Metric Systems and Trade Activities in Eastern Mediterranean Pre-coinage Societies

Year 2011, Issue: 10 , 21 - 40 , 01.06.2011

Anna Michailidou

https://izlik.org/JA76FZ36KE

Abstract

In regard to Trade Activities, it is currently accepted by archaeologists that obsidian and the spondylus shell were among the earliest goods transported from specific sources to wider areas and are, for this reason regarded as possible indicators of large-scale “trade”, from the Neolithic period onwards. As has been mentioned in a recent article referring to obsidian found in Crete in particular at the Bronze Age sites of Malia and Knossos , there, most of the obsidian was of Aegean provenance deriving from the Cycladic island of Melos , although some blades and nodules from inland Anatolia - East Göllü Dağ in Cappadocia - were also found Carter – Kilikoglou 2007; Panagiotaki 1999: 25- 27 . On the other hand, Melian obsidian, rather than obsidian of Cappadocian provenance, was used along the west coast of Anatolia in the Neolithic Age Doğan – Michailidou 2008, 28-29 . In general, archaeologists feel rather uneasy when confronted with trading activities and begin to wonder how acceptable the use of the term trade is when dealing with the pre-coinage societies of the Second Millennium Bronze Age.

Keywords

balance-weights , value , merchant , Aegean , Akrotiri

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