Mesopotamian duck weights with inscriptions on its body

European Museums, The British Museum

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Mesopotamian duck weights

Mesopotamia, about 2000-500 B.C.

Official weights in the shape of a sleeping duck were common in Mesopotamia from about 4000 years ago. On some an inscription gives the king's name and the weight, for example: 'half standard mina belonging to Ahhiya, son of Mudammiq-Adad, the diviner'.

Two stone duck-shaped weights, about 1000-500 BC, excavated by Hormuzd Rassam at Sippar, Southern Iraq, and about 2000-1000 B.C.

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Mesopotamian duck weights

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Source:  London, United Kingdom