The deben was an ancient Egyptian weight unit.
Old and Middle Kingdom
Stone weights from the
Old Kingdom
In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...
have been found, weighing about . Similar weights from the
Middle Kingdom were discovered at
Lisht
Lisht or el-Lisht ( ar, اللشت, translit=Al-Lišt) is an Egyptian village located south of Cairo. It is the site of Middle Kingdom royal and elite burials, including two pyramids built by Amenemhat I and Senusret I. The two main pyramids were ...
. From the Middle Kingdom date also ''deben'' weight units used for metals, referred to as
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...
deben and
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
deben, the former being about twice as heavy () as the latter.
New Kingdom
From the
New Kingdom
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
one ''deben'' was equal to about . It was divided into ten ''kidet'' (alt. ''kit'', ''kite'' or ''qedet''), or into what is referred to by
Egyptologist
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religiou ...
s as 'pieces', one twelfth of a ''deben'' weighing . It was frequently used to denote value of goods, by comparing their worth to a weight of
metal
A metal (from ancient Greek, Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, e ...
, generally
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
or copper.
Protocurrency
It has been speculated that pieces of metal weighing a deben were kept in boxes, taken to markets, and were used as a means of exchange. Archaeologists have been unable to find any such standardized pieces of precious metal. On the other hand, it is documented that ''debens'' served to compare values. In the
19th Dynasty
The Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XIX), also known as the Ramessid dynasty, is classified as the second Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1292 BC to 1189 BC. The 19th Dynasty and the 20th Dynasty furt ...
, a slave girl priced four deben and one kite of silver was paid for with various goods: 6 bronze vessels, 10 ''deben'' of copper, 15 linen garments, a shroud, a blanket, and a pot of honey.
[Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, ''The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol 2, pt 1'', Cambridge University Press 1973, {{ISBN, 0-521-08230-7, p.390]
Legacy
Debens appeared in the
computer game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedback ...
''
Pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...
'' as its
currency
A currency, "in circulation", from la, currens, -entis, literally meaning "running" or "traversing" is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins.
A more general ...
(in the form of
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...
).
See also
*
Ancient Egyptian units of measurement
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...
*
Egyptian units of measurement
References
Units of mass
Egyptian hieroglyphs