Find And Finder Of The Month: July 2023, The Juarez Family from Mexico Found a Scales Beam Fragment

In July 2023, the Juarez family from Mexico discovered a fragment of a scales beam. As mentioned in our previous “Find of the Month” post, we are catching up on posts that were delayed due to the war.

This particular beam was notched at one end, allowing a pan to be hung by a string or chain. While some scales only had one pan, it appears our piece had a second notch in the part that broke off.

Our lab’s storage houses several pieces of scale beams and pans, but we have almost 25 times as many scale weights (read more about our scale weight here).

What accounts for this disparity? It is likely due to several factors:

Firstly, many more sets of weights were probably manufactured than sets of scales. Additionally, the objects would have had different rates of wear and tear, and different processes of repair, recycling, and discarding. A chipped set of scales is much easier to patch up than a chipped weight, which must maintain a standard weight. Moreover, identifying the objects can be challenging— a half or a quarter of a weight stone is still recognizable, but a broken beam missing its notch would leave us scratching our heads.

The weights we have discovered span all periods, from the First and Second Temple periods through the classical and medieval eras, and up to modern times. Throughout generations, people on the Temple Mount used scales for various activities—private or public, sacred or profane. Scales were used to weigh gold and silver, produce and commodities, even tithes and taxes. To this day, many kitchens feature a set of scales for measuring exact ingredients.

The person holding the scales always had to contend with the temptation of tipping them in a favorable direction. The Bible repeatedly warns against “dishonest scales,” while many court systems strive for the ideal of balanced, fair scales, where everyone stands equal.