Chunks of casting

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Cast chunks from Braunschweig (14th century)

Cast lumps , also known as cast cakes , are an intermediate product of ancient copper processing in Europe and an early form of currency . They are both made of pure copper and in various, mostly natural Bronze - alloys . The archaeological finds contain both whole cakes in different sizes and pieces. The oldest finds come from the Early Bronze Age , i.e. from around 2000–3000 BC. With the Romans, cast cakes were known as aes rude (literally about "raw metal").

Bronze age

The cast cakes of the Bronze Age are coarse raw metal bars. The age of the oldest pieces is to be taken from the beginning of the smelting of copper. In the Austrian Alps, copper ore was mined and smelted at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC.

Cast cakes were the raw material for further processing by the coppersmiths. This valuable raw material was already traded in the Bronze Age across the then known Old World . More recent research in the field of archaeometallurgy suggests that cast cakes were also used as a premium means of payment in the Bronze Age.

Roman Empire

In the Iron Age , copper was still processed, as was the case in the Roman Empire . From around 280 BC The Romans began to standardize the means of payment. First with the introduction of the aes signatum - bars cast from bronze with marking (motif), which had a uniform value. A short time later, the first coarse coins followed, the aes grave (see also As ). These gradually replaced the cast chunks ( aes rude ) as a means of payment.

See also

literature

  • Ernst Justus Haeberlin : Aes grave . The heavy money of Rome and Central Italy including the raw bronze currency that preceded it . 2 volumes. Forni, Bologna 1967 (reprint of the Halle 1910 edition).
  • Edward A. Sydenham: Aes grave. A study of the cast coinages of Rome and Central Italy . Spink Books, London 1975 (reprint of the London 1926 edition)
  • Bradbury K. Thurlow: Italian Cast Coinage. Italian aes grave . Vechi, London 1979, ISBN 0-9506836-0-4 .
  • Italo G. Vecchi: Italian Cast Coinage. A descriptive catalog of the cast coinage of Rome and Italy . London 2013, ISBN 978-0-9575784-0-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Elisabeth Pühringer: The way into primeval times. Archeology and film . Dissertation, University of Vienna 2000 (unpublished)

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