THE FIRST EUROS? RINGS, RIBS, AND AXES, COMMODITY MONEY OF THE EUROPEAN EARLY BRONZE AGE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-03-29

During  the  Early  Bronze  Age  large  amounts  of  metalwork  were  exchanged.  Some  of  this  was  deposited  and  ends  up  in  hoards.  The overall focus of the Economies of Destruction project at Leiden University is to explore the development of these hoarding practices, from 2300 to 1500 BC. Given that the accumulation of wealth is generally regarded as a universal way of achieving power and prestige, we would like to understand how a society can function when its members deliberately and systematically destroy wealth. This  paper  deals  with  a  particular  sub-project  within  this  larger  framework.  Reassessing  the  substantial  rings,  ribs,  and  axe  hoards in Central Europe, we test the possibility that these are the earliest occurrences of commodity money in Europe, north of the Alps. We use a novel methodology based in psychophysics to calculate perceived similarity based on weight and dimension. In this manner, we take on board that prehistoric currencies and weights systems, in the absence of measuring equipment, were approximations. We employ this methodology on a database of over 4000 rings and 1000 axes, the largest database to date on these objects.Test results show a clear perceptible equivalence between rings, ribs, and axes of the Early Bronze Age. Our findings report that up to 55% of these objects are perceptibly identical. While the rings and ribs are almost exclusively found in the Danubian region, axes  circulated  mostly  in  Middle  Germany  indicating  that  both  regions  produced  local  currencies.  The  occurrence  of  rings  and  axes together in hoards in the contact zone between these regions strengthen the idea that they serve a similar purpose as pro-to-currency and were largely interchangeable. We conclude that rings and axes were regionally specific articulations of a larger economic system of Early Bronze Age proto-currencies, based on shape and weight.


Author(s): Kuijpers, Maikel - Popa, Catalin (Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University)