How much did food cost in Babylon?

Question

I read recently some limited information about Babylon, and it doesn't sound right to me, so I thought I'd ask.

I saw from one source that the wages for one year of unskilled labor may have been about 10 shekels of silver, with one shekel at that time being about 11.5 grams.

I saw from another source that 1 gur of barley (about 300 liters) is one shekel of silver.

And then I heard that 1 shekel of barley is 1 shekel of silver.

So 300 liters of barley is equal to 11.5 grams of barley? That doesn't sound right. And one year of unskilled labor is worth only 115 grams of silver? I must be misunderstanding something here.

I just generally want to know what food prices were like in Babylonian times, as in if I went to the market to pick up grain and spice and salted meat, how much would it cost in their currency?

Answer 1

1 cup of barley provides 651 calories according to the USDA, so 3000 L of barley provides about 412 days' worth of food at 2000 cal/day. An unskilled laborer making ten times this amount in a year would presumably have enough to buy a more rounded diet than just barley along with some of the basics of life. So these two seem consistent with each other.

Is it possible that "1 shekel of barley is 1 shekel of silver" means that one shekel is the same weight, whether measuring barley or silver, rather than stating the price of barley? (Certainly there are many measurement systems, even today, where the unit depends on the thing weighed -- indeed, an ounce of silver is about 31 grams, where an ounce of barley is about 28 grams.)