Bronze Age weight systems as a measure of market integration in Western Eurasia

Abstract

Weighing technology was invented around 3000 BCE between Mesopotamia and Egypt and became widely adopted in Western Eurasia within ∼2,000 y. For the first time in history, merchants could rely on an objective frame of reference to quantify economic value. The subsequent emergence of different weight systems goes hand in hand with the formation of a continental market. However, we still do not know how the technological transmission happened and why different weight systems emerged along the way. Here, we show that the diffusion of weighing technology can be explained as the result of merchants’ interaction and the emergence of primary weight systems as the outcome of the random propagation of error constrained by market self-regulation. We found that the statistical errors of early units between Mesopotamia and Europe overlap significantly. Our experiment with replica weights gives error figures that are consistent with the archaeological sample. We used these figures to develop a model simulating the formation of primary weight systems based on the random propagation of error over time from a single original unit. The simulation is consistent with the observed distribution of weight units. We demonstrate that the creation of the earliest weight systems is not consistent with a substantial intervention of political authorities. Our results urge a revaluation of the role of individual commercial initiatives in the formation of the first integrated market in Western Eurasia.

Understanding money; Or, why social and financial accounting should not be conflated

“…Two recent studies interpret the axes, swords, and other broken metal objects buried in hoards as the remains of Europe's earliest financial money (Ialongo et al, 2021; Ialongo & Lago, 2021). One cannot dispute that standardized weights of bronze objects were accounting tools, nor that standardized weights of metal had a wide geographical distribution.…”

“…A third problem with the financial interpretation is its narrow focus on weight standards used in the eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, and Central Europe. I certainly agree that “local economies were dependent on trade to procure essential but rare raw materials such as tin … and that both Eastern city‐states and European village‐societies were equally thriving in this reciprocal dependence” (Ialongo et al, 2021, 3). However, large quantities of Central European metals were also traded north with Denmark to make everyday tools (and be deposited in hoards) during the period from 1500 to 1000 bc (Radivojević et al, 2019, 163).…”

“…Finally, using the distinction between social and financial monetary systems as accounting for different realms of value, I then assess recent claims for the earliest financial money in Europe. Recent studies of Bronze Age Europe (Ialongo et al, 2021; Ialongo & Lago, 2021) adopt the orthodox assumptions that financial money's defining characteristic is as a medium of exchange and that self‐regulating markets “naturally” generate price equilibrium. In addition to naturalizing neoliberal conceptions of the individual's role in economic activity, I argue that such assumptions contribute to questionable interpretations of the cultural context of European hoards and the Bronze Age world economy.…”

Egipto, Africa Nororiental y Oriente Medio durante la Edad del Bronce Temprano: Geopolítica e Intercambios

“…La intensificación de los contactos por tierra y mar a través de este espacio queda patente en fenómenos tempranos, detectables gracias a la arqueología pero difíciles de interpretar, como el denominado Fenómeno de Uruk (Selz, 2020;Butterlin, 2018;Schneider, Gill, Rajagopalan & Algaze, 2021). En otros casos, la estandarización de sistemas de pesos y el uso de metales preciosos como medio de pago en el tercer milenio antes de Cristo indican la necesidad de contar con medios de intercambio conocidos y, a la vez, aceptables por poblaciones muy diversas para, de este modo, favorecer transacciones habituales (Rahmstorf, 2016;Ialongo, Hermann & Rahmstorf, 2021).…”

Making money out of making money in ancient Athens

“…Clearly, it was related to weight systems, which often bear the same name (shekel, drachma). A persuasive model for the development of weight systems in the Bronze Age proposes that the diffusion of weighing technology occurred through merchants' interactions based on the "random propagation of error constrained by market self-regulation" rather than intervention by political authorities (Ialongo et al, 2021). A weight system (as distinct from a coinage weight system) was used by a state or imposed upon it for a variety of historical, commercial and military reasons (Psoma, 2015) and would be used for the weighing of bullion, but the decision to strike coinage required something more proactive.…”