Th ey may have formed weights and measures of their own,
but it seems unlikely that they did.
Cultures that might have had weights and measures ex-
isted in northeastern North America, along the Mississippi
River, in Mesoamerica, and in northern South America. In
each case, between 1000 b.c.e. and the end of the ancient era,
cultures created urban areas, the most sophisticated of which
were i n Mesoa mer ic a. Tow ns of a s ma ny a s 30,0 0 0 people may
have been built in North America in the northeast and along
the Mississippi River, and they seem to have had extensive
trade networks, implying a need for weights and measures, as
well as the opportunity for the formation of central govern-
ments that could establish weights and measures; however,
evidence for these is absent at present.
One way for archaeologists to gain hints about ancient
customs is to study modern descendants of the ancient cul-
tures in the hope of fi nding practices that can be dated back
to ancient times. In northeastern North America the cul-
tures of the ancient towns were long gone by the time people
who could read and write arrived. Along the Mississippi dis-
ease wiped out the town dwellers, who may or may not have
been descended from the ancient town builders, before they
could be studied. In northern South America the ancient
builders of impressive monuments and towns were gone
before the coming of Spanish record keepers. Nevertheless,
in Mesoamerica the Mayan culture still exists. However,
by the time anyone wrote about Mayan weights and mea-
sures, the Maya had adopted Spanish weights and measures.
Only something to measure distance overland has survived,
called a “pace.”
Th e Aztecs known to the Spanish seem to have adopted
many practices from the Maya, probably including some
weights and measures. Some of their records for payments of
taxes and tribute have survived, indicating a few of their mea-
sures. Gold was made into disks about 2 inches in diameter
and 1 fi nger thick. Cotton was traded in bales, although the
size of a bale is as yet unknown. Maize and other grains may
have been measured by baskets, although again the exact size
is not known. In each of these instances, it is possible to visu-
alize ancient Maya making similar measurements.
Th ere are good reasons to believe that the ancient Maya
had systems of weights and measures. Th eir cities levied taxes
on their subjects, and they exacted tribute from conquered
lands. In each case, being able to weigh and measure goods
would be necessary for making sure the correct amounts of
taxes and tribute were paid. Further, the ancient Maya had
complex legal systems that included the ability of people to
fi le lawsuits against merchants they believed had cheated
them. Weights and measures would be useful for determin-
ing whether someone was overcharged or shortchanged. In
addition, kings were expected to ensure that resources were
properly distributed among their people; managing the dis-
tribution of food, cloth, and other goods would be made
simpler if a system of weights and measures were employed.
Complicating matters is the possibility that every city or per-haps every king may have had a unique set of weights and
measures.
With all those possibilities in mind, archaeologists use
generalized words to represent weights and measures they
hope to identify someday. For example, the word load may
be used to represent the weight or size of goods. Th is term
does not represent a random weight or size; instead, it repre-
sents what archaeologists believe was always a fi xed amount.
Th e term loads would apply to large weights or sizes, such
as harvests being brought to the city from farms. Smaller
sizes would be packets, articles, and bundles, which would be
traded in marketplaces to families. Th e word length applies to
cloth. For the Aztecs, 20 lengths would be equal to 1 load, al-
though such may not have been the case for the ancient Maya.
Such terms allow archaeologists to discuss the use of weights
and measures without knowing their exact amounts.
Cotton was traded extensively among the Maya and
neighboring cultures. Cotton was almost certainly baled
for ease of transport, and it may be assumed that the bale
was a standardized unit of measure. Of all Mayan goods, the
likeliest to have been weighed or measured was cacao. Th e
cacao bean was treasured because it could be made into a
variety of drinks that were valued for their taste, either bitter
or sweetened with sugar or honey, as well as incorporated as
fl avoring into foods. Th e beans were probably traded by how
many there were, but they may have been traded by weight.
Ground cacao would have been either weighed or measured
by volume. So highly valued was cacao that it was almost
certainly measured down to tiny grains. It is with cacao that
archaeologists have their best hope of discovering a Mayan
weight or measure because the consumption of cacao was
something the Maya deemed worthy of recording, even on
their monuments.See also agriculture; architecture; astronomy; build-
ing techniques and materials; climate and geog-
raphy; economy; empires and dynasties; health and
disease; metallurgy; military; money and coinage; no-
madic and pastoral societies; numbers and counting;
science; social organization; trade and exchange;
war and conquest.FURTHER READING
“Ancient Weights and Measure.” ArchaeologyExpert.co.uk. Avail-
able online. URL: http://www.archaeologyexpert.co.uk/An-
cientWeightsAndMeasures.html. Downloaded on May 12,
2007.
François Cardarelli, Encyclopedia of Scientifi c Units, Weights, and
Measures: Th eir SI Equivalences and Origins, trans. M. J.
Shields (New York: Springer, 2003).
Pau l Ca r t ledge, Edwa rd E. Cohen, a nd Lin Fox ha l l, eds., Money, La-
bour, and Land: Approaches to the Economies of Ancient Greece
(London: Routledge, 2002).
Anita Ganeri, Th e Story of Weights and Measures (New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 1996).1182 weights and measures: further reading0895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1182 1182 10/10/07 2:31:22 PM