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The Assyrian Kisal as the Origin of the Carat-Weight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

R. Campbell Thompson
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Extract

The carat-weight, approximately 3 grains, has by tradition been derived from the seeds in the pod of the Ceratonia siliqua L., the carob, Arabic ḫarrūb or ḫurnūb. The word comes from the Greek κεράτιον, which is both the seed of the carob, and the equivalent of the Latin siliqua, carat, and κεράτιον in its turn is derived from κἑρας, a horn, from the crescent-shaped pods of the tree. These pods have been traditionally called St. John's Bread, having been supposed to have been eaten by St. John in the Wilderness, and they are also considered to have been the husks eaten by the Prodigal Son. (Enc. Brit., 11th ed. XVI. 859, s.v., ‘Locust-Tree’).

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 1938 , pp. 23 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1938

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References

page 23 note 1 For the siliqua weight of Roman times as being 2.9 grains, v. Smith, W., Dict. of Classical Antiquities, p. 455Google Scholar, and for later discussion Pauly-Wissowa, , Reallexicon, III. A. 61: xi, 266 Google Scholar. The qīrāt (carat) of the Arabs was reckoned at 4 grains, while in 1877 the official (European) carat was 3.163 troy grains (Enc. Brit. 11th ed. v. 301). For our purposes the differences are negligible. The word siliqua occurs in Virgil and Pliny.

page 24 note 1 Cf. CT. XIV. 23, K. 259, 14.

page 25 note 1 Simṭate may be connected with úsamṭu: úsa-am-ṭu=iÚ.GIR, var. ú „(= úi [Ú.GIR]) ina Me-luḫ-ḫi ‘samṭu-plant= thorn in Egypt' (Arabic sanṭ, Meissner, O.L.Z. 1903, 266), CT. xiv. 21, vi–v. 22 restored from 46, Rm. ii, 203, 8. Less probably simṭate may be connected with the Arabic Šamṭ ‘aromatic’. When I was in Basrah I thought I heard the name Šamuṭ given to an acacia. Incidentally, in Assyrian medicine, úḫīl simṭate is used for hollow teeth, CT. xiv. 23, K. 259, 14, dup. K.A.R. 203, 13 (like myrrh, ib.).

page 26 note 1 It would thus appear to correspond with the old ‘lesser shekel’ of 3 grains, the GIN 2.DU 13 ( Thureau-Dangin, , R.A. 1921, 137)Google Scholar. The girū of late Baby-Ionian times (contemporaneously, perhaps, with our KISAL) is taken to be the same as the Heb. gērāh (Zehnpfund, B.A. I. 506, from contracts, Strassmaier, Inschr, v. Nabuch., Nos. 195, 258, 271, 402); on the problem of the gērāh in connexion with the weight of the carob-seed, see Löw, op. cit. 11. 402.

page 26 note 2 It is curious, however, to see the Assyrian doctor actually prescribing 3 ŠE (grains) (not 1 KISAL) of salicornia-alkali, 3 ŠE of gum of abukatu, and 3 ŠE of lizards' dung in goats' milk for eyes (Assyr. Med. Texts, 9, 1, 10). Nevertheless the Assyrian chemist uses the quantity ‘1 KISAL 22½ ŠE is, of course, shekel) (On the Chemistry, pl. 6, K. 4273, ll. 13-14).

page 26 note 1 Tallqvist, (Contracte Nabû-Nâ'ids, 83)Google Scholar explains it as a Nahrungsmittel, and gives the following references to Strassmaier's Inschriften von Nabonidus, No. 269, 3, 5; Nebuchodonosor, Nos. 12, 2, 9: 25: 194, 18: 233. 787, 14: Cyrus, Nos. 169, 11: 204: 355; and Evetts (Bab. Texte) gives, of the date of Evil-Merodach, No. 2, 1, 9: Neriglissar, No. 54, 14.

page 28 note 2 Assyrian Herbal, 83. An additional and strong piece of evidence comes from the minerals. On our assumption SILA(= kasī). ŠAR is the rose, and if we apply this to a stone aSILA. ŠAR we should naturally get ‘rose-coloured stone’ (see my Dict. of Assyr. Chem. 179). This is augmented by another stone aGUG. ŠILA. ŠAR, i.e. our ‘rose-coloured stone’ with the addition of GUG ‘red’, which will give us the reasonable identification ‘rose-red stone’.

Here, for the sake of completion, I should also refer to the úkasiu, úkasū of C.T. XIV. 18, K. 4354, i–ii. 25–6, a name given to the Euphorbia heiioo scopiat the Spurge, doubtless from the similarity of its greenish-yellow flowers to those of the rose; and the same explanation may be given for the equation úkasū- úsarmadu, which may be the opium-poppy (op. cit. 22, viii–vii, 51). The Syriac kasīyā dhe-ṭōrā, Cassia tora, with which Küchler (Beitr. z. Kenntnish 73) compared the kasū, does not, I think, apply, but it may well be cognate to the úkasi sīri.

page 29 note 1 For a full discussion see Löw, op. cit. 11. 113.

page 29 note 2 The ancient Cassia must not be confused with senna, which, according to Martius, Carl (Versucheiner Monog. d. Sennesblätter, 1867 Google Scholar; Flückiger, and Hanbury, , Pharmacographia, 191 Google Scholar) cannot be traced earlier than the ninth to tenth century A.D.