Silver as a Financial Tool in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

Mieroop, Marc Van De

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-06109-2_2

Cited by 43 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Coinage did not exist before the seventh century BCE (Kerschner & Konuk 2020) and most earlier transactions were based on monies of account, commonly expressed as a standard weight of silver, even if not physically exchanged. 3 Widespread use of silver as a unit of account, from c. 2600 BCE and possibly earlier (Englund 2004;Van De Mieroop 2014), probably reflected abundance and capacity to achieve high levels of purity by cupellation since the fourth millennium (Helwing 2014;Nriagu 1985;Wood et al 2021). The apparent dominance of silver as money of account in the Near East, Egypt (at least from New Kingdom : Janssen 1975;Van De Mieroop 2014), Greece and most of the Roman Empire, indicates silver as that principal reference point.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gold and Silver: Relative Values in the Ancient Past

Ross,

Bettenay

2023

CAJ

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We have documented more than 200 relative values of gold and silver across almost 3000 years (2500 bce–400 ce) to establish value benchmarks for essentially pure metal. Our aim is to improve understanding of ancient economies by enabling regional and temporal comparisons of these relative values. First, we establish silver as an early, reliable benchmark for valuing gold of varying purity before implementation of parting. Whilst purity accounted for two to threefold variation in the value of gold, we conclude that availability was more influential. Access to Nubian gold until about 1100 bce seems an important influence on gold-silver value ratios in Egypt and the Near East, which increased significantly following loss of this source. This investigation yields a suite of relative values for essentially pure gold and silver, subdivided by regions and intervals from 2500 bce–400 ce. These will enable future comparisons of precious metal-denominated costs of labour and commodities, including with today.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gold and Silver: Relative Values in the Ancient Past

Ross,

Bettenay

2023

CAJ

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“…The Egyptians, at the time considered the oldest people in the world, 4 themselves provided further support to the myth of a vanished ancient civilization. Their chronologies reported that their first pharaohs had been gods [5] (p.18) who came from the West, a polite way of saying that their kingdom had begun when foreign conquerors with "magical powers" (i.e., unseen technologies) arrived in the area, bringing agriculture and new knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…7.24.12) [6]. 5 In short, in Plato's times, legends regarding lost civilizations and the time of the "divine" birth of Egypt were somewhat widespread among literate Athenians. The thesis supported in the present article is that Atlantis was the name given by Plato to the land where the god-founders of Egypt originated.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atlantis: A Grain of Truth Behind the Fiction?

Rapisarda¹

2019

Heritage

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The legend of Atlantis was almost certainly invented by Plato to promote the political ideal of his masterwork The Republic, while praising the heroism of his own ancestors. This paper suggests that, in assembling the story, Plato might have reworked the myth of the foundation of Egypt—attributed to divine invaders bringing agriculture and unknown technologies to the country—and popularized in Greece through the writings of Herodotus. The key issue explored is the curious coincidence between the period of the alleged foundation of Egypt (according to traditional Egyptian sources) and some remarkable events that characterized the end of the Ice Age. Indeed, besides the sudden increase in temperature and the consequent rise in sea level, the period was also marked by the birth of agriculture and the appearance of totally new technologies in diverse Near Eastern locations. The memory of these events would have been handed down through the myth of the foundation of Egypt, and through this, to Greek culture, enabling Plato to exaggerate the antiquity of his noble ancestors, while embellishing the characteristics of the invaders. Such occasional technological leaps may also have occurred elsewhere in the world, for instance on the deltas of the Indus or the Yangtze, driven by the same change in climate that affected the whole planet. Although today there is no archaeological evidence of such events besides in the Near East, the article suggests that the possible discovery of obsidian in a submerged site would be a strong indication of a local technological leap. To this end it examines, as a Mediterranean example, some flooded islands in the Strait of Sicily, which, lying on the route to Pantelleria, may retain traces of ancient obsidian exploitation.

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“…In Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, a poem dealing with the Carolingian cycle, Bradamante and Ruggero are supposed to be the founders of the Este family 4. Egyptians themselves estimated their own antiquity to be even older than that claimed by Herodotus[4] 5. Even the demise of Santorini could have contributed to inspire the story (supposing that Plato knew about it) 6.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Atlantis: a Grain of Truth Behind the Fiction?

Rapisarda¹

2018

Preprint

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The legend of Atlantis was almost certainly invented by Plato to promote the political ideal of his masterwork The Republic, while praising the heroism of his own ancestors. This paper suggests that, in assembling the story, Plato might have reworked the myth of the foundation of Egypt, attributed to divine invaders bringing agriculture and unknown technologies to the country. The key issue explored is the curious coincidence between the period of the alleged foundation of Egypt (according to traditional Egyptian sources) and some remarkable events that characterized the end of the Ice Age. Indeed, besides the sudden increase in temperature and the consequent rise in sea level, the period was also marked by the birth of agriculture and the appearance of totally new technologies in diverse Middle Eastern locations. The memory of these events would have been handed down through the myth of the foundation of Egypt and, through this, to Greek culture, enabling Plato to exaggerate the antiquity of his noble ancestors while embellishing the characteristics of the invaders. Such occasional technological leaps may also have occurred elsewhere in the world, for instance on the deltas of the Indus or the Yangtze, driven by the same change in climate that affected the whole planet. Although today there is no archaeological evidence of such events besides in the Middle East, the article suggests that the possible discovery of obsidian in a submerged site would be a strong indication of a local technological leap. To this end it examines, amongst suspected Mediterranean sites, some flooded islands in the Strait of Sicily, which, lying on the route to Pantelleria, may retain traces of ancient obsidian exploitation.

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Silver as a Financial Tool in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia

Cited by 43 publications

References 11 publications

Gold and Silver: Relative Values in the Ancient Past

Gold and Silver: Relative Values in the Ancient Past

Atlantis: A Grain of Truth Behind the Fiction?

Atlantis: a Grain of Truth Behind the Fiction?

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