Book Description

This is the second volume on the subject of Weight and Value in pre-coinage societies by the same author of ΜΕΛΕΤΗΜΑΤΑ 42. It consists of five parts and each part explores  an independent subject, whereas all focus on those who owned and used measuring tools in Bronze Age societies in the Aegean and the Orient.

Part I presents the framework of the discussion. Part II presents balance pans and weights from the settlement of Akrotiri on the island of Thera. Part III presents case-studies of depositing balances and weights in the tombs of their owners from Mycenae, Vapheio and Pylos. Part IV examines cultures that have yielded comprehensible textual documentation on weight measuring and value estimation from the Orient and acquaints the reader with the current debate on problems of money, markets and prices. In Part V, the focus returns to the ancient users of the measuring tools in the settlement of Akrotiri and attempts an understanding of private economy. The main aim is to present the material evidence and offer arguments in order to provoke further discussion on the subject of personal economics in Late Bronze Age Aegean societies.