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The invention of money might ask one of humanity’s oldest questions: when was it invented and who was its creator? Archaeologists curious about this ancient question have struggled to pinpoint the exact moment when silver was created. Until now.
A research team based in the Netherlands has discovered a point in the history of the Early Bronze Age that may have been the beginning of money as we know it. They used a new method to detect evidence of standardized weights and measures – the telltale signs of an emerging currency. Civilizations from 5000 to 4000 years ago (3000 to 2100 BC) used the weight of these objects to measure them and use them as currency.
The researchers found that up to 70 percent of certain bronze objects were indistinguishable same weight, which implies that they were created to be interchangeable. There were objects in the form of rings, objects in the form of ax blades, and objects in the form of ribs. In the photos, they almost look more like green beans, as the oxidation turned them into a beautiful shade of emerald:
This discovery helps scientists better understand the society and emerging market systems of these ancient peoples, and how simple ax blades or bronze rings were the first step towards the trillion dollar monetary system we have. today.
Their findings were published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE.
The big idea – While money plays a huge role in shaping our social structures historically and today, it can be difficult to trace the movement and creation of these essential tokens before the invention of registers or even uniform weight measures. .
Accordingly, the authors of this new study argue that any attempt to reconcile historical elements and monetary tokens must take into account the limitations of these eras. For example, estimating similar weights of metals or other precious materials probably wouldn’t have been done with an accurate scale, but rather by holding two items in your hand and instinctively measuring their difference in weight.
This type of measurement may seem objective (and it is, at least compared to modern scales,) but the authors write this using an approach called psychophysics (which they describe as a “subdomain of cognitive psychology … concerned with the relationships between the physical properties of stimuli and perceptual responses to those stimuli”), they can better understand this state of mind and how it could have informed the creation of some of the original currency of ancient Europe.
“A main challenge at this point is to take the statistical tools used to express accuracy and adjust them based on the results of psychophysics,” write the authors. “In short, prehistoric units of weight literally have to make sense.”
What did they do – Essentially, the team’s measurement technique was to compare the weights of the bronze artifacts and see how close their weights are to each other. If the weight of two items is within 10% of each other, the researchers classify the pair’s weight as indistinguishable from each other by human sense alone.
This measurement is called the “Weber fraction. “(Learn more about Weber’s Law if you’re curious.)
If enough of these ax rings, ribs, and blades have weights within these ranges, the researchers speculate that this must have been intentional rather than accidental. This is supported by the idea that the metal rings and ribs had little other purpose and that ax blades were already a prized item.
What they discovered – To see how well this relationship held up in the real world, the researchers tested their theory on more than 5,000 bronze pieces, including ax blades, rings, and ribs, from over 100 different treasures. in Bronze Age Europe – ranging from Germany. in the Czech Republic and Scandinavia.
The most striking finding the team made when comparing the weights of these various items was that 70.3% of the bronze rings – which totaled over 2,600 items – all fell within a weight range of 176 to 217 grams. Using the Webster fraction, the team writes that these elements are then indistinguishable from 195.5 grams.
This clear relationship was not the case for all articles, but they also found that 71.6% of the 1,106 heavy ribs (which they grouped separately from the light ribs) were from 13 different treasures. were substantially identical to a rib weighing 185.5 grams. Although ax blades do not achieve this level of similarity, the authors write that their similarity in weight was still slightly greater than chance.
Why is this important – This weight-based similarity between items, as well as the grouping and replication of these items in treasures, led the authors to assume that these items were intended to be used interchangeably as a form of currency.
“Although archaeologists have no idea of the transactions that took place, there can be no doubt that at least the rings and the ribs conform to the definition of commodity money, ”the authors write.
If you have ever judged the value of something based on its weight, you are reminiscent of the first peoples of mankind.
Abstract: The origins of silver and the formulation of coherent systems of weights and measures are among the most significant prehistoric developments in human intellect. We present a method for detecting a noticeable standardization of weights and apply it to 5028 ax rings, ribs and ax blades from the early Bronze Age of Central Europe. We calculate the degree of uniformity based on psychophysics and quantify it using similarity indices. Analysis shows that 70.3% of all rings could not be discernibly distinguished from a ring weighing 195.5 grams, indicating their relevance as commodity money. Perceptual weight equivalence is demonstrated between rings and a selection of ribs and ax blades. The co-occurrence of these objects testifies to their interchangeability. We further suggest that the production of duplicate rings led to the recognition of similarities in weight and the independent emergence of a weighing system in Central Europe at the end of the Early Bronze Age.
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