Chapter 3 Measures and Numbers

3.1 Capactities

At Ebla, the weight system used a Western mina of 470 grams, with a corresponding shekel of 7.83 grams. However, scribes working at the archives also employed other systems, such as the Levantine mina (1 mina = 50 shekels of 9.4 grams) and the Anatolian mina (1 mina = 40 shekels of 11.7 grams) (Peyronel, 2006, p. 267; 2016, p. 58).

Price	Good	Unit price	Comment
14 mina of silver	5 kunga₂	2,8 minas	6,85 kilos of silver, 1,37 kilos per animal (MEE 12 37 = TM.75.G.2508, obv. XIX:39-41). Note that Ru’a-damu, the man entrusted with the silver, goes from Ebla to Nagar with a travel provision of 5 shekels of silver (39,15 gr, the equivalent in weight of two AA batteries).