Research Article
BibTex RIS Cite

Old Assyrian Metal Trade, its Volume and Interactions

Year 2019, Volume: 83 Issue: 298, 779 - 806, 22.12.2019

Hakan Erol

https://doi.org/10.37879/belleten.2019.779

Abstract

The subject of this study consists of some consequences of a research project which was supported by The Scientifi c and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK). In the scope of this project, all metals that attested in Kultepe texts have been evaluated. The main target of this research is to fi nd answers to some questions related to the metals and metal trade, which are recorded in a wide range of Kultepe texts. The attestations of gold, silver, tin, iron, copper, lead, antimony and bronze alloy have been searched in a database which includes more than 12 thousand Kultepe texts most of which are unpublished. Each of the information related to these metals, such as their volumes, origins, fi nal destinations, kinds, qualities, and prices against mostly silver has been gathered and evaluated. For example, the following results about the gold have been gained by the research in Kultepe text: The total weight of gold in all available texts is about 480 kg. Out of this sum, only about 92 kg of gold was shipped from Anatolia to Assur. Assyrian traders gained the gold mainly from the Anatolian cities of Wahšušana, Purušhattum and Šalatuwar respectively. The price of gold against silver ranges from 1:3 1/3 to 1:15. The most precious kind of gold attested in the texts is liqtum and the cheapest one is HU.SÁ (red) gold. On the other hand, the most demanded or common kinds of gold were pašallum and kupuršinnum.

Keywords

Old Assyrian Ancient Anatolia Colony Period Commerce Metals

References

  • BIBLIOGRAPHIA
  • Albayrak, İrfan “Uṣur-ša-İštar Arşivinden Bakır Ticareti ile ilgili Bir Mektup”, (ed.) S. Erkut ve Ö. S. Gavaz, Studies in Honour of Ahmet Ünal Armağanı, Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, İstanbul (2016), p. 25-34.
  • Balkan, Kemal, Mama Kralı Anum-Hirbi’nin Kaniš Kralı Waršama’ya Gönderdiği Mektup, TTKY 7-31, Ankara 1957.
  • Barjamovic, Gojko, “The Geography of Trade - Assyrian Colonies in Anatolia c. 1975- 1725 B.C. and the Study of Early Interregional Networks of Exchange,” (ed.) J.G.
  • Dercksen, Anatolia and the Jazira during the Old Assyrian Period (PIHANS Ill. OAAS 3), Leiden, (2008), p. 87-100.
  • ________, A Historical Geography of Anatolia in the Old Assyrian Colony Period, CNI Publications 38, Copenhagen 2011.
  • ________, “A Commercial Geography of Anatolia: Integrating Hittite and Assyrian Texts, Archaeology and Topography”, (ed.) M. Weeden ve L. Z. Ullmann, Brill, Leiden/Boston (2017), p. 311-318.
  • Barjamovic, Gojko-Hertel, Thomas-Larsen, Mogens T., Ups and Downs at Kanesh-Observations on Chronology, History and Society in the Old Assyrian Period, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 2012.
  • Çeçen, Salih, “Kaniš Kārum’unun Diğer Kārum ve Wabartumlar’a ‘KÙ.AN’ (amutum) ile ilgili Önemli Talimatları”, Belleten LXI/231, (1997), p. 219-232.
  • Çeçen, Salih-Erol, Hakan, “Kültepe’den Değişik Bir Ticari Mal Listesi”, Archivum Anatolicum 12/2, (2018), p. 53-76.
  • de Jesus, Pretiss S., “Metal Resources in Ancient Anatolia”, Anatolian Studies, 28, (1978), p. 97-102.
  • ________, The Development of Prehistoric Mining and Metallurgy in Anatolia, Part I, B.A.R. International Series 74, Oxford 1980.
  • Dercksen, J. Gerrit, The Old Assyrian Copper Trade in Anatolia, PIHANS 75, Leiden/İstanbul 1996.
  • ________, Old Assyrian Institutions, PIHANS 98, Leiden 2004.
  • ________, “Some Elements of Old Anatolian Society in Kaniš”, (ed.) J. G. Dercksen, Assyria and Beyond, Studies Presented to Mogens Trolle Larsen, Nederlands Instituut het Nabije Oosten, Leiden (2004), p. 137-178.
  • ________, “Metals According to Documents from Kültepe-Kanish Dating to the Old Assyrian Colony Period”, (ed.) Ü. Yalçın, Anatolian Metal III, Der Anschnitt, Beiheft 18, Bochum (2005), p. 17-34.
  • ________, “The Goddess Who was Robbed of her Jewellery. Ishtar and her Priest in an Assyrian Colony”, Anatolica 41 (2015), p. 37-60.
  • ________, “Zinn”, Reallexikon der Assyriologie, (2017), p. 301-304.
  • Donbaz, Veysel, “More Old Assyrian Tablets from Assur”, Akkadica 42, (1985), p. 1-23.
  • Emre, Kutlu, Anadolu Kurşun Figürinleri ve Taş Kalıpları, TTKY, Ankara 1971.
  • Forlanini, Massimo, “The historical geography of Anatolia and the transition from the karum-period to the Early Hittite Empire,” (ed.) J. G. Dercksen Anatolia and the Jazira during the Old Assyrian Period. (OAAS 3. PIHANS 111), (Leiden), p. 57-86.
  • Gökçek, L. Gürkan, “Kültepe Vesikalarında Geçen Nesnelerin Fiyatları”, (ed.) M. Şahin, II. Kayseri ve Yöresi Tarih Sempozyumu Bildirileri (16-17 Nisan 1998), Kayseri (1998), p. 155-170.
  • Günbattı, Cahit, “An Aponym List (KEL G) from Kultepe”, Altorientalische Forschungen 35, (2008), p. 103–132. Kulakoğlu, Fikri-Kangal, Selmin (ed.), Anadolu’nun Önsözü, Kültepe Kaniş-Karumu, Asurlular İstanbul’da, (Katalog), Kayseri Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları No: 78, İstanbul 2011.
  • Landsberger, Benno,“Kommt Hattum, “Hethiterland” und Hattium, “Hethiter”, in den Kültepe Tafeln vor?”, Archiv Orientálni 18/I-II (1950), p. 329-350.
  • Larsen, Mogens T., Old Assyrian Caravan Procedures, PIHANS, 22, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1967.
  • ________, “Partnerships in the Old Assyrian Trade”, Iraq , 39 , p. 119–49 .
  • ________, “Four Letters from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore”, (ed.) B . Hruska ve G. Komoroczy, Festschrift Lubor Matouš, vol.1-11, Budapest, 1978, p. 113-130.
  • _______, Ancient Kanesh, A Merchant Colony in Bronze Age Anatolia, Cambridge University Press, Cabridge 2015.
  • Moorey, P.R.S., Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries, the Archaeological Evidence, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1994.
  • Reiter, Karin, Die Metalle im Alten Orient: unter besonderer Berücksichtigung altbabylonischer Quellen, Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 1997.
  • Sever, Hüseyin,“Yeni Kültepe Tabletlerinde Geçen ‘kīma awāt naruā’im’ Tabiri ve Değerlendirilmesi”, DTCFD, V. 34, I. 1-2 (1990), p. 251-365.
  • Singer, Itamar, “Hittites and Hattians in Anatolia at the Beginning of the Second Millennium B.C.”, Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES) 9 (1981), p. 119-149.
  • Steinkeller, Piotr, “The Role of Iran in the Inter-Regional Exchange of Metals: Tin, Copper, Silver and Gold in the Second Half of the Third Millennium BC”, (ed.) K. Maekawa, Ancient Iran, New Perspectives from Archaeology and Cuneiform Studies. Ancient Texts Studies in the National Museum, Vol. 2, 2016, p. 127-150.
  • Stratford, Edward, A Year of Vengeance: Time Narrative, and the Assyrian Trans-Taurus Trade in 1891 BCE. SANER, Boston: De Gruyter 2017.
  • Sturm, Th., “kaspum ammurum, ein Begriff der Silbermetallurgie in den Kültepe-Texten”, Ugarit Forschungen 27 (1995), p. 487-500.
  • Veenhof, Klaas R., Aspects of Old Assyrian Trade and its Terminology, BRILL, Leiden, 1972.
  • _______, “In Accordance with the Words of the Stele: Evidence for Old Asyrian Legislation”, Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 70, p. 1717-1744.
  • _______, The Old Assyrian List of Year Eponyms from Karum Kanish and Its Chronological Implications, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, VI/64, Ankara 2003.
  • _______, “Silver in Old Assyrian Trade. Shapes, Qualities and Purification”, (ed.) Zoltán Csabai, Studies in Economic and Social History of the Ancient Near East in Memory of Péter Vargyas, Department of Ancient History, the University of Pécs L’Harmattan, Budapest, 2014, p. 393-423.
  • _______, “A Difficult Old Assyrian Business Venture. Mannum-Kī-Aššur Tries his Luck with Iron”, Bibliotheca Orientalis, Jaargang LLXXIII, no. 1-2, p. 13-40.
  • Veenhof, Klaas R.-Eidem, Jesper, Mesopotamia: The Old Assyrian Period, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/5, Fribourg 2008.
  • Waetzoldt, H., “Rotes Gold?”, Oriens antiquus 24 (1985), p. 1-16.
  • Yalçın, Ünsal, “Early Iron Metalurgy in Anatolia”, Anatolian Studies, Vo. 49 (1999), p. 177-187.

Eski Asur Maden Ticareti; Yoğunluğu ve Etkileşimleri

Year 2019, Volume: 83 Issue: 298, 779 - 806, 22.12.2019

Hakan Erol

https://doi.org/10.37879/belleten.2019.779

Abstract

Bu makale, Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu (TÜBİTAK) tarafından desteklenen bir yurt dışı doktora sonrası araştırma projesinin bazı sonuçlarını içermektedir. Bu araştırmanın temel amacı, çok sayıda Kültepe belgesinde kayıtlı metaller ve metal ticareti ile ilgili bazı konulara açıklık getirmektir. Kültepe metinlerinde kayıtlı gümüş, altın, kalay, bakır, demir, kurşun, antimon madenleri ve bronz alaşımı 12 binden fazla belgeden oluşan, bir çoğu henüz yayımlanmamış bir veri tabanında taranmıştır. Bu metallerle ilgili, onların ticari yoğunlukları, kaynakları, nihai ulaşım yerleri, türleri, kaliteleri ve çoğunlukla gümüş karşısındaki fi yatları gibi bütün bilgiler toplanarak değerlendirilmiştir. Örneğin Kültepe metinleri içinde yapılan taramalarda altın madeni ile ilgili şu sonuçlara ulaşılmıştır: Belgelerde kayıtlı toplam altın miktarı 480 kg’dır. Bu miktar içinden, Anadolu’dan Asur’a taşınan altının sadece 92 kg olduğu hesaplanmıştır. Asurlu tüccarlar altını özellikle Wahšušana, Purušhattum ve Šalatuwar şehirlerinden elde etmişlerdir. Altının gümüş karşısındaki fi yatı 3 1/3 šeqel ila 15 šeqel arasında değişmektedir. En değerli altın türü liqtum-altınıdır, en ucuz altın türü ise HU.SÁ, yani kırmızı altındır. Ancak en çok tercih edilen altın cinslerinin pašallum ve kupuršinnum altınları olduğu görülmektedir.

Keywords

Eski Asur Eski Anadolu Koloni Dönemi Ticaret Metaller

References

  • BIBLIOGRAPHIA
  • Albayrak, İrfan “Uṣur-ša-İštar Arşivinden Bakır Ticareti ile ilgili Bir Mektup”, (ed.) S. Erkut ve Ö. S. Gavaz, Studies in Honour of Ahmet Ünal Armağanı, Arkeoloji ve Sanat Yayınları, İstanbul (2016), p. 25-34.
  • Balkan, Kemal, Mama Kralı Anum-Hirbi’nin Kaniš Kralı Waršama’ya Gönderdiği Mektup, TTKY 7-31, Ankara 1957.
  • Barjamovic, Gojko, “The Geography of Trade - Assyrian Colonies in Anatolia c. 1975- 1725 B.C. and the Study of Early Interregional Networks of Exchange,” (ed.) J.G.
  • Dercksen, Anatolia and the Jazira during the Old Assyrian Period (PIHANS Ill. OAAS 3), Leiden, (2008), p. 87-100.
  • ________, A Historical Geography of Anatolia in the Old Assyrian Colony Period, CNI Publications 38, Copenhagen 2011.
  • ________, “A Commercial Geography of Anatolia: Integrating Hittite and Assyrian Texts, Archaeology and Topography”, (ed.) M. Weeden ve L. Z. Ullmann, Brill, Leiden/Boston (2017), p. 311-318.
  • Barjamovic, Gojko-Hertel, Thomas-Larsen, Mogens T., Ups and Downs at Kanesh-Observations on Chronology, History and Society in the Old Assyrian Period, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 2012.
  • Çeçen, Salih, “Kaniš Kārum’unun Diğer Kārum ve Wabartumlar’a ‘KÙ.AN’ (amutum) ile ilgili Önemli Talimatları”, Belleten LXI/231, (1997), p. 219-232.
  • Çeçen, Salih-Erol, Hakan, “Kültepe’den Değişik Bir Ticari Mal Listesi”, Archivum Anatolicum 12/2, (2018), p. 53-76.
  • de Jesus, Pretiss S., “Metal Resources in Ancient Anatolia”, Anatolian Studies, 28, (1978), p. 97-102.
  • ________, The Development of Prehistoric Mining and Metallurgy in Anatolia, Part I, B.A.R. International Series 74, Oxford 1980.
  • Dercksen, J. Gerrit, The Old Assyrian Copper Trade in Anatolia, PIHANS 75, Leiden/İstanbul 1996.
  • ________, Old Assyrian Institutions, PIHANS 98, Leiden 2004.
  • ________, “Some Elements of Old Anatolian Society in Kaniš”, (ed.) J. G. Dercksen, Assyria and Beyond, Studies Presented to Mogens Trolle Larsen, Nederlands Instituut het Nabije Oosten, Leiden (2004), p. 137-178.
  • ________, “Metals According to Documents from Kültepe-Kanish Dating to the Old Assyrian Colony Period”, (ed.) Ü. Yalçın, Anatolian Metal III, Der Anschnitt, Beiheft 18, Bochum (2005), p. 17-34.
  • ________, “The Goddess Who was Robbed of her Jewellery. Ishtar and her Priest in an Assyrian Colony”, Anatolica 41 (2015), p. 37-60.
  • ________, “Zinn”, Reallexikon der Assyriologie, (2017), p. 301-304.
  • Donbaz, Veysel, “More Old Assyrian Tablets from Assur”, Akkadica 42, (1985), p. 1-23.
  • Emre, Kutlu, Anadolu Kurşun Figürinleri ve Taş Kalıpları, TTKY, Ankara 1971.
  • Forlanini, Massimo, “The historical geography of Anatolia and the transition from the karum-period to the Early Hittite Empire,” (ed.) J. G. Dercksen Anatolia and the Jazira during the Old Assyrian Period. (OAAS 3. PIHANS 111), (Leiden), p. 57-86.
  • Gökçek, L. Gürkan, “Kültepe Vesikalarında Geçen Nesnelerin Fiyatları”, (ed.) M. Şahin, II. Kayseri ve Yöresi Tarih Sempozyumu Bildirileri (16-17 Nisan 1998), Kayseri (1998), p. 155-170.
  • Günbattı, Cahit, “An Aponym List (KEL G) from Kultepe”, Altorientalische Forschungen 35, (2008), p. 103–132. Kulakoğlu, Fikri-Kangal, Selmin (ed.), Anadolu’nun Önsözü, Kültepe Kaniş-Karumu, Asurlular İstanbul’da, (Katalog), Kayseri Büyükşehir Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları No: 78, İstanbul 2011.
  • Landsberger, Benno,“Kommt Hattum, “Hethiterland” und Hattium, “Hethiter”, in den Kültepe Tafeln vor?”, Archiv Orientálni 18/I-II (1950), p. 329-350.
  • Larsen, Mogens T., Old Assyrian Caravan Procedures, PIHANS, 22, Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten, Leiden 1967.
  • ________, “Partnerships in the Old Assyrian Trade”, Iraq , 39 , p. 119–49 .
  • ________, “Four Letters from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore”, (ed.) B . Hruska ve G. Komoroczy, Festschrift Lubor Matouš, vol.1-11, Budapest, 1978, p. 113-130.
  • _______, Ancient Kanesh, A Merchant Colony in Bronze Age Anatolia, Cambridge University Press, Cabridge 2015.
  • Moorey, P.R.S., Ancient Mesopotamian Materials and Industries, the Archaeological Evidence, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1994.
  • Reiter, Karin, Die Metalle im Alten Orient: unter besonderer Berücksichtigung altbabylonischer Quellen, Ugarit-Verlag, Münster 1997.
  • Sever, Hüseyin,“Yeni Kültepe Tabletlerinde Geçen ‘kīma awāt naruā’im’ Tabiri ve Değerlendirilmesi”, DTCFD, V. 34, I. 1-2 (1990), p. 251-365.
  • Singer, Itamar, “Hittites and Hattians in Anatolia at the Beginning of the Second Millennium B.C.”, Journal of Indo-European Studies (JIES) 9 (1981), p. 119-149.
  • Steinkeller, Piotr, “The Role of Iran in the Inter-Regional Exchange of Metals: Tin, Copper, Silver and Gold in the Second Half of the Third Millennium BC”, (ed.) K. Maekawa, Ancient Iran, New Perspectives from Archaeology and Cuneiform Studies. Ancient Texts Studies in the National Museum, Vol. 2, 2016, p. 127-150.
  • Stratford, Edward, A Year of Vengeance: Time Narrative, and the Assyrian Trans-Taurus Trade in 1891 BCE. SANER, Boston: De Gruyter 2017.
  • Sturm, Th., “kaspum ammurum, ein Begriff der Silbermetallurgie in den Kültepe-Texten”, Ugarit Forschungen 27 (1995), p. 487-500.
  • Veenhof, Klaas R., Aspects of Old Assyrian Trade and its Terminology, BRILL, Leiden, 1972.
  • _______, “In Accordance with the Words of the Stele: Evidence for Old Asyrian Legislation”, Chicago-Kent Law Review, Vol. 70, p. 1717-1744.
  • _______, The Old Assyrian List of Year Eponyms from Karum Kanish and Its Chronological Implications, Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları, VI/64, Ankara 2003.
  • _______, “Silver in Old Assyrian Trade. Shapes, Qualities and Purification”, (ed.) Zoltán Csabai, Studies in Economic and Social History of the Ancient Near East in Memory of Péter Vargyas, Department of Ancient History, the University of Pécs L’Harmattan, Budapest, 2014, p. 393-423.
  • _______, “A Difficult Old Assyrian Business Venture. Mannum-Kī-Aššur Tries his Luck with Iron”, Bibliotheca Orientalis, Jaargang LLXXIII, no. 1-2, p. 13-40.
  • Veenhof, Klaas R.-Eidem, Jesper, Mesopotamia: The Old Assyrian Period, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 160/5, Fribourg 2008.
  • Waetzoldt, H., “Rotes Gold?”, Oriens antiquus 24 (1985), p. 1-16.
  • Yalçın, Ünsal, “Early Iron Metalurgy in Anatolia”, Anatolian Studies, Vo. 49 (1999), p. 177-187.
There are 43 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Archaeology
Journal Section Araştırma Makaleleri
Authors

Hakan Erol This is me 0000-0003-0089-1010

Publication Date December 22, 2019
Published in Issue Year 2019 Volume: 83 Issue: 298

Cite

APA Erol, H. (2019). Old Assyrian Metal Trade, its Volume and Interactions. BELLETEN, 83(298), 779-806. https://doi.org/10.37879/belleten.2019.779
AMA Erol H. Old Assyrian Metal Trade, its Volume and Interactions. TTK BELLETEN. December 2019;83(298):779-806. doi:10.37879/belleten.2019.779
Chicago Erol, Hakan. “Old Assyrian Metal Trade, Its Volume and Interactions”. BELLETEN 83, no. 298 (December 2019): 779-806. https://doi.org/10.37879/belleten.2019.779.
EndNote Erol H (December 1, 2019) Old Assyrian Metal Trade, its Volume and Interactions. BELLETEN 83 298 779–806.
IEEE H. Erol, “Old Assyrian Metal Trade, its Volume and Interactions”, TTK BELLETEN, vol. 83, no. 298, pp. 779–806, 2019, doi: 10.37879/belleten.2019.779.
ISNAD Erol, Hakan. “Old Assyrian Metal Trade, Its Volume and Interactions”. BELLETEN 83/298 (December 2019), 779-806. https://doi.org/10.37879/belleten.2019.779.
JAMA Erol H. Old Assyrian Metal Trade, its Volume and Interactions. TTK BELLETEN. 2019;83:779–806.
MLA Erol, Hakan. “Old Assyrian Metal Trade, Its Volume and Interactions”. BELLETEN, vol. 83, no. 298, 2019, pp. 779-06, doi:10.37879/belleten.2019.779.
Vancouver Erol H. Old Assyrian Metal Trade, its Volume and Interactions. TTK BELLETEN. 2019;83(298):779-806.

Belleten is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY NC).