What were the types of currency used in ancient Mesopotamia?
Upvote:8
First, it is important to understand that the economic system of ancient Mesopotamia was something much closer to a barter system than a modern market. Money did exist, but not in the fully standardized form we are used to today. Here is a relevant article which explains:
Although Babylon had flourishing trading activity, Hammurabi did not come up with token money in the form of coins with a royal stamp as emerged in Lydia, Asia Minor and Greece around 650 B.C. (Mundell, 2002). However, money was in use in the form of commodity money. For example, a shekel is expressed in terms of weight. Fines and compensations in The Code are expressed in terms of weight in silver.
While I only see shekels mentioned in Harper's translation of the Code, two of the other units you mentioned are also apparently common ancient units of weight in silver. Specifically:
1 shekel = 20 gerah
1 mina = 60 shekel = 1,200 gerah
I'm not sure if it is known what exactly a shekel of silver was under Hammurabi. According to Britannica:
In one surviving form, from the Babylonian period, the mina weighs about 640 grams (about 23 ounces), while in another it weighs 978 grams (about 34 ounces).
So if my math isn't wrong, a shekel might have been something like 10.7 - 16.3 grams of silver.
The two other units you mention (gur and ka) are a bit different, at least within the Code of Hammurabi, as they are only used as units of grain, or in one instance, drink. Here is an amateur attempt to work out general equivalencies between grain and silver in the Code, but as you mention, it all gets pretty confusing.
===
Edit in response to comment from @LangLangC.
The role of barter in ancient economies in general and in Mesopotamia has been prominently downplayed by Modern Monetary Theory. But as far as I know, these theoretical debates around the origins of money don't dispute the fundamental historical point made above: the shekel in the Code of Hammurabi is a unit of weight in silver, and this is as close as you are going to get to a single abstract unit of account in ancient Mesopotamia.
That said, the Hudson article linked to by @LangLangC does highlight a point which is extremely relevant:
A bimonetary system was created for paying the palace and temples and for valuing disparate commodities and functions, by setting the shekel-weight of silver (8 grams) as equal to a gur “quart” of grain or 300 sila. Acceptability of grain and silver for settling official debt balances catalyzed their usage as money throughout the economy.
This policy that 1 shekel of silver should be equal to 1 gur of grain apparently predates the Code of Hamurabi by about 200 years.
More post
- 📝 Did Hitler plan a war with his allies?
- 📝 WW1: What would happen if an aerial bomb was dropped from too high an altitude?
- 📝 Why weren't the Barons of the Court of Exchequer Barons as peers?
- 📝 Explosive Ordinance Yield Over History
- 📝 What is Revolutionary Monotheism?
- 📝 What can be considered to be the single most important reason for the decline of muslim Golden Age?
- 📝 Where is the Nemesis?
- 📝 Why was ancient Christianity more successful than the Roman pantheon and Judaism in gaining followers?
- 📝 In Canada, is it true that when Mormons first arrived (1887) they weren't allowed to settle within 50km of Lethbridge?
- 📝 Was the interior of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople ever covered with mosaic icons?
- 📝 In WWI, which countries used prisoners as soldiers?
- 📝 Athenian tribute lists
- 📝 Did the USA government aided Spanish Dictator Franco?
- 📝 Was the US dollar, the Soviet reserve currency too?
- 📝 Why were Roman gladiators "expensive"?
- 📝 How were little children dressed in medieval times?
- 📝 Did the Roundheads/Commonwealth of England receive any ideological sympathy abroad?
- 📝 How did the ruling class in the Muslim world react to the discovery and colonization of the Americas?
- 📝 What are some of earliest examples of independent journalism?
- 📝 Would the original readers of Lewis Carroll's books have made connections between the experiences in the books and drug use?
- 📝 Why didn't France do a better job of "politically" protecting franc-tireurs during the Franco_Prussian War?
- 📝 Why did King Charles II cede New Amsterdam / New York to his brother James, Duke of York, in 1664?
- 📝 Besides armed insurrection what other resistance was offered by American slaves?
- 📝 What was the most accurate map of the world before artificial satellites?
- 📝 How was the safety of allied leaders ensured in transportation for conferences during WW2?
- 📝 What is Caucasian pepper?
- 📝 Hugh Dowding v. William Sholto Douglas?
- 📝 Most significant Congressional Leaders in US History?
- 📝 How was occupied France governed during World War II?
- 📝 How did historical peoples deal with choking?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What were the types of currency used in ancient Mesopotamia?
- 📝 What were the typical types of ships used in the Persian Navy in the 1730's and 1740's?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What were the first local currency systems in history?
- 📝 What were the thoughts of the Celts, Romans and other ancient European people about the standing stones which survive from prehistoric times?
- 📝 What were the ethnic backgrounds of the slaves in Ancient Greece?
- 📝 What weapons were manufactured in India by the British forces which were used during world wars?
- 📝 What was the official currency used in North Carolina in 1814?
- 📝 During the Sengoku-jidai, what were shinobi (aka ninja) used for?
- 📝 What were the requirements for Ancient Greek colonist groups?
- 📝 What Were the Types of Sieges?
- 📝 What trains were used on the Dakar-Niger Railway in the late 1950s and early 1960s?
- 📝 What containers were used for food prior to the industrial era?
- 📝 What were the rights and statuses of different types of Roman colonies?
- 📝 What coin denominations were used in the US before Dollars and Cents?
- 📝 What type of ferry boats were used in England in the early 19th century?
- 📝 What sort(s) of identification were used before driver's licenses were issued in the US?
- 📝 What did people used to exchange for goods during the 1920s German hyperinflation while the official currency was not trusted
- 📝 What materials would have been used in the ancient Mesopotamian crown?
- 📝 What were the business models of real estate development in ancient Rome?
- 📝 To What Extent Were St. Augustine's Just War Principles Used In The First Crusade?
- 📝 What were the most used drugs in battles and wars?
- 📝 What was the calendar used by ancient Palmyrenes?
- 📝 Besides the Hebrews, were there any other ancient cults that used salt in animal sacrifices?
- 📝 What types of Poison gasses were used in World War 1?
- 📝 What were the demographics of the ancient Greek colonies of Cyprus (any population estimates from 500BCE to 1BCE will do)?
- 📝 What were the names of these two Ancient Greek boxing/pankration legends?
- 📝 What field guns, howitzers and mortars were used by the Indian Army and the Pakistan Army during the 1971 war?
- 📝 What colors were used as paint in the construction of the ziggurats in early Sumer?
- 📝 What cars were used with the Crocodile Class Ce 6/8 locomotive during its active years, especially at the beginning?