title: Converting currencies in the Old World.
abstract: Raw materials recovered from archaeological excavations in the Indus Valley, the Persian Gulf, Mesopotamia, Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean reflect the existence of long-distance trading during the Bronze Age, which united these regions into networks of commercial exchange. As each region relied on a different set of weights for trading, a straightforward conversion system must have been in operation. Here we describe a simple and universal conversion system that could have provided an economic key to the trade networks of the Old World between 2500 and 1000 bc.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Prehistoria, Universidad Complutense, Ciudad Universitaria, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mederos
authors.forename: C C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Lamberg-Karlovsky