Samosdel:Century Saksin ** Economic Research (II).
Mystical Alchemists Alchemists were ancient chemists who dedicated themselves to creating mysterious gold and other precious metals. They firmly believe that everything is made up of the four elements of fire, water, earth, and air, and by blending these elements, they create advanced elements that cannot exist in the real world.
Although their theories have been proven wrong by modern science, the alchemists' exploration and understanding of the principles of chemistry have provided important insights for later chemical research.
Their spirit and exploration are always worthy of our respect and learning.
Abu Hamid Ghanati reveals a special ** habit in the city of Saksin. They used tin as a medium of exchange, and every eight Baghdad manna dew was equivalent to one dinar, and then cut the tin into pieces for purchase.
Tin bars are considered a unit of currency, not because there are no coins in circulation in Saxony, but because they are comparable in value to coins. In the study of the settlement of Samosdel, a large number of lead products were found, which were the main components of excavated cultural deposits and uplifting materials.
In 1990, researchers were surprised when they found a large pile of lead ingots in a cut in a coastal cliff in the ferry area. These lead ingots, with lead splatters on the edges of the wrap, were found in fragments of ceramic humming.
In 2006, when researchers excavated the surface of the settlement in the northeast of 1, they discovered a large lead deposit weighing about 70 kilograms. Be that as it may, Al-Garnati and Da.The difference in the value conversion of lead to tin in Khvolson's ** may be due to a mistake caused by the similar spelling of the numbers "3" and "8" in Arabic numerals, or it could be due to other reasons.
In alchemy, lead and tin are collectively called"Lead"。Tin is considered a modification of lead and is known as white or shiny lead, which is different from regular black lead. Later, the name "lead" began to be attributed only to lead, while "white tin" received the Latin name Stenum, which means "durable".
The term was adopted by Arab alchemy and spread to Europe. Some theories suggest that the Russian word for tin, the Lithuanian word for alwas, and the Prussian word for alwis are all Latin languages"album", which appears in the name of SnP**.
Although in reality in the Middle Ages one was able to distinguish between lead and tin, due to their similarity, we can say that in some cases it may not be that two different metals are used, but only lead.
During an excavation in 2005, a semi-bomb shelter was discovered, which contained 412,328 kilograms of lead ingots, which were further processed into exchange equivalents.
This finding supports the ** value of lead and its use as an exchange equivalent, which is also reflected in the testimony of Algarnati and Ibnrust.
We hypothesized that the weight of these hoarded ingots was consistent with that used in the Muslim East, and through our study of the Tate, we determined that most of the ingots contained in the branches corresponded to some of the Eastern units of measurement, such as man or miskal, as well as their proportions.
It should be noted that the total weight of all hoarded ingots almost exactly corresponds to the weight of four Khorezm Harvards. This medieval unit of weight, known as "donkey baggage", was equal to 103125 kg.
Another issue that needs to be clarified is that these lead ingots can serve as a population-currency equivalent for the settlement of Samosdel. Quoted from al-Garnati's work, every 8 Baghdad manna is worth a dinar (i.e. one gold coin), and one dinar is equal to 15 dirhams (coins).
Taking into account all the regularity of these structures, we can assume that 6,500 grams of lead (8 Baghdad manna 812 each.)5 grams) is equal to one dinar.
So, about 43333 grams of lead is equivalent to one silver dirham (coin). So, for example, for one dirham in the x century, you can buy 4 manna meat, more than 5 kg of wheat, 7 to 12 kg of barley, about 40 kg of dates.
A pot costs 05 dirhams, one metre of canvas - 2 dirhams. A married couple's modest living per year will cost 300 dirhams, the cost of a lozenge weighing 2 to 8 grams.
In general, it may be enough for Baghdad to carry out an exchange operation as a result, on the basis of which they can live on the equivalent of a small bargaining chip. A very interesting discovery was made both during the excavation and on the outside of the excavation, a regularly shaped ingot in the shape of a rectangular shape at the base of the truncated pyramid.
These ingots are cast in an uneven soil matrix by multi-layer casting as much as possible (the mold is filled with molten lead in a variety of ways) to correspond to the correct shape.
On the coastal edge of the hill fort, the river of the cultural layer scoured out the largest ingot, weighing 4,200 grams. The rest of the ingots, although smaller but of the same shape, weigh 658 grams and 36 grams, respectively.
The ingots are based on the weight weight of the emiskal (about 4 grams) and multiples of the weight standards of 150-160 Miskar and 1000 Miskal, where the weight of one large strip is approximately equal to the lead equivalent of the silver dirham that we have calculated, and can therefore be considered a monetary equivalent.
In addition, the weighting relationship between the three ingots is also interesting, the large and medium ingots are related, about 1:6 between each other; The correlation between medium and small ingots is about 1:18; The correlation between large and small ingots is about 1:120.
Among them, the ingot weighs 390g and has a length of 155 cm with a width of 2 on one side7 cm, the width of the other edge is 23 cm, the middle width is 3 cm, the thickness of the plate is about 1 cm.
The narrow end is rounded, the edges protrude to the top, and on the surface of the plate there is an ornament with dotted grooves. In the center of the ingot there is a circle with dots, made in the form of two concentric circles with dots.
Two similar circles are located on the left and right, at a distance from the center. Between the side circle and the ** circle, the ornament is made in the form of four intersecting straight lines, forming two pairs of intersecting crosses - a straight cross and an oblique cross.
At the end of the plate there are symmetrical ornaments, in the form of oblique triangles facing the ends of ingots with sharp corners. The inside of the triangle is separated by the median, and lines are drawn from the bottom corner to the middle of the median.
Some of the ingots have some approximate correspondence with the weight measurements common in the medieval East on the lead product hoarding material of the structure of excavation 23, suggesting that geometrically correct ingots can be conditionally considered as exchange equivalents, and small invisible ingots can also be used as a means of exchange.
For the original product, the weight and value correspondence is relatively accurate, which is mainly reflected between hryvnia ingots and trapezoidal weights. And the reason for the appearance of a large number of lead ingots in the settlement of Samosdel may be related to the fact that these ingots were used in exchange at that time in the conditions of the economic crisis in the East and the "silver famine" that stopped minting dirhams.
Prior to the issuer crisis, the metal reserves of silver coins-dirhams outside the issuers were mainly concentrated in the hands of exporters in Eastern Europe, a phenomenon that was also confirmed in Russia, Scandinavia, and the territories of Western European countries, where many coin hoards were found, some of which were very impressive.
The shortage of coins prompted the settlement of Samosdel to develop major ingots to meet the needs of the domestic Saxon market. At the same time, taking into account the number of gold bars found in the settlement of Samosdel, we can assume that the domestic ** volume of Saxin is huge.