Historical research: earrings worn by the Biblical Rebecca

[leahg2007.livejournal.com]

Recently, re-reading a Torah translation in Russian, I read that when Abraham sent his servant back to his native land to find a wife for his son Isaac, he sent him with some valuable gifts for the future bride. And when the servant met Rebecca (who became Isaac’s wife), he gave her gold bracelets weighing 10 shekels, and gold earrings weighing one-half a shekel. The weight of one shekel in those times was 14 grams. So each earring contained 7 grams of gold....