The mina (also mna, Ancient Greek μνᾶ) is an ancient Near Eastern unit of weight equivalent to 50 shekels. The mina, like the shekel, was also a unit of currency; in ancient Greece it was equal to 100 drachmae. The Greek word mna was borrowed from Semitic; compare Hebrew māneh, Aramaic mĕnē, Syriac manyā, Ugaritic mn, and Akkadian manū.

From earliest Sumerian times, a mina was a unit of weight. At first, talents and shekels had not yet been introduced. By the time of Ur-Nammu, the mina had a value of 1/60 talents as well as 60 shekels. The value of the mina is calculated at 1.25 pounds^[1][2] or 0.571 kilograms per mina (18.358 troy ounces).

Evidence from Ugarit indicates that a mina was equivalent to fifty shekels^[3]. The prophet Ezekiel refers to a mina ('maneh' in the King James Version) as sixty shekels^[4]. Jesus Christ tells the "parable of the ten minas" in Luke 19:11-27.

From the Akkadian period, 2 mina was equal to 1 sila of water (cf. clepsydra, water clock).

[edit] Images

Mina of Chios.

Mina of Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

Mina of Antioch.

[edit] References

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

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