20. Xiaoli Ouyang: Silver in Sumer: money in Mesopotamia?
02/10/21 • 26 min
Xiaoli introduces us to silver in the Sumerian city of Umma. She explains where it came from and how people got hold of it. Who was able to use it and what for? She tells us how we might understand whether it could be called money. And explains the physical form in which silver circulated.
5:42 What is money?
8:46 Who used silver?
13:00 How they got silver
16:55 Did silver actually circulate?
22:26 How was value set?
Music by Ruba Hillawi
Website: http://wedgepod.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @wedge_pod
Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod
Xiaoli introduces us to silver in the Sumerian city of Umma. She explains where it came from and how people got hold of it. Who was able to use it and what for? She tells us how we might understand whether it could be called money. And explains the physical form in which silver circulated.
5:42 What is money?
8:46 Who used silver?
13:00 How they got silver
16:55 Did silver actually circulate?
22:26 How was value set?
Music by Ruba Hillawi
Website: http://wedgepod.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @wedge_pod
Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod
Previous Episode
19. Shiyanthi Thavapalan: Colour in Mesopotamia
19. Shiyanthi Thavapalan: Colour in Mesopotamia
Shiyanthi throws light on how colour was interpreted in Mesopotamia. What cultural meanings were attached to colours? What was the relation between materials and colours? She explains where they sourced their pigments and how they made paints.
2:26 Mesopotamia as a colourful place
6:01 How they saw colour
12:00 How we know about colour
14:47 Materials and colour
16:56 Sources of pigments
21:56 Experimental archaeology
23:33 The meaning of colours
Music by Ruba Hillawi
Website: http://wedgepod.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @wedge_pod
Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod
Next Episode
21. Fabienne Huber Vuillet: Meanings from the mundane
21. Fabienne Huber Vuillet: Meanings from the mundane
Fabienne introduces us to the Mesopotamian science of predicting the future based on things that happened during daily life. What might have meaning, and how would you find it? Who used this kind of expertise? And was there anything you could do to change the future predicted for you?
2:34 omens from daily life
5:20 what had meaning
10:20 how did divination worked
16:49 who used the omens
19:51 could you change the future?
25:15 how the mass of knowledge was organised
Project site: https://www.unige.ch/lettres/antic/unites/mesopotamie/projets/edition-de-la-serie-divinatoire-shumma-alu/
Music by Ruba Hillawi
Website: http://wedgepod.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSM7ZlAAgOXv4fbTDRyrWgw
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @wedge_pod
Patreon: http://Patreon.com/WedgePod
Thin End of the Wedge - 20. Xiaoli Ouyang: Silver in Sumer: money in Mesopotamia?
Transcript
Hello, and welcome to the Thin End of the Wedge. The podcast where experts from around the world share new and interesting stories about life in the ancient Middle East. My name is Jon. Each episode, I talk to friends and colleagues, and get them to explain their work in a way we can all understand.
Jon TaylorToday we look at silver in ancient Sumer. It appears often in the texts, and we might imagine
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