. Worked example: the 14,560 Babylonian talents of annual tribute Herodotus totals (3.95) = 14,560 × 30.25 ≈ 440,440 kg of silver — before India’s gold dust. Surviving inscribed weights confirm the shekel at 8.2–8.4 g; the converter uses the daric standard of 8.33 g.
About 8.4 g of gold, ~96% pure — one shekel’s weight. Twenty silver sigloi went to a daric; it was the dollar of the ancient Near East for two centuries.
10 shekels, about 83 g. The word is stamped on surviving Achaemenid bronze weights — the British Museum’s ‘2 karsha’ lion-weight (no. 91117) still weighs 166.7 g.
He converts: ‘seven Babylonian talents equal ten Euboic [Attic] talents’ (3.89). The empire taxed in Babylonian weight; Greeks read the accounts in Attic — the ancient world’s first exchange rate.
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