1/3/2024 0 Comments Kingdom hearts electrum ore![]() While the expanded scope of the volume delayed publication, nonetheless we can now offer a fuller and more detailed picture of the evidence at hand for understanding the various contexts in which early electrum coins were produced and used. Scholars, notably Kristin Kleber and Donald Jones, who had not participated in the two original conferences were invited to contribute chapters, and others who had participated offered additional contributions. Since 2013, the scope of the volume grew. In 2016, it was decided that publication of the proceedings of the two conferences would be undertaken by the ANS with Ute Wartenberg and Peter van Alfen serving as the volume’s editors, who received considerable editorial and other assistance on several of the chapters from Wolfgang Fischer-Bossert. Initially, Gitler, Lorber, and Konuk planned to publish the conference proceedings with the Israel Museum’s imprimatur, but as many of the conference participants felt a follow-up meeting would be beneficial to address some of the outstanding problematic aspects of early electrum raised in Jerusalem, a second White Gold conference was held in November 2013 at the American Numismatic Society (ANS) in New York City. We are also most grateful for their most generous support, which funded the exhibition and conference, as well as this volume, and also for their help and enthusiasm for this project. Tom Kaplan and Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza, who have been keenly interested in this area of numismatic research, both actively participated in the conference. ![]() Meanwhile, Gitler organized a conference on electrum coinage that was held at the Israel Museum the week the exhibit opened. Catharine Lorber soon joined Gitler in curating the exhibition, White Gold: Revealing the World’s Earliest Coins, a name suggested by Lorber, which opened in June 2012, with an exhibition catalogue of the same name written by Koray Konuk, Lorber, and edited by Gitler. Kaplan, Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza, and several from the Israel Museum, were displayed in a spectacular exhibition, the first of its kind anywhere that looked at electrum coinage from the seventh to the fourth centuries BCE. Five hundred coins, all from the collections of Dr. ![]() The genesis of this volume took place in 2011 when then Numismatic Curator, Haim Gitler, conceived of a unique exhibition to be held at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem that would showcase the earliest coins in the Western tradition, those struck in electrum. This analysis offers a point of reference for the introduction of coinage in the Aegean, since the southern Levantine example provides a ready parallel and possible analogy for the transition from Hacksilber-use to coin-use in the Aegean. ![]() Here we will address the process by which the use of precious metals in various shapes for economic transactions was transformed into the use of coins for economic transactions in the southern Levant. The likely use of Hacksilber in the Aegean before electrum coins (probably learned from the Levant) and the function of silver as “money” in the Greek world is beyond the scope of this paper. The Near Eastern perspective is not totally aligned with this attitude, as seen in scholarly debates over the role of (mostly hoarded) Hacksilber in the Bronze and especially Iron Age, whose function is drawn within the definitions of goods or “money.” It may be added that the extensive Assyrian sources reflecting the situation of these early periods show the synonymy of silver as “money” for most periods of Mesopotamian history. The term “money” can be defined in this context as a flexible medium of exchange for goods and services alike, in a variety of transactions, as currency can be described today. The notion of money before coinage is a contested issue from the ancient Greek perspective, a number of scholars have argued against a fully developed monetary economy before coinage and have even casts doubts that the earliest coins functioned as money. ![]()
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