Books by Lorenz Rahmstorf
Gewichtssysteme der Frühbronzezeit in der Türkei Ausblick: Gewichte und Gewichtssysteme der Mitte... more Gewichtssysteme der Frühbronzezeit in der Türkei Ausblick: Gewichte und Gewichtssysteme der Mittel-und Spät bronzezeit in der Türkei V. Frühbronzezeitliche Gewichte in Syro-Mesopotamien, der Levante und Zypern Forschungsgeschichte Typologie Material Fundkontexte und Chronologie 80. Tell Mardikh/Ebla 81. Tell Bazi-Banat 82. Tell Sweyhat 83. Tall Munbāqa 84. Selenkahiye 85. Tell Bi'a/Tuttul 86. Tell Beydar/Nabada 87. Tell Brak/Nagar 88. Tell Hariri/Mari 89. Hama 90. Byblos 91. Tell es-Sultan/Jericho 92. Tell el-Jezer/Gezer 93. Tepe Gawra 94. Khafajah/Tutub 95. Tell Asmar/Ešnunna 96. Tell Agreb 97. Tell ed-Der 98. Umm el-Jir /Umm el-Jerab 99. Tell Ingharra und Tell el-Oheimir/Kiš und Hursagkalama 100. Nuffar/Nippur 101. Fara/Šuruppak 102. Tello/Girsu 103. Tell al Hiba/Lagaš 104. Warka/Uruk 105. Tell Muqayyar/Ur Zweifelhafte frühbronzezeitliche Gewichte Chronologische und chorologische Auswertung Frühbronzezeitliche Gewichtssysteme in Syro-Mesopotamien, der Levante und auf Zypern Barren und Geld im frühbronzezeitlichen Zypern und in Syro-Mesopotamien Ausblick: Gewichte und Gewichtssysteme der Mittel-und Spätbronzezeit in Syro-Mesopotamien, der Levante und Zypern IV 113. Gebelein / Inerty 114. Elkab / Necheb 115. Hierakonpolis / Nekhen 116. Elephantine Zweifelhafte frühbronzezeitliche Gewichte Chronologische und chorologische Auswertung Gewichtssysteme der Frühbronzezeit in Ägypten Ausblick: Gewichte und Gewichtssysteme der Mittel-und Spätbronzezeit in Ägypten VII. Frühbronzezeitliche Gewichte im Iran, am Persischen Golf und am Indus Forschungsgeschichte Typologie Material Fundkontexte und Chronologie V 157. Kuntasi 158. Nageshwar 159. Rojdi 160. Vagad 161. Rangpur 162. Lothal 163. Gonur-depe Zweifelhafte frühbronzezeitliche Gewichte Chronologische und chorologische Auswertung Gewichtssysteme der Frühbronzezeit im Iran, am Persischen Golf und am Indus Barren im Iran, am Persischen Golf und am Indus Ausblick: Gewichte und Gewichtssysteme der Mittel-und Spätbronzezeit VIII Zahlreichen Kollegen möchte ich für ihre Unterstützung, ihren Rat und die Erlaubnis, die Originalfunde in Museen und Grabungsmagazinen in Griechenland, der Türkei, England und Deutschland studieren zu dürfen, herzlich danken. Das Vergleichsmaterial aus Griechenland und der Türkei wurde in 33 dort an
Rahmstorf, L., Barjamovic, G., Ialongo, N. (eds), Merchants, Measures and Money. Understanding Technologies of Early Trade in a Comparative Perspective. Proceedings of Two Workshops Funded by the European Research Foundation (ERC). Weight & Value 2. Kiel/Hamburg: Wachholtz Verlag, 2021
The full book can be downloaded for free in high quality resolution:
https://files.wachholtz-ver... more The full book can be downloaded for free in high quality resolution:
https://files.wachholtz-verlag.de/openaccess/9783529035418.pdf
This second volume in the series collects papers from two workshops held at the University of Göt-tingen in 2019 and 2020. The international meetings tackled questions related to merchants and money in a comparative perspective, with examples spanning from the Bronze Age to the early Modern period and embracing Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia and East Africa. The first part of this volume presents historical case studies of how merchants planned and carried out commercial expeditions; how risk, cost, and potential profit was calculated; and how the value of goods was calculated and converted. The papers in the second part address current theories and methods on the development and function of money before and after the invention of coinage. The introduction of balance scales around 3000 BCE enabled the formation of overarching indexes of value and the calculation of the commercial value of goods and services. It also allowed for a selected set of commodities to take on the role of currency. Around 650 BCE, this led to the invention of coinage in the Eastern Mediterra-nean.
Weights and Marketplaces from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Period. Proceedings of Two Workshops Funded by the European Research Foundation (ERC). Weight & Value 1. Kiel/Hamburg: Wachholtz Verlag, , 2019
The full book can be downloaded for free in high quality at the attached URL at wachholtz-verlag.... more The full book can be downloaded for free in high quality at the attached URL at wachholtz-verlag.de.
How can we identify balance weights in the archaeological record? What economic changes did such objects bring about? And were formal marketplaces a usual area where such devices were used? What variety can we observe in pre-modern marketplaces worldwide? These are some of the questions which were investigated in two workshops held in 2016 and 2017 in Munich and Göttingen in Germany. The volume ‚Weights and marketplaces‘ presents 21 contributions. The theme of the first part of the volume is the identification and use of early weights from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age in Western Asia to the Early Medieval period in Northern Europe. In the second part, the phenomenology of marketplaces from the Bronze Age to the modern period is discussed within a global perspective. Both workshops were funded by the ERC-2014-CoG 'WEIGHTANDVALUE': Weight metrology and its economic and social impact on Bronze Age Europe, West and South Asia' [Grant no. 648055]. The new series ‚Weight and Value‘ publishes research stemming from this project and related investigations.
Siennicka M., Rahmstorf L., Ulanowska A. First Textiles. The Beginnings of Textile Manufacture in Europe and the Mediterranean. Proceedings of the EAA Session Held in Istanbul (2014) and the ‘First Textiles’ Conference in Copenhagen (2015). Ancient Textiles Series 32. Oxford, Philadelphia 2018, 2018
Textile production and the manufacture of clothing was one of the most essential daily activities... more Textile production and the manufacture of clothing was one of the most essential daily activities in prehistory. Textiles were significant objects of practical use, and at the same time had cultural, social and symbolic meaning, crucial for displaying the identity, gender, social rank and status, or wealth of their users. However, evidence of ancient clothing is scarce due to unfavourable preservation of organic materials. Only occasionally are prehistoric textiles and associated implements preserved, mainly as a result of exceptional environmental conditions, such as waterlogged contexts like bogs, or in very dry or cold climates. In other cases textiles are sporadically mineralised, carbonised or preserved by metal corrosion. Textiles and leather can also be visible as imprints on clay.
The beginning of textile manufacture is still vague, but can be traced back to the upper Palaeolithic. Important developments in textile technology, e.g. weaving, spinning with a spindle, introduction of wool, appeared in Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. This book is devoted to the early textile production in Europe and the Mediterranean and aims to collect and investigate the combined evidence of textile and leather remains, tools, workplaces and textile iconography.
The chapters discuss the recent achievements in the research of ancient textiles and textile production, textile techniques such as spinning, fabric and skin manufacture, use of textile tools and experimental textile archaeology. The volume explores important cultural and social aspects of textile production, and its development.
Electronic catalogue (database) of 'Lorenz Rahmstorf, Kleinfunde aus Tiryns. Terrakotta, Stein, B... more Electronic catalogue (database) of 'Lorenz Rahmstorf, Kleinfunde aus Tiryns. Terrakotta, Stein, Bein und Glas/Fayence vornehmlich aus der Spätbronzezeit. Tiryns, Forschungen und Berichte XVI. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag 2008'
Papers by Lorenz Rahmstorf
Les porteurs d’équipements de pesée de l’étape ancienne du Bronze final en France orientale dans leur contexte européen : statut et compétences, mobilité. In: I. Sénépart, E. Thirault (Hrsg.), (Im)mobiles ? Circulation, échanges des objets et des idées, mobilités, stabilités des personnes et des ..., 2023
The rich burials belonging to the “Western rilled ware cultural group” dating to the beginning of... more The rich burials belonging to the “Western rilled ware cultural group” dating to the beginning of the Late Bronze Age (14th-13th century BC) illustrate cultural mobility and the dynamic environment of the Upper Seine and Yonne valleys. The grave goods of many of these inhumation and cremation burials include various pottery vessels, tools, regionally stylised bronze adornments, rare weapons and remarkable weighing sets with small bone balance beams and weights. The weighing equipment from these burials is similar to instruments of Mediterranean type. They appear within the context of the formation of a Pan-European weight system, fuelled by local developments and external stimuli. These bearers of weighing equipment, either working on a local level or within a larger geographical area, are seen as probable artisans or merchants dealing in bronze or gold, and may have had a privileged status within Late Bronze Age society. The large number of weighing sets found in the valleys of the Upper Seine and the Yonne suggests that this area held a strategic position in controlling exchange networks in the Paris basin.
Antiquity , 2024
Investigations in the Tollense Valley in northeastern Germany have provided evidence of a large a... more Investigations in the Tollense Valley in northeastern Germany have provided evidence of a large and violent conflict in the thirteenth century BC. Typological analysis of arrowheads from the valley (10 flint and 54 bronze specimens) and comparison with type distributions in Central Europe, presented here for the first time, emphasise the supra-regional nature of the conflict. While the flint arrowheads are typical for the local Nordic Bronze Age, the bronze arrowheads show a mixture of local and non-local forms, adding to the growing evidence for a clash between local groups and at least one incoming group from southern Central Europe.
Die Kunde. Zeitschrift für niedersächsische Archäologie N. F. 71, 2020
Warum begann der Mensch zu wiegen? Jochen BÜTTNER diskutiert Fragen des Entstehungsprozesses dies... more Warum begann der Mensch zu wiegen? Jochen BÜTTNER diskutiert Fragen des Entstehungsprozesses dieser Innovation. Da solche Erörterungen sich bislang kaum finden, ist sein Beitrag sehr lesenswert. BÜTTNERS Text ist dabei eher eine theoretisierende Auseinandersetzung mit dem Phänomen, als dass archäologisches Datenmaterial en détail analysiert wird. BÜTTNER argumentiert, dass die Wiegetechnologie
aufgrund von bestimmten Voraussetzungen entstand und auf Vorstufen basierte.
Nachrichten aus Niedersachsens Urgeschichte 92, 2023
Nachruf - Obituary
Quod erat demonstrandum. Vorgeschichtliche Studien Christopher F. E. Pare gewidmet , 2022
Fifteen years ago, Christopher Pare and I jointly published a paper on stone weights with iron lu... more Fifteen years ago, Christopher Pare and I jointly published a paper on stone weights with iron lugs from sites dating to Hallstatt D and Latène A. These objects had hitherto received little attention and had been regarded as mere counterweights. In our paper, we considered the metrological function of these objects without being able to prove this with certainty. Recently, further objects of this type have been published so that the hypotheses presented in 2007 can be reconsidered on the basis of the
current state of research. In addition, I have personally studied three examples which are presented here with new illustrations.
Archäologie in Deutschland 04/2023, 2023
Funde von Gewichten und Waagen sind in der Bronzezeit relativ selten, der archäologische Nachweis... more Funde von Gewichten und Waagen sind in der Bronzezeit relativ selten, der archäologische Nachweis schwer, aber nicht unmöglich. Um hier weiterzukommen, müssen wir über Mitteleuropa hinausschauen.
Weights and Measures as a Window on Ancient Near Eastern Societies, 2023
Nearly 250 possible balance weights from excavations
of the late 19th and early 20th century1 BC ... more Nearly 250 possible balance weights from excavations
of the late 19th and early 20th century1 BC at Mesopotamian
sites of Assur, Bismaya, Fara, Nippur, Tello, and
other sites are stored in the Near Eastern Collection of
the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul. 2ey were published
only descriptively by E. Unger in 1918. A promised
volume with illustrations never appeared. In 2005, T.1H.
Zeyrek and Z. Kiziltan published a paper on 90 of these
objects illustrating them with photographs. In 2007, the
author was allowed to restudy another 31 of the objects
in the store rooms of the museum. the other objects
were either displayed in the permanent exhibition or not
accessible to me. 17 of the total 31 studied stone objects
were rather easily identified as typical Mesopotamian
weights due to their shape, material, mass and in a few
cases also due to their markings. Two weights have short
inscriptions. Of great interest is a potential cubical Indus weight from Nippur. Such typical weights of the mature
Harappan culture have been known so far only from Ur,
Susa and the Gulf outside the Indus region. However, the
object is slightly fragmented and the mass is a bit too
heavy for an easy assignment to the Indus weight standard.
2e other stone objects studied are in the shape of
Cat reels or spools and rough cubes. In these cases, their
function as balance weights is rather doubtful and cannot
yet be proven. Contextual evidence from other well
documented excavations may help to verify any potential
function of these objects. Whilst the whole sample
lacks any information about context and dating, it is still
an important addition to the rather limited corpus of suf-
ficiently published weights from ancient Mesopotamia.
"Kannelurensteine" — Balance weights of the Bronze Age. In: D. Hofmann, F. Nikulka, R. Schumann (Hrsg.), The Baltic in the Bronze Age - regional patterns, interactions and boundaries (Leiden 2022) 145-160. , 2022
In this paper, we presented a study on the so-called Kannelurensteine, in order to test the hypot... more In this paper, we presented a study on the so-called Kannelurensteine, in order to test the hypothesis that they were used as balance weights. Kannelurensteine are a widespread type in Italy, Central Europe and southern Scandinavia between c. 1500–800/700 BC. They usually show no signs of use. The association with metallurgy recurs in various regions of Europe, which suggests that the shape was connected with a specific function over a very large area. The mass values are spread out between c. 10–5000 g, and the statistical tests show that there is a very high probability that they were intentionally regulated based on a quantum of c. 450 g. The results of the statistical analysis suggest that the interpretation as balance weights is the only one, among all those that have been proposed in the past, that can explain all the typological, contextual and metrological characteristics of the Kannelurensteine.
The Enigma of the Hyksos Volume IV, 2021
In this contribution we present weights from the
Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period
a... more In this contribution we present weights from the
Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period
and the New Kingdom (c. 1800–1200 BCE) from
Tell el-Dab‛a/Avaris. These data are a rare example
of stratified sets of weights from an urban context
in Ancient Egypt. As the data cover a time-span of
more than six centuries, it is possible to investigate
changes in material (from various types of stone to
dark iron-rich sedimentary rock – ‘hematite’), in
shape (from parallelepiped to sphendonoid) and in
metrology. We test the weights currently known from
the site through Cosine Quantogram Analysis and
Frequency Distribution Analysis and compare them
to weight sets from Middle Bronze Age West Asia
and the Late Bronze Age East Mediterranean. On
the basis of the limited data available, we conclude
that the system represented by the sphendonoid
weights of Tell el-Dab‛a was compatible with both the
‘Mesopotamian’ (c. 8.3 g) and the ‘Ugaritic’ (c. 9.4 g)
shekel. The adoption and use of weights with this
specific morphology, material and metrology suggest
that, by the advanced Middle Bronze Age, Egypt was
much more incorporated in international trade than it
had been before.
Bronze 2019 20 ans de recherches Actes du colloque international anniversaire de l’APRAB Bayeux (19-22 juin 2019), 2021
Le présent article traite la question de savoir si un type de parure en or particulier de l'âge d... more Le présent article traite la question de savoir si un type de parure en or particulier de l'âge du Bronze-gold bar torc en anglais-était étalonné. Dans le cadre de nos recherches, l'accent est mis sur l'interprétation des résultats obtenus par l'analyse statistique d'un corpus de données important et de plus enplus complet ; cela s'applique particulièrement à la méthode d'analyse qui est connue sous le nom de Cosine Quantogram Analysis (CQA). Contrairement à nos attentes-et contrairement aux résultats des recherches précédentes obtenus par l'analyse statistique (CQA) des données marquantes, mais moins détaillées-il reste cependant impossible de prouver que de telles parures (gold bar torcs) soient des objets étalonnés. Enfi n, nos travaux off rent une meilleure compréhension d'une série de torques et d'autres parures en or qui sont conservées dans diff érents musées archéologiques en France. Mots-clés Parures en or, âge du Bronze atlantique, méthodes statistiques, histoire des recherches, poids et fragmentation.
Archäologie Niedersachsen, 2020
Initial discussion of grooved stones (Kanelurensteine) from the Later Bronze Age as potential bal... more Initial discussion of grooved stones (Kanelurensteine) from the Later Bronze Age as potential balance weights
Prähistorische Zeitschrift, 2022
Zusammenfassung: Das Tollensetal in Nordostdeutschland ist bekannt für die Zeugnisse eines Gewalt... more Zusammenfassung: Das Tollensetal in Nordostdeutschland ist bekannt für die Zeugnisse eines Gewaltkonfliktes aus dem frühen 13 Jh. v. Chr. (Nordische Bronzezeit, Periode III). In diesem Aufsatz wird ein Neufund aus der jüngeren Bronzezeit vorgestellt, den Ronald Borgwardt im Sommer 2020 im Fluss an einer bereits bekannten bronzezeitlichen Talquerung (Fpl. Weltzin 13) entdeckt hat. Die Bronzefigur (Länge 14,7 cm) zeigt u. a. einen eiförmigen Kopf mit prominent geformter Nase, geschwungene Arme, einen Halsring, zwei Knubben für die Brüste, einen Gürtel, eine Markierung des weiblichen Geschlechts und zwei leicht unterschiedlich geformte Beine. Im 19. Jh. wurde eine ähnliche weibliche Statuette einige Kilometer entfernt bei Klein Zastrow entdeckt, aber die meisten Figuren dieser Art sind von Seeland und aus Schonen bekannt. Nur Statuetten der Insel Seeland und aus Vorpommern haben einen Gürtel und dies spricht für eine enge Verbindung der Figuren aus diesen Gebieten. Typologische Argumente datieren die Statuette aus der Tollense in die späte Bronzezeit (Periode V-VI). Vor einigen Jahren wurden die Figuren als mögliche Gewichte diskutiert, aber ihre
PNAS, 2021
Increasing evidence shows that Bronze Age civilizations in Western Eurasia were economically inte... more Increasing evidence shows that Bronze Age civilizations in Western Eurasia were economically interdependent for the procurement of essential raw materials. While this phenomenon hints at the possible formation of the first integrated market in history, recent models do not tackle its macroeconomic implications. Here, we address the customary regulation of weight systems as a measure of market integration. We show that Western Eurasian weight systems are consistent with the origin from a single unit. The information flow was efficient enough to regulate the statistical dispersion of weight systems on a continental scale, without any substantial intervention from political authorities. We argue that this suggests that the market had a concrete potential for an efficient reaction to price fluctuations.
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.
This open access article is distributed un.
der Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
Uploads
Books by Lorenz Rahmstorf
https://files.wachholtz-verlag.de/openaccess/9783529035418.pdf
This second volume in the series collects papers from two workshops held at the University of Göt-tingen in 2019 and 2020. The international meetings tackled questions related to merchants and money in a comparative perspective, with examples spanning from the Bronze Age to the early Modern period and embracing Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia and East Africa. The first part of this volume presents historical case studies of how merchants planned and carried out commercial expeditions; how risk, cost, and potential profit was calculated; and how the value of goods was calculated and converted. The papers in the second part address current theories and methods on the development and function of money before and after the invention of coinage. The introduction of balance scales around 3000 BCE enabled the formation of overarching indexes of value and the calculation of the commercial value of goods and services. It also allowed for a selected set of commodities to take on the role of currency. Around 650 BCE, this led to the invention of coinage in the Eastern Mediterra-nean.
How can we identify balance weights in the archaeological record? What economic changes did such objects bring about? And were formal marketplaces a usual area where such devices were used? What variety can we observe in pre-modern marketplaces worldwide? These are some of the questions which were investigated in two workshops held in 2016 and 2017 in Munich and Göttingen in Germany. The volume ‚Weights and marketplaces‘ presents 21 contributions. The theme of the first part of the volume is the identification and use of early weights from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age in Western Asia to the Early Medieval period in Northern Europe. In the second part, the phenomenology of marketplaces from the Bronze Age to the modern period is discussed within a global perspective. Both workshops were funded by the ERC-2014-CoG 'WEIGHTANDVALUE': Weight metrology and its economic and social impact on Bronze Age Europe, West and South Asia' [Grant no. 648055]. The new series ‚Weight and Value‘ publishes research stemming from this project and related investigations.
The beginning of textile manufacture is still vague, but can be traced back to the upper Palaeolithic. Important developments in textile technology, e.g. weaving, spinning with a spindle, introduction of wool, appeared in Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. This book is devoted to the early textile production in Europe and the Mediterranean and aims to collect and investigate the combined evidence of textile and leather remains, tools, workplaces and textile iconography.
The chapters discuss the recent achievements in the research of ancient textiles and textile production, textile techniques such as spinning, fabric and skin manufacture, use of textile tools and experimental textile archaeology. The volume explores important cultural and social aspects of textile production, and its development.
Papers by Lorenz Rahmstorf
aufgrund von bestimmten Voraussetzungen entstand und auf Vorstufen basierte.
current state of research. In addition, I have personally studied three examples which are presented here with new illustrations.
of the late 19th and early 20th century1 BC at Mesopotamian
sites of Assur, Bismaya, Fara, Nippur, Tello, and
other sites are stored in the Near Eastern Collection of
the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul. 2ey were published
only descriptively by E. Unger in 1918. A promised
volume with illustrations never appeared. In 2005, T.1H.
Zeyrek and Z. Kiziltan published a paper on 90 of these
objects illustrating them with photographs. In 2007, the
author was allowed to restudy another 31 of the objects
in the store rooms of the museum. the other objects
were either displayed in the permanent exhibition or not
accessible to me. 17 of the total 31 studied stone objects
were rather easily identified as typical Mesopotamian
weights due to their shape, material, mass and in a few
cases also due to their markings. Two weights have short
inscriptions. Of great interest is a potential cubical Indus weight from Nippur. Such typical weights of the mature
Harappan culture have been known so far only from Ur,
Susa and the Gulf outside the Indus region. However, the
object is slightly fragmented and the mass is a bit too
heavy for an easy assignment to the Indus weight standard.
2e other stone objects studied are in the shape of
Cat reels or spools and rough cubes. In these cases, their
function as balance weights is rather doubtful and cannot
yet be proven. Contextual evidence from other well
documented excavations may help to verify any potential
function of these objects. Whilst the whole sample
lacks any information about context and dating, it is still
an important addition to the rather limited corpus of suf-
ficiently published weights from ancient Mesopotamia.
Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period
and the New Kingdom (c. 1800–1200 BCE) from
Tell el-Dab‛a/Avaris. These data are a rare example
of stratified sets of weights from an urban context
in Ancient Egypt. As the data cover a time-span of
more than six centuries, it is possible to investigate
changes in material (from various types of stone to
dark iron-rich sedimentary rock – ‘hematite’), in
shape (from parallelepiped to sphendonoid) and in
metrology. We test the weights currently known from
the site through Cosine Quantogram Analysis and
Frequency Distribution Analysis and compare them
to weight sets from Middle Bronze Age West Asia
and the Late Bronze Age East Mediterranean. On
the basis of the limited data available, we conclude
that the system represented by the sphendonoid
weights of Tell el-Dab‛a was compatible with both the
‘Mesopotamian’ (c. 8.3 g) and the ‘Ugaritic’ (c. 9.4 g)
shekel. The adoption and use of weights with this
specific morphology, material and metrology suggest
that, by the advanced Middle Bronze Age, Egypt was
much more incorporated in international trade than it
had been before.
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.
This open access article is distributed un.
der Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
https://files.wachholtz-verlag.de/openaccess/9783529035418.pdf
This second volume in the series collects papers from two workshops held at the University of Göt-tingen in 2019 and 2020. The international meetings tackled questions related to merchants and money in a comparative perspective, with examples spanning from the Bronze Age to the early Modern period and embracing Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia and East Africa. The first part of this volume presents historical case studies of how merchants planned and carried out commercial expeditions; how risk, cost, and potential profit was calculated; and how the value of goods was calculated and converted. The papers in the second part address current theories and methods on the development and function of money before and after the invention of coinage. The introduction of balance scales around 3000 BCE enabled the formation of overarching indexes of value and the calculation of the commercial value of goods and services. It also allowed for a selected set of commodities to take on the role of currency. Around 650 BCE, this led to the invention of coinage in the Eastern Mediterra-nean.
How can we identify balance weights in the archaeological record? What economic changes did such objects bring about? And were formal marketplaces a usual area where such devices were used? What variety can we observe in pre-modern marketplaces worldwide? These are some of the questions which were investigated in two workshops held in 2016 and 2017 in Munich and Göttingen in Germany. The volume ‚Weights and marketplaces‘ presents 21 contributions. The theme of the first part of the volume is the identification and use of early weights from the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age in Western Asia to the Early Medieval period in Northern Europe. In the second part, the phenomenology of marketplaces from the Bronze Age to the modern period is discussed within a global perspective. Both workshops were funded by the ERC-2014-CoG 'WEIGHTANDVALUE': Weight metrology and its economic and social impact on Bronze Age Europe, West and South Asia' [Grant no. 648055]. The new series ‚Weight and Value‘ publishes research stemming from this project and related investigations.
The beginning of textile manufacture is still vague, but can be traced back to the upper Palaeolithic. Important developments in textile technology, e.g. weaving, spinning with a spindle, introduction of wool, appeared in Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. This book is devoted to the early textile production in Europe and the Mediterranean and aims to collect and investigate the combined evidence of textile and leather remains, tools, workplaces and textile iconography.
The chapters discuss the recent achievements in the research of ancient textiles and textile production, textile techniques such as spinning, fabric and skin manufacture, use of textile tools and experimental textile archaeology. The volume explores important cultural and social aspects of textile production, and its development.
aufgrund von bestimmten Voraussetzungen entstand und auf Vorstufen basierte.
current state of research. In addition, I have personally studied three examples which are presented here with new illustrations.
of the late 19th and early 20th century1 BC at Mesopotamian
sites of Assur, Bismaya, Fara, Nippur, Tello, and
other sites are stored in the Near Eastern Collection of
the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul. 2ey were published
only descriptively by E. Unger in 1918. A promised
volume with illustrations never appeared. In 2005, T.1H.
Zeyrek and Z. Kiziltan published a paper on 90 of these
objects illustrating them with photographs. In 2007, the
author was allowed to restudy another 31 of the objects
in the store rooms of the museum. the other objects
were either displayed in the permanent exhibition or not
accessible to me. 17 of the total 31 studied stone objects
were rather easily identified as typical Mesopotamian
weights due to their shape, material, mass and in a few
cases also due to their markings. Two weights have short
inscriptions. Of great interest is a potential cubical Indus weight from Nippur. Such typical weights of the mature
Harappan culture have been known so far only from Ur,
Susa and the Gulf outside the Indus region. However, the
object is slightly fragmented and the mass is a bit too
heavy for an easy assignment to the Indus weight standard.
2e other stone objects studied are in the shape of
Cat reels or spools and rough cubes. In these cases, their
function as balance weights is rather doubtful and cannot
yet be proven. Contextual evidence from other well
documented excavations may help to verify any potential
function of these objects. Whilst the whole sample
lacks any information about context and dating, it is still
an important addition to the rather limited corpus of suf-
ficiently published weights from ancient Mesopotamia.
Middle Kingdom, the Second Intermediate Period
and the New Kingdom (c. 1800–1200 BCE) from
Tell el-Dab‛a/Avaris. These data are a rare example
of stratified sets of weights from an urban context
in Ancient Egypt. As the data cover a time-span of
more than six centuries, it is possible to investigate
changes in material (from various types of stone to
dark iron-rich sedimentary rock – ‘hematite’), in
shape (from parallelepiped to sphendonoid) and in
metrology. We test the weights currently known from
the site through Cosine Quantogram Analysis and
Frequency Distribution Analysis and compare them
to weight sets from Middle Bronze Age West Asia
and the Late Bronze Age East Mediterranean. On
the basis of the limited data available, we conclude
that the system represented by the sphendonoid
weights of Tell el-Dab‛a was compatible with both the
‘Mesopotamian’ (c. 8.3 g) and the ‘Ugaritic’ (c. 9.4 g)
shekel. The adoption and use of weights with this
specific morphology, material and metrology suggest
that, by the advanced Middle Bronze Age, Egypt was
much more incorporated in international trade than it
had been before.
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.
This open access article is distributed un.
der Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
Weight metrology came in use in the Indus region (= the Indus valley and west Indian regions) during the transitional phase from Pre- to Mature Harappan (c. 2800–2600 BCE). It is highly interesting to note that this innovation appeared around 3100–2800 BCE in Syro-Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Aegean and Anatolia. This chronological compliance as well as the feasible metrological conversions between the Indus weight standard and western units makes it likely that the notion of weighing was not independently developed in the Indus but adopted as a concept from the West. However, it was locally interpreted in a very specific way. This and other ground-breaking innovations such as seals facilitated the precise assessment and documentation of value and enabled commercial trade for the first time. Hence the case of weights provides crucial insights into the problem of the formation of the Harappan civilization during the second quarter of the third millennium BCE.
within the archaeology of ancient Egypt. Weights
dating from the Middle Kingdom are mainly flat
and rectangular; the common unit is called dbn and
weighs c. 13–14 grams. The metrological system
changed in the New Kingdom to a dbn of c. 90–95
grams, subdivided into ten qdt. Not only the system
but also shape and material were subject to change
as weights dating to the New Kingdom are often
sphendonoids and frequently consist of dark iron oxide
as a distinctive material, not used in Egypt for weights
before the Second Intermediate Period. As such shapes
and material were common for weights in Syria and
Mesopotamia since the Early Bronze Age, it is a likely
hypothesis that the fundamental change in Egypt can
be linked to the rule of the Hyksos. This assumption
is further supported by the fact that the dbn of the
New Kingdom, divided by twelve, corresponds with
the ‘Syrian shekel’ of c. 9–9.5 g. This weight unit
was widely used in the eastern Mediterranean and
facilitated international trade in the Late Bronze Age.
Excavations at Tell el-Dabʿa/Avaris produced about 50
weights dating to the Second Intermediate Period and
the early New Kingdom. They are made of iron oxide,
are often sphendonoids and confirm the use of shekel
weighing system, both ‘Syrian’ and ‘Mesopotamian’
(c. 8.1–8.5 grams). One assemblage, consisting of two
sets of weights, derived from a richly furnished tomb
in Area A/I, dating to the Hyksos period (Stratum D/3,
Middle Bronze Age IIB–C). As the tombs of this area
remained unpublished, they are introduced entirely
within the scope of this article. The weights from Tell
el-Dabʿa contribute to the understanding of the time
of the Hyksos as a period in which many innovations
reached Egypt from the east, and consisted not only
of tools for warfare (e.g., chariot, composite bow), but
also of tools for trade.
<<This book is one of the results of the collaborative research
project ‘First Textiles. The Beginnings of Textile Manufacture
in Europe and the Mediterranean’, implemented in 2013–
2017 at the University of Copenhagen. The project was
designed to elucidate the beginnings of textile manufacture,
tools and techniques in the Epipalaeolithic, Neolithic and
Early Bronze Age in Europe and the Mediterranean. Its
aim was to bring together scholars who work on actual
remains of prehistoric fabrics, undertake scientific analyses,
deal with textile technologies and implements, study
archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological material, and focus
on ethnographic evidence and experimental approach to
textile studies. We sought to discuss latest advances in the
methodologies, technologies, material and scientific studies,
as well as recent archaeological finds associated with the
earliest textiles.
The main activities of the project consisted of the
organisation of two international scientific meetings and the
subsequent publication of their proceedings, incorporated in
the present volume.>>
einen kurzen Abriss der Nutzungsgeschichte von Waagen und Gewichten in bronzezeitlichen Anatolien zu
bieten. Hierbei handelt es sich um eine Momentaufnahme, die vor allem neue Erkenntnisse der letzten Jahre referiert. Die rasante Veränderung des Forschungsstandes zeigt sich dadurch, dass neue Ergebnisse zur Gewichtsnutzung in den einzelnen Epochen der anatolischen Bronzezeit erst in den letzten Jahren erschienen sind: zur Frühbronzezeit (Horejs 2016), zur Mittelbronzezeit (Dercksen 2016) und zur Spätbronzezeit (Müller-Karpe 2015).
Please note that Kulakoğlu 2017 appeared to late to be included in the paper. See: F. Kulakoğlu, Balance stone weights and scale-pans from Kültepe-Kanesh: On one of the basic elements of the Old Assyrian trading system. In: Ç. Maner/M.T. Horowitz/A. S. Gilbert (ed.), Overturning certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology. A Festschrift in honor of K. Aslıhan Yener (Leiden 2017) 341–402.
field of the most ancient textiles and textile techniques in primarily Europe, Asia and North
Africa in the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age (ca. 8th-3rd millennia BC); the application of
varied interdisciplinary methods of systematic analysis of textiles, such as studies on the most
ancient textile remains, basketry, mat and textile imprints in clay; textile tools (e.g. spindle
whorls, loom weights, needles, shuttles); experiments with copies of ancient textile
implements; and recently developed scientific methods of analysing textiles and recognising
the provenience of fibres. These all offer important insights into the oldest textile techniques,
their beginnings and development throughout prehistory.
Understanding Money in a Comparative Perspective
International Online Workshop
Georg-August-University Göttingen (Germany), Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichte
The workshop will be held on the video conferencing app Zoom.
Mobility and the exchange of ideas and goods between human beings is a prerequisite for technological and cultural development. Once merchants were present, such specialists have shared a common set of problems: they had to plan and execute commercial expeditions, calculate risks, costs, and potential profit, and assess and convert the material value of one good into another. This workshop investigates concrete historical cases of how such problems were addressed in a multicultural and diachronic perspective. Focus is on the tools and infrastructure of trade. By comparing technologies and infrastructure of trade from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern period in Eurasia and Africa, we seek to identify general and particular taxonomies and aspects of such technologies, and to define exemplary tool-kits of traders through time and space.
In the scope of this second workshop of the ERC project WEIGHTANDVALUE various issues related to the study of ancient marketplaces will be discussed within a comparative perspective. The discussions will include the problem of identifying such sites, their morphology, their geographical location and structures connected therewith, and their significance as places of exchange and control. The uses and systems of weights & scales, coins or other standardized procedures during exchange, as well as the functional relation of markteplaces to places of worship shall further be focussed on.