Silver, Money and Credit gathers a collection of contributions by
leading specialists on the role of silver in Ancient Mesopotamia. The
volume is a tribute to Robartus J. van der Spek, professor emeritus at
the VU University Amsterdam.
The thematic core area is the
documentation concerning silver in cuneiform sources from first
millennium BC Babylonia, and how this vast body of primary sources can
be employed in order to shed light on aspects of the economy. It thus
coincides with the honouree’s main area of research. The volume is
rounded off by comparative material mainly from other periods in
Mesopotamian history, rendering justice to his broad range of interest.
The scope of the volume thus extends from the first written records on
the use of silver in Uruk to the Neo-Babylonian Empire’s apogee in the
sixth century BC and further to insights to be gained from comparisons
with early modern economies.