New Money in the Ancient World

Money is one of those things we take for granted. (Its existence in general, not its reliable presence in our own bank accounts.) Writing fiction in a world before coinage existed changes that presumption.

Crumbling Empires

Interestingly, history perches right on the edge of the invention of money in the Late Bronze Age around the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, and the rest of the Near East. As the Bronze Age empires crumble, people desire “portable wealth.” Trade routes become less secure. The need arises for a convenient exchange medium. (The beautiful Phoenician coin from Tyre in the photo at top is from a much later period, 346 BCE, photo wiki)

Iron Age Money

During the Iron Age, true money comes into being. It starts as bits of silver, often cut from jewelry or other prestige items. People stop displaying these items as signs of power. Archaeologists find hordes of this silver. Gradually, instead of chopped up pre-existing items, the hordes contain silver cut from ingots. That’s moving toward coinage.

Ancient Near East Today Article

Recently The Ancient Near East Today published an interesting article on this subject. The emergence of money provides an intriguing angle to look at society in transition and crisis. The author’s conclusion especially struck me:

“Rather than the spread in the use of money being indicative of a growing and expanding economy, the opposite appears to be the case here: as the international trade networks of the Late Bronze Age world suffered disintegration, people opted to liquidate the precious metal items they had, thereby giving rise to a new money economy. While this doesn’t mean that, historically, a prestige/display economy and a money economy are mutually exclusive, it does offer an insight into the tension between these two.”

Click here to read “A New Money Economy at the Dawn of the Iron Age” in The Ancient Near East Today.

Here for a post, “Early Money: the Ancient Near East and Lydia”