Kanesh and Assur PDF

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summary of the Kanesh and Assur reading assigned in Mixon's class....

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Ancient Kanesh: A Merchant Colony During 2000 - 1750 BCE ● City of Kanesh flourished from 2000 to 1750 BCE as an Old Assyrian trade outpost and the earliest attested commercial society in world history ● Assyrians had a monopoly of tin imports in Anatolia ● Made themselves welcome in Anatolia through their “very efficient caravan system, the vast linked network” ● Large group of Assyrian merchants permanently installed at Kanesh and other Anatolian cities including Durhamit and Burushaddaum ● “Kanesh had a system of long-distance trade that reached from central Asia to the Black sea region and the Aegean” ○ “Common activities such as trade between Kanesh and the city state of Assur, and between Assyrian merchants and local people” ● This has texts “reflecting the activities of an Assyrian trader called Assur-nada whose house in Kanesh originally held the tablets and records” ○ His son continued the commercial activities with a close associate, Adad-sululi The Caravans and Long Distance Trade ● Kanesh was the administrative center for the Assyrian presence in the foreign land ● Assyrian presence in northwestern Syria and Anatolia was based on a system of treaties with local rulers; two treaties found in a house in Kanesh ○ One with the name of the king of Kanesh ○ One with the name of the ruler of Hahhum, a major town on the upper Eurphates River ● Trade between Assur and Kanesh (600 miles) - involved Assur sending tin and textiles to Kanesh, and Kanesh sending silver to Assur ○ “bronze was the preferred metal for implements of war” ○ “tin was one of the main products used to alloy with copper in order to make bronze” ○ “It took one pound of tin with ten pounds of copper to make bronze. One donkey could carry about 150 pounds, 67.5 kilograms of tin” ○ “Textiles, the other important item of trade, were 4.5 yards square and weighed 5 pounds, so a donkey could carry 30 of them.” ● “In the Assyrian capital city of Assur, one could buy fifteen shekels of tin for one shekel of silver and then resell it in Anatolia near the copper mines for nearly sixteen times what was paid to buy it” - ARBITRAGEEEEE ○ Some details about outfitting for a caravan and smelting at Barushaddum ○ Shipment of tin would be alloyed with copper to produce 6,792 pounds of bronze - This would provide a lot of war implements of swords, broad head axes, spears, knives, etc. ● “After all the expenses, the profit from the long distance trade would be enormous. A round trip from Kanesh to Assur took about 3 months. A caravan going through foreign territory paid toll-charges to local officials nad was then entitled to use of wells water supplies and the protection of the local ruler. There were up to thirty watering stations along the 600-mile route”

Rules of Trade ● “Treaties and oaths were standardized involving all of the rulers located in the domain of the trade activity” ○ “The local ruler was entitled to take 4 pounds from a metal load, and 5 percent of the textiles being imported. The rulers were thus getting up to about 5 % of the gross value of the caravan.” ○ “Some excess goods for which a market was not immediately available, could be stored in a consignment warehouse, or type of open market, maintained by the rulers or trading community, and the overseer there could sell the items for market price when appropriate, or a price the trader stipulated as a minimum, and credit the trader accordingly. The trader would indicate a price below which the goods would not be sold; most goods did not staying the warehouse long. So the trader was not always trying to run around and find an outlet for his products” ● “Traders were reimbursed for losses resulting from robbery along the trade route by paying an insurance deposit with the local ruler” ● “Tin trade suffered when iron replaced bronze as the preferred implements for war. Kanesh was destroyed about 1830 BCE.” The V.C.s of B.C. ● Man named Assur-idi ”spent his life’s savings on the items, because he knew that if he could convey them over the Taurus Mountains to Kanesh, 600 miles away, he could sell them for twice what he paid” ● “He offered to take the older man’s donkeys with him and ship the profits back. The two struck a hurried agreement and wrotie it up, though they forgot to record some details. Later, Sharrum-Adad claimed he never knew how many textiles he had been given. Assur-idi spent the subsequent weeks sending increasingly panicked letters to his sons in Kanesh, demanding they track down Sharrum-Adad and claim his profits”...