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Textile traded between Assur and Anatolia

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Textile was used for trading during 3000 BC - 12000 BC (Bronze Age). These different types of textiles needed to be made worthy and expensive to be traded for silver. Again, silver was the type of currency used at that time, so it was only knowledgeable to exchange something as important. These textiles were mainly produced by using embroidered silk mounted upon felt, leather, lead, and gold foil. They used different textiles and metal ornaments to complete garments. For example, gold plaques that have repeated squares, a stag running parallel to the edges, and pile carpet.

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The Great Ancient City of Babylon was another very important trading hub in Ancient Mesopotamia. Babylon belonged to many empires throughout the ancient near east period. For this entry however, I will be using the time where Babylon was a part of the Assyrian Empire around 729-627 B.C. Babylon was one of the more southeastern cities of the Assyrian empire, but however due to it's great influence over the region it brought in large amounts of trader and merchants across Mesopotamia.  An example of such trade is in the picture above.  Many tablets like the one shown above were used to keep track of the many aspects of commerce. Tablets were used for business contacts, disputes, agreements, treaties, keeping track of transactions, etc. Tin/textiles were more abundant in the northwestern part of the Assyrian empire. Often, traders from those parts brought the materials in exchange for silver. Babylon was a large city and this meant it was a very wealthy city. One of my group partners discussed the city of Assur. Babylon and Assur had a long commercial relationship due to their close locations. Tablets could keep track of the trading treaties and processes between Babylon and Assur. Babylon and Assur were 2 of the biggest hubs in the Assyrian empire and both enjoyed a beneficial commercial relationship.

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Hunat, Kanesh, Sivas Yolu, Kocasinan/Kayseri, Turkey

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The Ancient City of Kanesh belonged to the Assyrian Empire. It was founded around 2000 BC. The picture above shows the ancient remnants of the commerce city.  The city served as a very important trade hub to the Assyrian empire. Kanesh was located close to ancient roads that sprawled across ancient Mesopotamia. This allowed for many trade opportunities with many civilizations in the Ancient Near East. Traders from other Assyrian settlements and other empires would bring vast amounts of tin/textiles to Kanesh in exchange for Gold/silver making Kanesh a wealthy city. Over time, Kanesh established itself as one the integral parts of the Tin/Textile/silver trade in the Ancient Near East. A entry from one of my group partners shows a tablet that was found in Kanesh. This tablet served as a method of organization for the many Merchants of Kanesh. By using the tablet, merchants could keep track of all the commerce that occurred in Kanesh.

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Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor or Turkey, goes way back to the Paleolithic era. It was then led to the bronze age where it served as a very important trade hub. It was one of the first long distance Mesopotamian trades that happened by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and into Anatolia. Assyrians would trade textile and tin for the silver Anatolia had. Tin, in this case, was actually traded for twice the original price because of how high the demand for it was. They later used that silver for monetary purposes.

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The city of Assur was a major Mesopotamian trading hub during the time period ranging 2004-1595 BCE that specialized in dealing with textiles and tin. During this time, tin and silver were used to make units of weight called "shekel" and "mina". Being a large trading center, it attracted merchants from all over the Near East, including another major city, Kanesh. Many of the economic interactions done between the cities of Kanesh and Assur were recorded and stored in the archives of Kanesh, suggesting that the tin and silver trade was significant at the time. Similar to another member's entry regarding the city of Babylon, both cities had great influence over the trading power of the region and can be regarded as supporting pillars of the growing trading network of the area.

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Hunat, Kanesh, Sivas Yolu, Kocasinan/Kayseri, Turkey

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Cuneiform Tablet discussing a loan of silver (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

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This tablet was created around the 20th-19th century BCE on a clay medium. Its dimensions are 3.7 x 4.1 x 1.7 cm (1 1/2 x 1 5/8 x 5/8 in.). During this time period, trade was fostering between non-unified cities. One of the major trading connections was that of tin and silver including the cities of Ashur and Kanesh. This tablet provides the recording of the loaning of silver, a metal used as a pre-coinage economic measure of value, indicating a need for documentation of the trade of a valuable metal such as silver, as well as indicating a growing trade network that necessitated a stable measure of value. As mentioned by another member's discussion regarding the city of Anatolia, Mesopotamian trade spread further than just the surrounding regions and therefore required the archiving and recording of economic activity since trading had become more widespread.