EAA2021: Abstract

The quantitative approaches of archaeological data allow to transcript in our modern analysis grid what remains of ancient economic activities. In this paper, I propose to reverse the question focusing on the way Bronze and Iron Age people developed practices and tools to organise, count and measure their own world, from natural resources to possible surpluses. I will present a brief overview of the main archaeological remains allowing to characterise the use of measuring instruments, practices, institutions during Late Prehistory. The study will investigate several features of measuring during European Late Prehistory: weighing metrologies, metal calibrations and capacities of ceramic containers. The data analysis will rely on a set of analytical tools dedicated to metrological studies and developed in the scope of various interpretative approaches.

In addition to the formal presentation of the data and their analysis, this paper will question the degree of awareness and knowledge of the Late Prehistory people concerning the quantification in an economic perspective. One of the main points will be to determine what position occupy the quantification in the development of daily production, exchanges or storage practices, their impact on the construction of economic – formal or informal – institutions and their materialisation in the archaeological record.

economics, metrology, Bronze Age, Iron Age

 Abstract (PDF)

Thibaud Poigt^1,2