Search results for ""author j.g. dercksen""

Archaeological and documentary evidence is used to investigate two major institutions of the Old Assyrian city-state: the City Hall in Assur, and the Office of the Colony in Kültepe/Kanish. Part One deals with the City Hall: its role in the economy of the city-state and its functionaries. Its activities involved the sale to merchants of commodities to be exported to Anatolia. But the Hall, managed by the Year-Eponym, was equally important for the local economy by verifying weights and measures as well as the quality of metals used as a means of exchange. Moreover, it levied taxes and appears to have controlled the city’s main granary. A complex mechanism at the heart of the colonial system in Kültepe/Kanish is addressed in Part Two. An interpretation is offered there of the related mechanisms of the payment of the datum-contribution by registered merchants, communal fund-raising, taxation and the accounting of the colony.

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Excavations in the ancient town of Kanish have yielded a large amount of texts and objects from the Middle Bronze Age. Most of these were found in the sector occupied by an important Assyrian trade colony. The thousands of clay tablets contain a wealth of details on life during the 19th c. B.C. The role played by the Assyrian merchants was pivotal in the local bronze manufacture; they imported tin and participated in the Anatolian copper trade. The author has investigated in this book the origins, the diffusion and the use of this copper by analysing (often previously unknown) texts and by using results of archaeological and metallurgical research. This yielded new insights about the terminology used in the texts and about the role played by Assyrian trading houses and authorities, as well as by the local rulers. To illustrate this, 20 texts in translation are included. Apart from a catalogue presenting the data on terminology and prices available in the texts, the book contains several appendices concerning artefacts related to copper and bronze production (moulds, artefacts, Assyrian words). Extensive indexes also facilitate the use of this publication.

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The first in a series of publications related to the Dutch project "The Economy of Ancient Mesopotamia", this volume contains nine contributions, most of which were presented during an international symposium in 1997. The focus is on the factors that enabled this region to acquire the goods it needed by means of imports. The period dealt with comprises the Third Dynasty of Ur up until the Achaemenid period. Topics include the formation of capital, the assets enabling merchants to conduct trade in a private or institutional context, and the availability and use of commodities that functioned as money. Contributors: A.C.V.M. Bongenaar, J.G. Dercksen, G. van Driel, F. Joannès, H. Neumann, M.A. Powell, K. Radner and K.R. Veenhof.

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De oude culturen van Egypte en het Nabije Oosten zijn onze voorlopers. Hier ontwikkelden zich o.a. het alfabet, godsdienstige voorstellingen, literatuur en wetten, die de wortels van onze beschaving vormen. In Nederland is de studie van onze oudste geschiedenis al 75 jaar lang verbonden met het Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije Oosten (NINO). Ter gelegenheid van dit jubileum beschrijven de auteurs van dit boek de veelzijdige werkzaamheden die zijzelf of andere Nederlandse onderzoekers verrichten bij opgravingen in Egypte en het Nabije Oosten en de studie van de oude culturen aan Nederlandse universiteiten. Ook komen de rijke museumcollecties in Nederland aan de orde. Het is voor het eerst dat de archeologen en onderzoekers zelf de ontwikkelingen in hun vakgebied beschrijven, en zo laten zien wat de Nederlandse bijdrage is geweest bij de studie van de landen waar de geschiedenis begon.

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Anatolia and the Jazira collects the proceedings of a symposium held at Leiden University in December 2005. It contains 11 studies on the geography, history and linguistic complexity of Central Anatolia and Northern Syria during the period of Old Assyrian commercial involvement.

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