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Good question, did some quick searching and found this: https://www.instmc.org/Festival/History-of-Measurement#:~:text=To%20weigh%20things%20early%20civilisatio

Good question, did some quick searching and found this: https://www.instmc.org/Festival/History-of-Measurement#:~:text=To%20weigh%20things%20early%20civilisations,as%20the%20officially%20recognized%20weight https://www.instmc.org/Festival/History-of-Measurement#:~:te.... ""To weigh things early civilisations used to compare things to the weight of a set amount of grains or stones. They would use a simple balance to compare the weight of two objects. A “standard weight” could be cast from metal or other long-lasting object and kept somewhere as the officially recognized weight.""

hbosch 5y ago
Curiosity took me to the Wikipedia page for "pound" and I learned some things there, too... such as the abbreviation for pound, "lb", which never really made any sense to me traces it's etymology from the Roman "libra". The libra/lb was divided into 12 parts, latin "unciae", which became ounces. Cool. As for the pound itself, seems like it just started as being measure against a certain amount of grain (who counted them!?) and caught on worldwide as global trade occurred.