Some things that today seem simple and outdated, just a few decades ago were inaccessible to those with meager means. For example, the scale wasn’t affordable, not even for the grocers. They used the balance scales (“kantaria”), which had a hook at the top and hung from a wooden beam carried on the shoulders of two men. Below, there was a shorter hook for hanging the item to be weighed, along with two branched chains ending in hooks to secure and hold the object tightly during weighing.