Efter Dilmun norm
Authors: Bibby T. G. 
Published: February 2022

»…according to the standard of Dilmun.«When Peter Vilhelm Glob, in March 1954, first dug his spade into the tell of Qala'at al-Bahrain, just across the moat from the fort which marked the Portuguese occupation of Bahrain, he knew that he was digging into what he later described as the »ancient capital of Bahrain«, and already at that time suspected that the mound would prove to cover one of the major cities of Dilmun.Since then, eleven seasons of work on the tell of Qala'at al-Bahrain have amply confirmed his expectations. We now know that, at the time of the third temple of Barbar, which is dated elsewhere in this issue (1) to the centuries around 2000 B.C., a large walled city stood on this site. The wall has been traced on three sides of the the tell, and proves that the area of the city was large by any standard of the period, something between 35 and 40 acres.While traces of the occupation of this period, at the end of the Third and the beginning of the Second Millennium B.C., have been met with at various points in the centre and at the perimeter of the city, the major remains of this period have been found immediately within the north wall of the city, where an area about 15 metres in width lying immediately within (i. e. to the south of) over 50 metres of the north wall has been excavated, in most cases down to bedrock (2). At one point in this area a gate has been found through the wall (3). Immediately within this city gate lay a small square, with a well and a cement-lined trough in the centre. On either side of the square lay a small building, each of two rooms. From these buildings came an unusually large number - twelve - of the steatite stamp seals of Dilmun, and in addition six stone weights. It is the implications of these weights (and of a seventh which had previously been found in the same excavation some 20 metres away) which form the subject of this paper.The seven weights fall into two groups by shape, three being rectangular and four spherical with two flattened sides. The rectangular weights consist of:I. 520.AOI, a tiny cube of steatite, weighing 1.8 grams.II. 520.AMT, a half-cube, also of steatite, weighing 13.5 grams.III. 520.TH, the weight found outside the immediate area, a cube of polished chert weighing 27 grams.The spherical weights comprise: -IV. 520.ANA, of black steatite, weighing 13.9 grams.V. 520.ALV, of fine-grained limestone, weighing 171 grams.VI. 520.ANG, of a close-grained red stone resembling marble, weighing 670 grams.VII. 520.ALM, of a yellow striated marble-like stone, weighing 1370 grams.The weights fall into a clear sequence of (in the above order) 1 : 8 : 16 : 8 : 100 : 400 and 800 times a basic weight of 1.7 grams, the variations from this scale not exceeding some 2%.There can be no doubt as to the system to which these weights belong. Both in shape and in weight they agree completely with the weights found in the cities of the Harappa civilization. An analysis of these weights is given by A. S. Hemmy in Chapter XXIX of J. Marshall, Mohenjo-daro and the lndus Civilization and Chapter XVII of J. H. Mackay, Further Excavations at Mohenjo-daro (4). In the latter volume an analysis is given of 297 weights discovered at Mohenjo-daro and 34 weights discovered at Harappa. The larger number of weights here dealt with allows of a greater exactitude in determination of the basic weight involved, which is there calculated to 1.714 grams.A comparison of the seven weights from Bahrain and the much larger number from the Indus valley produces the following points, which must be regarded as of limited significance owing to the statistically unsatisfactory total number of Bahrain weights yet found: -1. Steatite seems to be a more common material for weights in Bahrain than in the Indus valley, only 8 of 331 Indus weights being recorded as of steatite.2. The slight preponderance of spherical weights in Bahrain is in marked contrast to the situation in the Indus valley, where only 14 weights of this shape are recorded, as against 262 of the cubical type and 9 of other types.3. Weight no. VI, of 670 grams (ideally 685.6 grams), does not occur in the lndus­valley lists, but is, of course, a natural term in the series.The identification of these seven weights within a limited area at Qala'at al­Bahrain led to an examination of a further score of unnaturally shaped or unnaturally polished stones found in the course of exavation on the whole tell. This examination produced, however, no other probable weights within this or any other sequence.The conclusion therefore seems inescapable, that the »Early Dilmun« Culture of Bahrain employed the same system of weights as the Harappan Culture of the Indus valley, and that weighing activities were particularly common in the area just within the north gate of the city at Qala'at al-Bahrain, and especially in the building to the west of the square adjacent to that gate.It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the use of this weight system in Bahrain must point either to the first mercantile contacts with Bahrain having come from the Indus valley, or to the Harappan Culture having been the most important commercial connection of the merchants of Bahrain -more important than their Mesopotamian customers.In this connection much enjoyment can be derived from an analysis of a most interesting document excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley at Ur and published in Ur Excavations, Texts volume V (tablet 796) (5). This tablet deals with the disposal in Ur of a cargo of copper brought to Ur from Dilmun, and in it the greater part of the quantities involved is expressed in weights both »according to the standard of Ur« and »according to the standard of Dilmun«.The tablet is given in transliteration and translation by W. F. Leemans in Foreign Trade in the Old Babylonian Period (6) as follows: -16. UET V 796.13 li-im 1 me-[at + x u ru d u] 13100 [+ x (?) minas of copper] ac­n a4 [T i I m u n k i] cording to the standard [of Tilmun],ša i-na T i I m u n k i [ ] which at Tilmun [X]šu – ba - an – [ti] has received.5 ŠÁ - bi - ta 5 li-im 5 me-at From it 5502 (+x] ⅔ minas of copper[x+2] ⅔ ma - na u r u d un a4 T i I m u n k i according to the standard of Tilmunid-di-nu-ni-a-ši-im they had given to us.k i - l a l -b i n a4 U r i m k i - m a lts weight is according to the standardof Urš u -n i g i n 6 1 1 g ú n 6⅔ ma- totally 611 talents 6⅔ minas of copper n a u r u d u 10 ŠÁ - bi - ta 4 š u - š i 5 g ú n 54⅓ From it: 245 talents 54⅓ minas of m a - n a u ru d u copperša A-la-x which Ala ...id-di-na-an-ni-a-ši-im has given to us,4 li-mi 2 me-at 71½ m a - n a 4271½ minas of copper u r u d uhi-bi-il5-ti É-a-na-ṣir owed by Ea-nᾱṣir,15 3 me-at 25 ma - n a u r u d u hi- 325 minas of copper owed bi-il-timNa-u̯i-ru-um-ὶ-lί by Nau̯irum-ili,u̯a-ar-ki-tum ša il-LI-KU-ú remainder which .... ;s̆ u - n i g i n 450 g ú n 2⅓ m a - together 450 talents 2⅓ minas of copper n a u r u d u n a4 U r i mki according to the standard of Urs̆a id-di-nam which he has given.20 s i - NI.ÍB 161 g ú n 4[ ⅓ m a - n a Remainder: 161 talents 4⅓ minas of u r u d u] copper.With this tablet in our hands it is tempting to try to work out what the standard weights of Dilmun were in relation to the standard weights of Ur. And we can go on (assuming that the »standard of Ur« was the »Light Babylonian System« given by A. S. Hemmy (4)) to attempt to discover the actual weight in grams of the standard Dilmun mina. The relevent factors of the Light Babylonian Standard as there given are, that a talent consists of 60 minas, and that an Ur mina weighs 504 grams.From the tablet given above three equations can be derived: -(i) 13100 (+ x) minas (Dilmun) (line 1) = 611 talents 6⅔ minas (Ur) (line 9). As x cannot be less than ⅓ mina nor more than 99⅔ minas, and reducing the Ur weights to minas, we get13,100⅓-13,199⅔ minas (Dilmun) = 36,666⅔ minas (Ur)therefore 1 mina (Dilmun) = 2.778-2.799 minas (Ur) = 1400.0-1410.7 grams.(ii) 5502 (+ x) ⅔ minas (Dilmun (line 5) = 245 talents 54⅓ minas (Ur) (line 10). As x must here be one of the multiples of 10 from 10 to 90, and again reducing the Ur weights, we get5512⅔-5592⅔ minas (Dilmun) = 14,754⅓ minas (Ur)therefore 1 mina (Dilmun) = 2.638-2.676 minas (Ur) = 1329.6-1348.9 grams.(iii) 245 talents 54⅓ minas (Ur) (line 10) + 4271½ minas (Dilmun) (line 13) + 325 minas (Dilmun) (line 15) = 450 talents 2⅓ minas (Ur) (line 18); therefore 4271½ + 325 minas (Dilmun) = 450 talents 2⅓ minas - 245 talents54⅓ minas (Ur); therefore 4596½ minas (Dilmun) = 204 talents 8 minas (Ur) = 12,248 minas (Ur), therefore 1 mina (Dilmun) = 2.665 minas (Ur) = 1343.0 grams.There is an odd discrepancy here. While equations (ii) and (iii) give reasonably identical results - the actual value of the Dilmun mina in (iii) falling within the possible range of (ii) - equation (i) gives a considerably higher result. The mystery is made more fascinating when it is realized that the mean of the results of equations (i) and (iii) gives the result1 mina (Dilmun) = 2.721-2.732 minas (Ur) = 1371.5-1376.8 grams.For the value in grams of the Dilmun mina is now seen to be the weight of the largest weight found at Qala'at al-Bahrain (to within at most 0.5%) and to be almost exactly on the Indus scale. If we could justify taking this mean between equations (i) and (iii) we would have proved beyond reasonable doubt that the »standard of Dilmun« was the »standard of Harappa«. It is, I think, possible to do so.Returning to the tablet we see that the quantities given in equation (i) are the quantities purchased by the importer at Dilmun; those given in equations (ii) and (iii) are quantities sold to recipients at Ur. It seems more than likely that we have here a deliberate discrepancy between buying and selling prices, a »brokerage« or commission charged by the agent. The buying and selling exchange rates of the mina vary by about 2% on either side of the »true« exchange rate of the Harappan/Dilmun mina (2.719 minas (Ur) = 1370.4 grams). If the agent weighed in his copper in Dilmun at the rate shown in equation (i), and weighed it out again in Ur at the rate shown in equation (iii) he would be left with 4% of the cargo as his payment for his services, and this amount would have been contributed equally by the buyer and the seller. He did not, of course, reckon in percentages, which is a notion alien to the Babylonian numerical system. What he did apparently, was to round up and down respectively the cumbersome exchange rate of 2.719 Ur minas to the Dilmun mina. In buying he probably reckoned at a flat 2⅘ Ur minas to the Dilmun mina, and in selling at a flat 2⅔.That the broker »shaded« the weights in his own favour both when buying and selling should not be regarded as dishonesty, any more than when a bank today operates with different exchange rates when buying and when selling foreign currency. It should be remembered that the concept of money did not exist four thousand years ago, and that for all its sophistication trade was essentially barter. Where a middleman passing on a single commodity would today make his profit by varying the money price of the commodity he could then only do so by manipulating the weighing system.The arithmetical and philological demonstration, by way of the Ur tablet, that Dilmun employed the Harappan system of weights, agrees completely with the archaological evidence in the finding of weights of the Harappan system in the Early Dilmun city on Bahrain. Only a single reservation needs to be made. The cargo of copper recorded in tablet 796 weighed 18½ metric tons; it was clearly not weighed out with the set of 1 mina, ½ mina, ⅛ mina and less weights found in and around the harbour office within the north gate at Qala'at al-Bahrain. Other and smaller things, too, must have passed the gate on their way to and from the ships of the Dilmun merchants beached along the shore.But the picture of the trading activities of P. V. Glob's »ancient capital of Bah­rain« is not diminished thereby. Rather the reverse.Geoffrey Bibby.