1999 Money in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. In J. G. Dercksen (ed.), Trade and Finance in Ancient Mesopotamia (Leiden 1999) 127-157

P. Notizia, A. Rositani, L. Verderame (eds.), dNisaba za3-mi2 : Ancient Near Eastern Studies in Honor of Francesco Pomponio, dubsar 19, Zaphon: Münster, 181-197., 2021

ĝiš-rin2 sa ak pu2 niĝ2-ĝiri3-a-kam dam-gar3 ku-li-ni-ir lu2 na-an-tuku-tuku "Weighing scales made with a net are a trap made for the feet; A man should not take a merchant for his friend" SP 3.64 (Alster 1997, 92

in P. Carlier†, Fr. Joannès, Fr. Rougemont, J. Zurbach (Eds.), PALATIAL ECONOMY IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND IN THE AEGEAN FIRST STEPS TOWARDS A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY AND ANALYSIS Acts of the ESF Exploratory Workshop held in Sèvres, 16-19 Sept. 2010, PISA – ROMA FABRIZIO SERRA – EDITORE MMXVI [2017]

The reader should note that this paper was delivered in 2010, and published a full seven years later! Even by the slow pace of ANE studies, this delay is significant, and poses a few problems of updatings and supersessions. But so be it: the author hopes that it may still be useful to some.

The "Metallist" origin of money, used as a medium of exchange, is based on the presumed low efficiency of barter. However, barter is usually ill-defined and archaeological evidence about it is inconclusive. Moreover, the transaction costs associated with barter seem to have been exaggerated by metallists. Indeed, the introduction of a unit of account reduces the complexity of the relative prices system usually associated with barter. Similarly, in-kind transactions have timing constraints which are often labeled as "the double coincidence of wants"; with a system of debt and credit, delayed exchange, that is lending, is possible. Such adaptability of barter is confirmed by the study of Mesopotamian and ancient Egyptian palatial economies. They provide evidence that non-monetary transactions have persisted during millennia, challenging the metallist vision about the origin of money.

Al-Adab Journal

Ancient Iraq is very well known as an agricultural economic country, especially, the middle and the southern parts of Mesopotamia, which was called “the Land of Sumer and Akkad “, it's a very rich agricultural country. Sumer's economy was based on agriculture, fishing, and cattle and sheep breeding. Lived on the products of the fertile, irrigated soil, and this situation was clearly reflected in the cuneiform texts unearthed from many sites from the third and second millennium BC. And due to the young geological composition of Mesopotamia, the alluvial plain of ancient Sumer lacked so much important raw materials, these of materials were needed by the craftsmen of Sumer and Akkad for the industry, works of art and daily life. These raw material were, deferent kinds of stone, timber, and metal, therefore, the need for these materials led to exchange what the people had from the agricultural production and industrial goods and material produced by the workshops of temple or pa...

Merchants, Measures and Money: Understanding Technologies of Early Trade in a Comparative Perspective , 2021

is second volume in the series collects papers from two workshops held at the University of Göttingen in 2019 and 2020. e 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. e rst part of this volume presents historical case studies of how merchants planned and carried out commercial expeditions; how risk, cost, and potential pro t was calculated; and how the value of goods was calculated and converted. e papers in the second part address current theories and methods on the development and function of money before and a er the invention of coinage. e 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 Mediterranean.

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 48(3), 2005

For some products in the Ur III period, a sufficient number of texts provide their silver equivalences, and the ancient value of the products can be estimated. This paper suggests that we should envision two exchange systems in the Ur III period, which operated within two separate and rather different economic spheres. Local exchange took place, at a stated time and place, for the purpose of individual exchange of goods and services. Through this exchange, regular people would obtain a number of different necessities of life that were not provided by the temple and palace households. This was a barter exchange and the silver values encountered in the Ur III texts do not relate to this exchange. Silver was only used in large-scale transactions of goods and in more significant sales of real estate, humans or livestock. Although we may assume that there was a connection between the official silver equivalences and the actual values of the products and commodities in the local exchange, minor fluctuations and changes in the large-scale exchange system would not affect the bartering values in the local exchange.

OLD ASSYRIAN METAL TRADE, ITS VOLUME AND INTERACTIONS-Belleten, 2019

Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde der Morgenland. Band 104, 2014

Review Article of Ouyang, Xaoli: Monetary Role of Silver and its Administration in Mesopotamia during the Ur III Period (c. 2112-2004 BCE). A Case Study of the Umma Province. Madrid: CSIC 2013, (BPOA 11).

Notae-Numismaticae-Zapiski Numizmatyczne XVI, 2021

Review