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Sasanian Numbers and Silver Weights

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Richard N. Frye
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Extract

Over a number of years inscriptions on Sasanian silver plates have been published by various scholars, but in spite of progress several problems have remained, especially one connected with the weight system of pre-Islamic Iran. The interpretation of one series of signs had baffled me, as it had other investigators in the field, and I had proposed at first tentatively to read the signs as MP salāk “ingot”, but with a technical meaning of a weight equal to about 215 grams.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 105 , Issue 1 , January 1973 , pp. 2 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1973

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References

1 Frye, R. N., “Iranskie zametki”, Trudy 25 Mezhdunarodnogo Kongressa Vostokovedov 1960, 2, Moscow, 1963, 181Google Scholar. There I noted that F. Rosenberg long ago proposed that the ligatures be interpreted as a unit of weight rather than as figures or numbers.

2 Livshits, V. A. and Lukonin, V. G., “Srednepersidskie i sogdiiskie nadpisi na serebryanyx sosudax” Vestnik Drevnei Istorii, 3, 1964, 155–176Google Scholar.

3 For photographs of the Qa‘ba inscriptions see Sprengling, M., Third century Iran, Sapor and Kartir, Chicago, 1953Google Scholar.

4 A photograph of the Avroman document may be found in Minns, E. H., “Parchments of the Parthian period from Avroman”, J. Hellenic Stud., 35, 1915, pl. 3CrossRefGoogle Scholar, or in Cowley, A., “Pahlavi documents from Avroman”, JRAS, 1919, pl. 1Google Scholar.

5 For photographs of the Nisa documents see Dyakonov, I. M. and Livshits, V. A., Dokumenty iz Nisy, Moscow, 1960, nos. 74, 94, 798, etcGoogle Scholar. For the Sogdian bowl see Orbeli, J. A. and Trever, K., Sasanidskii metal, Moscow/Leningrad, 1935, pl. 47Google Scholar.

6 See the illustrations in Ghirshman, R., “Argenterie d'un seigneur sassanide”, Ars Orientalis, 2, 1957, 81Google Scholar.

7 Henning, W. B., “New Pahlavi inscriptions on silver vessels”, BSOAS, XXII, 1959, 134Google Scholar. The drachm sang “by weight” was more than 4 gm. but we do not know exactly how much. This unit of weight is to be distinguished from the silver drachm.

8 The inscription on a bowl found in Mazandaran and now in the Tehran Museum of Antiquities was read by W. B. Henning, “New Pahlavi inscriptions on silver vessels”, 134, n. 1, MN 200 2 ZWZN M 3 (Z)Y PW(N)sng. Here 200 is written as one would expect.

9 Smirnov, Ya. I., Vostochnoe serebro, St. Petersburg, 1909Google Scholar. The dating of the silver vessels given there and in this paper is taken from opinions of art historians in publications of the silver objects.

10 op. cit., 164.

11 In Handbuch der Orientalistik: Iranistik, Leiden, 1958, 49Google Scholar.

12 ibid., 50.

13 “Sasanian art in Cleveland”, Bull. Cleveland Mus. Art, 51, 1964, 93Google Scholar.

14 The heritage of Persia, 1962, fig. 62.

15 “A Persian treasure”, Arts in Virginia, 8, 1967–1968, 31, fig. 6Google Scholar.

16 Illustrated in C. L. Davids Samling 1945–1970, Copenhagen, 1970, 122–123Google Scholar.

17 See BSOAS, XXIV, 1961, 355Google Scholar.

18 Since many silver vessels show wear, or have even suffered additions or subtractions, the calculations presented here must be regarded as approximate.