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Weight-Based Trade and the Formation of a Global Network: Material Correlates of Market Exchange in Pre-literate Bronze Age Europe (c. 2300–800 BC)

In: Ancient Economies in Comparative Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Nicola Ialongo

    (University of Göttingen, Seminar für Ur- und Frühgeschichte)

Abstract

The essay will present and discuss a group of weighing scale masses, recently identified in different contexts in the Bronze Age Aeolian Islands. Outside from Greece the Aeolian masses appear to be the most ancient in Europe. Statistical analyses prove that the masses are similar, in form and weight, to the ones that would be in use in central Europe several centuries later. The Aeolian weight system corresponds also to the ones in use in the contemporary Eastern Mediterranean. The weighing scale masses will be analysed in the context of the long-distance trade that took place in the European continent during the II millennium B.C. The studies on the origins of raw materials (mainly copper) suggest the existence of a network of exchanges on a continental scale characterised by a marked difference between the scattered distribution of sources of copper and the uniform presence of finished products. Regional differences in measure systems had to be converted to allow such long-distance trade. Weight systems could become a conventional mean to express the economic expectations of individual agents.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicola Ialongo, 2022. "Weight-Based Trade and the Formation of a Global Network: Material Correlates of Market Exchange in Pre-literate Bronze Age Europe (c. 2300–800 BC)," Frontiers in Economic History, in: Marcella Frangipane & Monika Poettinger & Bertram Schefold (ed.), Ancient Economies in Comparative Perspective, pages 207-232, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:frochp:978-3-031-08763-9_11
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-08763-9_11
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