Mina (unit)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The mina (or also: mine) is an ancient Greek unit of weight defined as being 50 shekels.
The mina, like the shekel, was also a unit of currency. In ancient Greece it was equal to 100 drachmae.

In ancient Sumerian times, a m'na was a unit of weight; but talents and shekels weren't around yet. 1/60 talents and also 60 shekels.
Since the Akkadian period, 2 m'na was equal to 1 sila of water (cf. clepsydra, water clock).

Note, that the word "mine", in the sense of land mine came from the form of this ancient weight stone.


This standards- or measurement-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.