Il sovrano e la bilancia. Valenze ideologiche e significati metrologici dei pesi reali nella Mesopotamia del III millennio a.C.

Mesopotamian cuneiform sources attest the main metrological units (shekel, mina and talent) from 2600 BC onwards, and therefore balances and weights were certainly used at that time, although the earliest balance set of weights in a well-dated context come from the Royal Palace G of Ebla, in North Inner Syria, and the first inscribed Mesopotamian royal weight is dated to the reign of Uruinimgina of Lagash, both dating to the XXIV cent. BC. The latter indicates that weights bearing royal inscriptions and often dedicated to deities were conceived as official standard metrological instrument verified and guaranteed by the palatial administration. A very peculiar type of weight introduced in Lower Mesopotamia during the ED Period, and widespread also in the Levant and in Assyria, is the duck-shaped weight. It is carved in the shape of a duck (or a goose) with the head turned to rest along its back. The type, more or less schematic, is attested with hundreds of specimens, until the Persian Period. Several examples are inscribed and especially during the III Dynasty of Ur many royal weights are duck-shaped, probably reflecting a deliberate choice of the public administration. Is not a case that the heaviest inscribed weight (a double talent of 60 kg) discovered in the Near East is duck-shaped and it bears a royal inscription of Ur-Ningirsu, ensi of Lagash (end of the III Mill. BC). The article analyzes the royal weights dating to the Early Bronze Age (2600-2000 BC) and especially the series of official weights used by the rulers of the III dynasty of Ur, discovered at Ur and Lagash. Their inscriptions can be interpreted as the tentative made by the royal authority to establish fixed values to be adopted as standard of reference, as also stated in the code of law of Ur-Namm