Mystic “handbags” from an Ancient Civilization: What was Their Purpose?

I'm Iranian, and there still are "bag-like" weighing stones and irons used in Iran today, just like the ones from the Jiroft civ. I remember seeing them at every market and grocery store when I was a kid; nowadays they're an extremely rare sight, having been almost entirely replaced by digital scales.

Great video Tina, Like the hypothesis, so many professionals in there fields always try to put it as if everything in ancient cultures was so "Symbolic" or "Ritualistic" but never stop to think of the most obvious everday mundane actions. It reminds me of the egyptian story how a soul has its heart "Weighed" against a feather. Love your work keep em coming.

Thank you very much for making this interesting video, Tina. I have a good friend whose family members have served in a Hindu temple for generations. He told me even the Hindu architect god, Vishwakarma, carried a similar bag but also depicted as a small, rounded brass pot. In this bag or pot was an unknown chemical compound which softened stone & which was used in the building of the oldest temples in India. Vishwakarms is usually depicted as a white-haired, bearded, fair-skinned old man, a wandering civilizing god & which in my opinion resembles Viracocha or perhaps Quetzalcoatl. Vishwakarma is usually depicted with 4 arms & in each hand he usually holds a plumb line, a measuring rule, an architectural compass & the small brass pot in that order. Sometimes the plumb line is substituted by a small written manual.

This was so well thought out, researched, and explained that I found myself FINALLY able to put this piece of the puzzle BACK onto the table....NICELY DONE! (Even though this now makes greater sense, I would never have thought "Weights" for exchange)

Tina, well done! You have the most logical theory so far for the prehistoric handbags. Weights make alot more sense to show how the advanced beings worshipped as gods, brought the science of measurement to our primitive ancestors.

I think it was some kind of power. Today we have iPhone and tablet, but I think the handbag was much much more. Thanks so much for the video and info.

Another excellent video, Tina! Thanks for following up on your last video about the handbags. The evolution of their design across cultures and over the centuries is fascinating! I have seen proposals that the Gobekle Tepe 'bags' aren't really bags at all but represent key periods of the year when considering their 'sunrise/sunset' against the backdrop of astronomical signs. I look forward to more of your research!

I think you present an excellent interpretation of what all these "handbag" images actually depict! I never thought of them this way but the weights, or your other idea of the pollination bags, make so much sense of these images!!

the decorations could make changing the weight more difficult also, like ridges on a coin.

Your research on these mysterious handbags has gone deeper than anything i have reviewed on YouTube to date. Well researched.

Hey my beautiful friend! I love when your videos pop up! You always keep it open minded and intersting- great minds unite here- much love! ❤🙏🏼👻🙇🏻‍♂️

Excellent observation. Over the course of thousands of years the bags could have become symbolic representing truth. Weights were used to establish truth in exchange.

The Gobekli Tepe "handbags" are surrounded by what could be sheaths of grain. I wonder if the weights symbolize how much grain is due as an offering to either a temple or the head of the society.

Do we have any graven images showing the "handbag" objects being used in conjunction with a scale or balance? I like the ornamental weight hypothesis, but it seems we should see depictions of them being used in this manner, in ancient imagery.

Brilliant researcher and analysis, Curious Being. I so like your argument here. In particular, your points about the vital importance of weights during a period of growth in trade, and the fact that we need to try to see ancient objects as practical tools in real world contexts. One intriguing issue that came to mind for me when watching this video was whether the weights weigh the same, and how were weights made to measure exact amounts - I mean, surely you woul need some industrial weighing machine to weigh and make these weights, presumably to exacting measurements, and all those weights that were intended to weigh a particular amount would have to weigh the same, as well as some smaller weights of precise fractions needing to be available to measure smaller objects, and probably also larger weights for larger objects, or very many weights. The fact that so many of these weights have beautiful designs inscribed and/or built in confirms your very important point that we must also understand that previous civilisations were usually very culturally developed and socially sophisticated, and that we need to try to build a picture of the contexts in which artefacts and sites came to be as they were if we are to understand both the peoples of the past and their connections to the present. The video also reminded me of the C15/C16 Europe, when mercantile trade boomed and individual traders, trading companies and ruling elites sent out boats, or sailed boats out, to parts of Africa and Asia, and vice versa, to exchange goods. This, too, was a world in which many different cultures and civilisations were interacting, and also one where it was vital that merchants could accurately weigh, measure, assess and be able to precisely identify the relative value of an object in relation to others with similar uses. We need to understand the sense of jeopardy and precarity, urgency and chaos, as well as planning and preparation that must have surrounded many of the activities and actions we view in ancient artefacts, and resist assuming that these periods were as static and repetitive as the images themselves, instead recognising the actuality of real life objects and phenomena, including the process of production and reproduction of whatever the valued material might have been at particular moments in time and places on earth, in what specific ways, for what particular purpose, as you have done in relation to the much touted 'handbags' of antiquity.

Tina you continue to fascinate. Thank you for your amazing analyses. Your compare and contrast approach to your subject matter illuminates potential solutions in the best way.

Today we use the symbol of three weights for Pawn shops. The origin of them was not just for getting money and buying back your own items, it was a way of exchanging. The three bags as pictured ( and what is left of the wall they were on ) could be either for an exchange, Pawn shop or some other meaning that would make more sense with the rest of the wall showing context, if the rest of the wall still exists.

You nailed it! Another brilliant video! I am captivated by the in-depth research you and your team display, you do magnificent work! I am already subscribed and have enjoyed watching all your other videos. Your hypothesis I think is the definitive answer and I accept that your answers are as close to the truth as anyone can get at this present time. I look forward to the next video with great expectations.

Always glad to see your videos; it's a bunch of great little mini-docos on historic curios.

Thank you for the great video on a fascinating subject.