Is the Study of Ancient Money Really So Difficult?

Summary

The difficulty that many economists and anthropologists have with studying ancient money lies with inadequate understanding of modern monetary systems. I briefly review the establishment of two currencies: the British pound in the 18th century and the US dollar in the 19th and why the establishment both currencies were political (not economic) constructs. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) economists analyze the current fiat currencies as political constructs and David Graber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years provides a historical perspective that undermines classical and neo-classical economists’ assumptions of the subject matter. Most discussion by both economists and anthropologists are limited to written accounts. Therefore, I next turn to our ability as archaeologists to investigate money in Prehistoric contexts and employ the Formative-period kingdom of Izapa (800-100 BC) and the early cities on the Pacific coast of Mesoamerica as forum for this to be done.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20144