A rare lead weight, bearing an inscription from about 2,150 years ago and preserved in excellent condition, was seized in Jerusalem in an operation by the Theft Prevention Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority. The inscription – “Heliodorus son of Apollonios, Agoranomos” – records the name of the official responsible for regulating weights and measures. It is dated to year 165, during the Hellenistic rule in the Land of Israel. Alongside the inscription, a depiction of a dolphin appears, the meaning of which is still under study, with the hope of identifying the city from which the weight originated.
The weight was seized in an antiquities shop in Jerusalem, following intelligence information received by the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Theft Prevention Unit. Inspectors of the Authority questioned the shop owner in an attempt to trace the middlemen and looters who had removed the weight from its archaeological context.
The role of the Agoranomos was to supervise weights and measures and to prevent fraud in trade – and indeed, the weight is precise: one Mina, the standard unit of weight in that period, equal to one hundred Greek drachmas.
According to Ido Zangen of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The Greek names of Heliodorus and his father, Apollonios, attest to a Hellenized population. Both names are connected to the Greek sun gods – Helios and Apollo – and indicate a cultural-religious affinity with the Hellenistic culture that ruled the region at that time. These names were especially common in Idumea, where the local god ‘Qos’ was identified with the Greek sun gods.”
According to Ilan Haddad, Head of Antiquities Trade Supervision at the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The removal of an archaeological artifact from its site without a proper excavation results in the loss of invaluable historical information. Had we found the artifact in its precise archaeological context, it could have enriched our historical knowledge significantly״.
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