Early weight systems, markets and trade

Roberts, Benjamin W.

Abstract

The dominance of economics in shaping the modern world has encouraged scholars from diverse intellectual backgrounds to explore and interpret the evidence for exchange, merchants and markets in the distant past. Urban, state and pan-continental trade systems and networks were developed and in use for thousands of years before the emergence of coins in the early first millennium BC in Anatolia, India and China. In the absence of coins, there is at least some reassuring evidence—especially for historians and economists—when written records detailing goods and transactions are discovered and translated. However, while these sources are invaluable, the majority of the early trade and exchange between individuals and groups across the world is visible only in the archaeological record. The sheer scale, complexity and distances revealed, even for some small village-based agricultural groups, highlights that there was widespread co-operation, but also raises the question of how such exchanges could have occurred. It is in this space that the frequently neglected—and sometimes maligned—study of early metrological systems and weight use can be best appreciated.

Citation

Roberts, B. W. (2025). Early weight systems, markets and trade. Antiquity, 99(404), 582-589. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.26

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jan 31, 2025
• Online Publication Date: Feb 19, 2025
• Publication Date: 2025-04
• Deposit Date: Apr 9, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 9, 2025
• Journal: Antiquity
• Print ISSN: 0003-598X
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-1744
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 99
• Issue: 404
• Pages: 582-589
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.26
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3784991