BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

A Looted Hellenistic Weight

IAA identifies rare object during antiquities raid

Editor’s Note: This Bible History Daily article discusses an unprovenanced object. Learn more about the problems associated with objects that lack a secure archaeological context.

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“Heliodorus son of Apollonios, Agoranomos” reads the first part of an inscription on a rare lead weight seized by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) during a raid on an antiquities shop in Jerusalem’s Old City. Dated by its inscription to the year 165 of the Seleucid era (148/7 BCE), the weight may be connected to a powerful family from the ancient city of Maresha in the Shephelah region. Unfortunately, since the weight originates from the antiquities market, there is no way to know exactly where it came from.

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Weighing the Market

In antiquity, this small lead slab would have been used as a standardized weight. This is confirmed by the inscription, which marks it as belonging to Heliodorus, the agoranomos. Within the Hellenistic world, the agoranomos was a government official responsible for keeping order in the marketplace, which included maintaining standardized weights and measures. This particular weight would have been the standard 1 mina measure, a unit equal to 100 Greek drachmas. Inscribed at the bottom of the weight is the Greek letter “M,” denoting a mina.

The personal names on the weight are even more interesting. Both Heliodorus and Apollonios are Greek names associated with the solar deities Helios and Apollo, indicating the extensive influence of Hellenism under Seleucid rule. Such Greek names were especially common in the land of Idumea, which would later be ruled by the Hasmoneans; it was also the ancestral home of the Herodian dynasty. The name Heliodorus was especially common in Maresha, the capital city of Idumea.

According to the IAA, the lead weight was most likely looted from Maresha, not only because of the common Idumean name Heliodorus, but also because similar weights discovered at Maresha might attest to both Heliodorus’s father and son. One weight dated by its inscription to 170/169 BCE bears the name of an agoranomos named Apollonios, the same name as Heliodorus’s father. Similarly, another weight dating to 143/2 includes the name of the agoranomos Antipatros, son of Heliodoros. As government offices in the ancient world often passed from father to son, it is possible that these three weights all belonged to the same family, recording three generations of agronomoi. Unfortunately, the fact that the artifact was looted means these connections will never be known for certain.

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According to Ilan Haddad, Head of Antiquities Trade Supervision for the IAA, “The removal of an archaeological artifact from its site without proper excavation results in the loss of invaluable historical information. Had we found the artifact in its precise archaeological context, it could have enriched our historical knowledge significantly. At present, unfortunately, we can only speculate from which ancient city the item was looted and what its context was.”

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Related reading in Bible History Daily

Archaeological Looting and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage

Tel Maresha Caves Reveal Hellenistic Treasures

The Antiquities Market—A “Cat and Mouse Game”

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Editors’ Page: Looting by Bulldozer

How to Reduce Archaeological Looting

Archaeological Views: Investigating the Crime Scene: Looting and Ancient Coins