18 September 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Metal Scraps were Used İnstead of Money in Bronze Age Europe

Bronze scrap uncovered in hoards in Europe was used as currency, according to researchers from the Universities of Göttingen and Rome.

Archaeologists have discovered compelling evidence that people in Late Bronze Age Europe used metal scraps or fragments as currency.

This study indicates that something like our modern-day “global economy” emerged across Western Eurasia from common people’s daily scrap-for-cash trading around 1000 years before the rise of classical civilizations. The results were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

According to excavations throughout Central Europe, people started splitting metal artifacts into smaller fragments in Bronze Age Europe in the early second millennium BC. Beginning about the year 1,300 BC, the practice became noticeably more common during the Late Bronze Period. Every type of metal piece, including tools, swords, axes, clothing, small personal pieces, and metal casting waste materials, may be fragmented.

Nicola Ialongo of the University of Göttingen and Giancarlo Lago of the Sapienza University of Rome analyzed and weighed over 2,500 metal fragments recovered from Bronze Age excavation sites in Italy, Germany, and Poland to test their hypothesis that these small fragments may have been used as currency. These metal fragments were included in the heaps of objects commonly found in settlements dating to the end of the 2nd millennium BC.

Mathematical analyzes of balance weights (such as the Bronze Age balance weights from southern Italy shown here) and metal fragments in Italy and Central Europe show that the unit of weight (shekel) corresponds to the weight of the fragments. This suggests that they were used as a common currency across Europe. (Scale bar = 3cm) (Nicola Ialongo / Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)

After weighing the metals, archaeologists used statistical models to make comparisons. The findings of this approach were significant and remarkable, showing that these objects were multiples of normal weight dimensions. It’s impossible to dismiss the fact that one thing weighs twice as much as another, or three times as much as another, or half as much as another, and so on.

Furthermore, the standard dimensions against which they were matched were not chosen at random. They corresponded precisely to the weights of balance weights in use throughout Europe throughout those ancient times.

Scales were built using these balance weights. It is now clear that such scales were used to measure bronze metal fragments retrieved from Late Bronze Age dig sites, among other things. This was required to ensure that they were sliced to the correct size and measured the correct quantity before being circulated as “coins.”

It’s worth noting that Late Bronze Age Europeans weren’t the first to use metal as currency. Beginning in the early third millennium BC, the ancient Mesopotamians used silver sticks for the same purpose.

The spread of the use of metallic scraps for cash happened against the background of the formation of a global market in Western Eurasia. “There was nothing ‘primitive’ about pre-coinage money, as money before coins performed exactly the same functions that modern money does now,” explains Dr. Nicola Ialongo at the University of Göttingen’s Institute for Prehistory and Early History.

Nicola Ialongo adds, “Using these metallic scraps was not an unexpected development, as it is likely that perishable goods were used as currency long before the discovery of metallurgy, but the real turning point was the invention of weighing technology in the Near East around 3000 BC. This provided, for the first time in human history, the objective means to quantify the economic value of things and services, or, in other words, to assign them a price.”

UNIVERSITY OF GÖTTINGEN

Related Articles

What Did Mummies Smell Like in Ancient Egypt? The Surprisingly Pleasant Results Revealed

1 April 2025

1 April 2025

A groundbreaking study led by researchers from University College London’s Institute for Sustainable Heritage and the University of Ljubljana has...

Submerged Roman structure of concentric walls discovered on Italy’s western coast

3 June 2024

3 June 2024

Archaeologists have recently uncovered a significant Roman-era structure submerged near the coastline of Campo di Mare on Italy’s western coast....

Roman-era Pottery Workshop discovered in Alexandria

29 April 2022

29 April 2022

The Egyptian archaeological mission discovered a Roman-era pottery workshop at the site of Tibet Mutawah, west of Alexandria. The researchers...

Part of lost star catalog of Hipparchus found hidden in Medieval parchment

22 October 2022

22 October 2022

Hipparchus’ fabled star catalog, which had been thought to be lost, was discovered concealed in a medieval parchment that had...

Archaeologists unearths Unique Tomb of 6th Century BC Egyptian Commander at the archaeological area of ​​Abu Sir

24 July 2022

24 July 2022

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced on July 15 that a team of Czech archaeologists, while excavating near the Giza...

The “food” thousands of years ago may be the ancestor of a Turkish dessert

25 July 2021

25 July 2021

The rock paintings and kitchen materials found in the cave, which were discovered by a shepherd and emerged as a...

A bronze seal matrix of St George slaying the dragon has been discovered at the royal Château of Villers-Cotterêts in northern France

21 March 2022

21 March 2022

A previously unpublished and unknown bronze seal matrix of Saint George slaying the dragon has been discovered at the royal...

Hidden Roman Passage Unearthed Beneath Split: A Secret Gateway into Diocletian’s Palace Revealed

23 June 2025

23 June 2025

A groundbreaking discovery beneath Hrvojeva Street, near Diocletian’s Palace, is reshaping our understanding of Roman life and architecture in the...

Researchers identified, for the first time, the composition of a Roman perfume more than 2,000 years old

25 May 2023

25 May 2023

A research team at the University of Cordoba has identified, for the first time, the composition of a Roman perfume...

Secrets of the Skull Room: 12 Ancient Human Skulls Unearthed in Sefertepe Excavations

16 September 2025

16 September 2025

Archaeologists have uncovered 12 new human skulls during ongoing excavations at Sefertepe, one of the most important sites of the...

Hidden Iron Age Treasure Links Sweden to Ancient Baltic–Iberian Trade Routes

8 September 2025

8 September 2025

Archaeologists have discovered Sweden’s first complete plano-convex ingot, revealing Iron Age maritime trade links between the Iberian Peninsula, Scandinavia, and...

Archaeologists in Iraq find 2,700-year-old wine press

24 October 2021

24 October 2021

Stone bas-reliefs carved into the walls of an irrigation canal some nine kilometers (5.5 miles) long, and the remains of...

Ritualistic Dog Burials Associated with the Goddess Gula Unearthed at the Harran Archaeological Site in Southeastern Türkiye

15 December 2024

15 December 2024

Excavations at the Harran archaeological site in Şanlıurfa, one of the world’s oldest settlements and listed on UNESCO’s Temporary World...

‘Frankfurt Silver Inscription’ Archaeologists Unearth Oldest Christian Artifact North of the Alps

13 December 2024

13 December 2024

An ancient silver amulet unearthed in Frankfurt pushes back Christianity’s history in the region by 50 to 100 years. The...

3,500-Year-Old Hittite Linen Fabric Exhibited for the First Time

10 March 2025

10 March 2025

A remarkable artifact, a piece of Hittite linen fabric dating back 3,500 years, has been publicly exhibited for the first...