Five - Money in the Iron Age Aegean

Summary

This chapter explores the different social contexts in which forms of money appear in the Iron Age Aegean world, and how these develop and converge in the emerging use of precious metal money before the spread of coinage. Early sanctuaries form such a context, where the deposition of metal votive offerings could reflect an increasing focus on organizing cult expenses. Another context is provided by compensation or wergeld payments, notable in the Homeric epics and a prominent focus of early written law. Next, emphasis is placed on the context of interregional and international trade. Through contacts with Levantine merchants Euboians adopted the use of precious metal money in the Geometric period, stimulating the active search for gold sources in the northern Aegean. From the mid-seventh century onwards, Greek efforts extended to the exploitation of silver sources, arguably stimulated by the opening up of contacts with 26th-dynasty Egypt. Preceding the production of silver coinage by more than half a century, silver trade with Egypt likely boosted the use of silver within the Aegean, which shortly after superseded gold as the preferred form of money.