In a fascinating new study has found that dozens of silver pieces found during excavations in Israel and the Gaza Strip were actually used as currency in ancient times. Since the silver pieces were...
Although China’s pre-revolution hyperinflation during the 1940s is the one that one often hears about, there is a less-documented hyperinflation that occurred in ancient China. The first civilization...
Before coinage became common, people in medieval England would pay their rent using an array of everyday items. Amongst these was the remarkably unattractive, and underappreciated, wormlike eel! Few...
The days of ‘cash as king’ are fading. Today, credit, debit, and digital currency have begun to slowly replace cash as the primary forms of payment, but it was not always so. For centuries, paper...
The world’s most expensive spice by weight, saffron, has been valued and coveted by many ancient civilizations for a multitude of purposes, and debates over its origins still continue. Worth its...
In Bronze Age Britain (2,500 to 800 BC), gold was frequently mined and used to manufacture a range of decorative and ceremonial objects. But in contrast to other areas, it seems that people of that...
Archaeologists have long been preoccupied with understanding the origins of metal coinage and monetization. Now, a team working in the Henan Province of China has discovered an early minting site at...
A team of French, Australian, and Israeli scientists has collected evidence proving there was an active and thriving silver trade network in the eastern Mediterranean region in the Late Bronze Age...
The Benin Bronzes is the name given to a group of artifacts produced by the Benin Empire, which occupied the area which is today Nigeria. The Benin Bronzes consist of several thousand commemorative...
Long-term analysis of a submerged salt plant in Belize has revealed extensive and surprising details about the salt making practices of the great Maya civilization during its Classic Period, which...
A Californian researcher who studied tens of thousands of shells decorated by indigenous Chumash hunter-gatherers, has pushed back the origins of “cash” in the U.S. by over one thousand years. Dr...
In the ancient world salt was so valuable that Roman soldiers were sometimes paid with salt instead of money . A monthly salt allowance was a salarium , and this Latin word seeds both the French word...
Japan is full of countless intriguing places and monuments from its rich and vibrant past. From centuries of rich, evolving history, to the devastating effects of the Second World War, Japan has...
Shell money is a form of currency that was used in various parts of the world, including Asia , Africa, and Oceania . This type of money makes use of a type of marine snail known as cowrie and...
Maritime archaeologists have made an astonishing discovery off the Kent coast in England. While investigating an almost three-hundred-year-old shipwreck they found some coins that had been sewn into...
The BBC has reported that a farmer in Ireland has discovered a treasure trove of golden rings. The find was made in County Donegal and it was unearthed entirely by accident. It is believed that it...
An academic study has made a remarkable claim about the role of chocolate in ancient Mayan society. An archaeologist is arguing that chocolate was used as money by the ancient Maya. That is right,...
Aristotle died. But then he returned from the grave, in a manner of speaking. The ancient Greek philosopher and scientist’s ideas remained mostly dead until the middle ages. With his rediscovered...