The hacksilver hoard from Tell el-ʿAjjul in Gaza is the earliest known example of silver used as currency by weight in the region, about 3,600 years ago.Image credit: Mariana Saltzberg, Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
Posted on 01/30/2023 10:11:03 AM PST by SunkenCiv
...not everyone agrees that this is a new finding, with some experts noting that other research has already found that silver currency was being used during the Middle Bronze Age in this region...
Eshel and her colleagues also attempted to determine the origins of the silver in the hoards by studying their chemical impurities and isotopes — variations in the number of neutrons in the nuclei of particular elements, which change over time at known rates due to radiation.
The analysis revealed signs of a widespread transition between sources in about 1200 B.C., possibly from silver mined in Anatolia — now Turkey — to silver mined in southeastern Europe, which was then brought to the Levant by long-distance trade.
The silver of later origin was surprisingly similar to silver found in famous graves from the Bronze Age Mycenaean culture in Greece; these burials might have the same silver source as the hoard from Tell el-ʿAjjul, the researchers said...
Raz Kletter, an archaeologist at the University of Helsinki who has studied ancient economies and silver hoards from the Levant but was not involved in the new research, told Live Science in an email that... scholars had pointed out 20 years ago that silver must have been used for weight economy since the late Middle Bronze period in the southern Levant, based on studies of the same hoards.
Kletter is also concerned that hoards found without metalworking tools were interpreted in the study as being only for exchange. "We cannot identify the owners," he said, "and the places where hoards are hidden ... do not necessarily tell us about their origins."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
The hacksilver hoard from Tell el-ʿAjjul in Gaza is the earliest known example of silver used as currency by weight in the region, about 3,600 years ago.Image credit: Mariana Saltzberg, Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
Protect your retirement!
Did it have a date mark of 3600 BC?.................
Hoards of 3600 year old mummies coming to your town soon.
Someone always has to read the scroll out loud.
1600 BC - no Israel at that time, So that means it would be Canaanite. Pre-Philistine as well
Probably not, because the dating is probably wrong.
Her sister hoard half of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
