pass by weight alone. If then the value of a cow formed the first gold unit, we can at once understand why the first weights took the form of oxen and sheep.
It was not for mere artistic reasons, for whilst such animal weights appear on Egyptian paintings, the numerous known Egyptian weights are of a very conventional form, as we shall find below. Doubtless the horns and ears made a cow’s head exceedingly ill-suited for a weight, and in course of time utility prevailed over the traditional idea that the weight unit ought to take the shape of the animal, whose value in gold it was meant to represent.
The following table sums up briefly the results of this chapter:
| Homeric ox-unit | = | 130-135 | grains of gold. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roman ox (5th cent. B.C. ) | = | 135 | ” ” | |
| Sicilian (5th cent. B.C. ) | = | 135 | ” ” | |
| Ancient German | = | 120 | ” ” | |
| Ancient Gaulish | = | 120 | ” ” | |
| Phoenician? (4th cent. B.C. ) | = | 135 | ” ” | |
| Egyptian (1500 B.C. ?) | = | 140 | grains of silver | = 140 grains of gold(?). |
| Hebrew | = | 130 | grains of gold. | |
| Zend-Avesta | = | 130 | ” ” | |
| Burgundian | = | 140 | ” ” | |
| Alamannic | = | 120 | ” ” | |
| Scandinavian [209] (8th cent. A.D. ) | = | 128 | ” ” |