The weight of the cubic measure was also the standard for imperial weight in Babylonia. The oldest weight which we know dates from the time of Ilgi, king of Ur. The stone, which in shape is not unlike a duck, has the inscription: "Ten minæ of Ilgi."[398] There was a heavy talent (Kikkar, _i.e._ "orb") arranged to weigh twice as much as the quadrantal. Hence it weighed 121-1/5 pounds (60,600 kils.), and the sixtieth, or mina, weighed over two pounds. The light talent weighed one quadrantal, according to the estimate of the Chaldæans, _i.e._ 60-3/5 pounds, and the mina was a little heavier than a pound of our weight. But in weighing the precious metals, the Chaldæans used units, which differed from the imperial weights in use for all other purposes. They calculated by little circular pieces, or rings, or bars (tongues) of silver and gold, and the smallest of these was equivalent to the shekel, or sixtieth part of the mina of the heavy talent. These shekels were the commonest and most indispensable measure of value. It was found easier to reckon by units of 3,000 shekels, than by units of 3,600. And so it came about that the mina contained fifty shekels instead of sixty, and the talent 3,000 shekels instead of 3,600. The three thousand shekels as a whole, no longer weighed 121-1/5 pounds, but only 101 pounds, and the mina, or sixtieth part, instead of weighing fully two pounds, weighed only about 1-3/5 pounds.[399] This weight, or the half of it (50-1/2 pounds), was retained for the heavy and light gold talent. In the weight of silver trade caused a further deviation. It was necessary to exchange gold and silver, and in the East in antiquity the value of gold and silver was estimated at 13 : 1, or more accurately 13-1/3 : 1.[400] By making the silver shekel (_i.e._ the fiftieth part of the silver mina), which corresponded to the weight of the light gold talent, a little heavier, a silver coin was obtained which stood to the fiftieth of the light gold mina, nearly in the ratio of 10 : 1. Ten silver shekels of this weight could therefore without any further trouble be exchanged for the fiftieth of the gold mina, or gold shekel of the light gold talent. Hence arose a silver talent of 67-1/3 pounds (33,660 kil.), a silver mina of 1-1/10 pound, and a silver shekel of about eleven milligrammes. FOOTNOTES: [359] Diod. 2, 30. [360] Nicol. Damasc. Fragm. 9, 10, ed. Müller. [361] Pindari Fragm. adesp. 83, ed. Bergk. [362] Schrader, "Assyr.-babyl. Keilschriften," s. 123; "Keilschriften und Alt. Test." s. 280. [363] G. Rawlinson, "Five Monarchies," p. 130. [364] 2 Kings xvii. 31. [365] Amos v. 26. [366] Eberhard Schrader, "Theologg. Studien und Kritiken," 1874, 2, 324 ff. [367] Schrader, "Keilschriften und Alt. Test." s. 167, 272; "Assyr.-babyl. Keilschriften," s. 88, 129, 140. [368] Ménant, "Babylone," pp. 201-203. [369] Munter, "Religion der Babylonier," s. 28. [370] Herod. 1, 199.