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The earliest places of storage were thought to be money-boxes containments ( θΗΕΑΤΡΟΕ -[32]) made similar to the construction of a bee-hive,[33][34] as of the Mycenae tombs of 1550–1500 BC.[35][36][37] An early type of money were cattle, which were used as such from between 9000 to 6000 BCE onwards (Davies 1996 & 1999)[38][39] Both the animal and the manure produced were valuable; animals are recorded as being used as payment as in Roman law where fines were paid in oxen and sheep (Rollin 1836)[40][41][42] and within the Iliad and Odyssey, attesting to a value c.850–800 BCE (Evans & Schmalensee 2005).[43][44] It has long been assumed that metals, where available, were favored for use as proto-money over such commodities as cattle, cowry shells, or salt, because metals are at once durable, portable, and easily divisible.[45] The use of gold as proto-money has been traced back to the fourth millennium BC when the Egyptians used gold bars of a set weight as a medium of exchange,[citation needed] as had been done earlier in Mesopotamia with silver bars.[citation needed] The first mention of the use of money within the Bible is within the book "Genesis"[46] in reference to criteria of the circumcision of a bought slave. Later, the Cave of Machpelah is purchased (with argentum[47][48]) by Abraham,[49] during a period dated as being the beginning of the twentieth century B.C.E.,[50] some-time recent to 1900 B.C.E.[51] (after 1985).[52] The currency was also in use amongst the Philistine people of the same time-period.[53] The shekel was an ancient unit[54] used in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC to define both a specific weight of barley and equivalent amounts of materials such as silver, bronze and copper. The use of a single unit to define both mass and currency was a similar concept to the British pound, which was originally defined as a one pound mass of silver. A description of how trade proceeded includes for sales the dividing (clipping) of an amount from a weight of something corresponding to the perceived value of the purchase. Of this the ancient Greek term was Κέρờς. From this one might understand the development of how coinage was imagined from the small metallic clippings (of silver[55][56][57]) resulting from trade exchanges.[58] The word used in Thucydides writings History for money is chremata, translated in some contexts as "goods" or "property", although with a wider ranging possible applicable usage, having a definite meaning "valuable things".[59][60][61][62] The first gold coins of the Grecian age were struck in Lydia at a time approximated to the year 700 B.C.E.[63] The talent[54][64] in use during the periods of Grecian history both before and during the time of the life of Homer, weighed between 8.42 and 8.75 grammes.[65] (p. 3 – Seltman) |
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