I've been searching for ancient Sumerian coins. From what I gather, the Sumerians used the cross section of shells for money and wore them like necklaces. I have also seen bronze rings that some claim are Sumerian. Did the Sumerians use bronze rings as well as the shells? Anyone know where I might find some/one Sumerian coin for my collection?
I have seen rings attributed as Sumerian, and I know Opitz mentions them in his survey of primitive money, but I have never seen any compelling evidence that they were used as currency. In fact, I've never seen anything substantial written on Western proto-currencies. I find it difficult to believe that the rest of the world started with shells and hunks of metal before they developed coinage, while in Asia Minor the idea was sprung fully-formed in 7th century BC.
We know almost nothing about them. And I mean nothing. They were not related to any of the later or modern middle eastern empires or peoples. Most of what we know comes to us via the Ninvah ruins and the Wooley excavations. It is just a large blank. By the way, the theory that Western Civilization began in Sumeria is probably is untrue. Equally ancient citystates have been found in Iran and Turkey, and our languages are not Sumerian, but Indo-European, which would put the beginnings of the West somewhere from the Anatolia Peninsula, if current theory is correct. Even the Semitic languages are not related to Sumerian.
Yep Arda the ring at the 10 o'clock position has the aire of a merry-go-round ring to me too. :foot-mouth:
while the term "shekel" appears in babylonian texts, it is used as a unit of weight, not as a currency, per se. as a lot of sumerian texts deal with business transactions, they probably had a similar concept. I do not believe anything has been discovered in sumer that could be considered a currency
