Abstract:

We observe the use of metal as the most important mediums of exchange in the economic system implemented in Anatolia in the Hittite Period. The same economic system developed various units of weight and measurement in the sense of control mechanisms to create fixed equivalence in the mediums of exchange. Weighting stones obtained in various settlements of Anatolia since the Early Bronze Ages are of importance since they reveal the commercial relationships between Anatolia and the other regions, and the philological documents proving the use of various weights and units of measurement obtained from the Hittite Period provide important clues about how and by whom the control mechanisms were operated in Anatolia of the Period. When we observe the areas of use of the weights and the units of measurement and the methods of pricing determined by the laws in the cuneiform scripts in Hittite language, the units of weight and measurement used as control mechanisms were developed to a large extent by central structures, palaces or temples. In the vow scripts, diplomatic texts or pray texts in Hittite language, the weights and the measurements of the goods presented to the palaces or the temples were inspected and recorded in a very strict sense. Weight and measurement systems served the use of various goods for the exchange as a fixed equivalent and the emergence of the value of the goods in terms of mediums of exchange. In this sense, the most important medium of exchange became silver in the Hittite Period. The purchasing power of 1 šekel silver became the most important criterion to calculate the circulation of the goods both in theory and in practice. Other than silver, almost all metals functioned as mediums of exchange as salaries or prizes and exchange of diplomatic presents. Metals that got into the circulation were used as a fixed equivalent in the form of nuggets or “finished goods” (commodity money).

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