gold was equal to 1150 of silver, 5 shekels or f^ mina. Other proposed

derivations from the kat or pek arc not satisfactory. Inactual use this unit varied greatly: at ^laucratis (29) there are groups of it at 231, 223 and others down to 208; this is the earliest form in which we can study it, and the corresponding values to these are 130 and 126, or the gold and trade varieties of the Babylonian, while the lower tail down to 208 corresponds to the shekel down to 118, which is just what is found. Hence the 224 unit seems to have been formed from the 129, after the main families or types of that had arisen. It is

scarcer at Defenneh (29) and rare at Memphis (44). Under the Ptolemies, however, it became the great unit of Egypt, and is very prominent in the later literature in consequence (18, 35). The average of coins (21) of Ptolemy I. gives 2196, and thence they gradually diminish to 210, the average (33) of the whole scries of Ptolemies being 218. The "argentcus" (as Rcvillout transcribes a sign in the papyri) (35) was of 5 shekels, or 1090; it arose about 440 B.C ., and became after 160 B.C . a weight unit for copper. In Syria, as early as the 15th century B.C ., the tribute of the Rutennu, of Naharaina, IVlegiddo, Anaukasa, &c. (34), is on a basis of 454-484 kais, or 300 shekels (^ talent) of 226 grains.

The commonest weight at

Troy (44) is the shekel, averaging 224. In coinage it is one of the commonest units in early times; from Phoenicia, round the coast to Macedonia, it is predominant (17); at a maximum of 230 (lalysus), it is in Macedonia 224, but seldom exceeds 220 elsewhere, the earliest Lydian of the 7th century being 219, and the general average of coins 218. The system was

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(1).