Early Byzantine steelyard from Belgrade

Abstract

The initial aim of this paper was to present scholarly circles with a detailed report about the insufficiently known Early Byzantine steelyard beam (Figs. 2-5; Pl. I/1) treasured in Belgrade City Museum (further in the text BCM) together with a small counterweight (Fig. 6; Pl. I/2) which, judging by its dimensions and weight, does not belong to it. However, after inspecting the documentation of BCM and the National Museum in Belgrade (further in the text NMB), the supposition that the steelyard beam from BCM represents a part of the same hoard with the well known counterweight (Fig. 7) in the form of a bust of a Byzantine empress, and the unpublished chain system with hooks for hanging loads (Fig. 8; Pl. IV), which are kept in NMB, was confirmed. The detailed examination of the museum inventory records shed light on the set of circumstances which led to the separation of the parts of the Belgrade steelyard. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177007: Romanizacija, urbanizacija i transformacija urbanih centara civilnog,vojnog i rezidencijalnog karaktera u rimskim provincijama na tlu Srbije]

Keywords

• Belgrade
• Singidunum
• steelyard
• weight
• epigraphy
• metrology
• early Byzantine period
• measuring instruments
• oikonomos