For almost all of human history, people existed without coins, prices, or stores. And yet, amber from the Baltic shores found its way into the tombs of Greece, copper from Tuscany reached the Alps, and bluestone from the Afghan mountains adorned the royal tombs of Mesopotamia. In this episode, we explore how strangers found each other, negotiated without a common language, and trusted each other without courts or police.

Inside: the silent trade from Herodotus's tale, the trade language of the Pomors and Norse, the Kula ring in the Pacific Ocean, a potlatch in the American Northwest, a ship from Uluburun, letters from Ashurian merchants from Kanish, clay tokens that gave birth to writing, stone disks from Yap Island, counterfeit cocoa beans, the Inca state without money, and an honest conversation about what science still doesn't know.

⚠️ The video is based on archaeological, anthropological, historical, and linguistic data. Where scientists argue, it's stated plainly.

👉 Subscribe if you enjoy calm analyses of ancient people without fiction or horror stories.

📚 SOURCES AND READING ON THE TOPIC
• Mauss, M., Essai sur le don (The Gift), 1925.
• Malinowski, B., Argonauts of the Western Pacific. London: Routledge, 1922.
• Humphrey, C., Barter and Economic Disintegration. Man, 1985.
• Graeber, D., Debt: The First 5,000 Years. Melville House, 2011.
• Henrich, J. et al., In Search of Homo Economicus: Behavioral Experiments in 15 Small-Scale Societies. American Economic Review, 2001.
• Chen M. K., Lakshminarayanan V., Santos L. R. How Basic Are Behavioral Biases? Evidence from Capuchin Monkey Trading Behavior. Journal of Political Economy, 2006.
• Fruteau C. et al. Supply and demand determine the market value of food providers in wild vervet monkeys. PNAS, 2009.
• Larsen M. T. Ancient Kanesh: A Merchant Colony in Bronze Age Anatolia. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
• Schmandt-Besserat D. Before Writing. University of Texas Press, 1992.
• Pulak C. The Uluburun shipwreck: an overview. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 1998.
• Artioli G. et al. Long-distance connections in the Copper Age: New evidence from the Alpine Iceman's copper axe. PLoS ONE, 2017.
• Maixner F. et al. Hallstatt miners consumed blue cheese and beer during the Iron Age and retained a non-Westernized gut microbiome until the Baroque period. Current Biology, 2021.
• Herodotus. Histories, book 4.

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