Credit money, free wage labor, government debt and financial crises are nothing new. Social and financial features typically associated with the late Middle Ages or even European modernity are well attested for classical antiquity and have a deep prehistory that goes back to the Bronze Age. The lecture will chart this history in four short chapters on money, wage labor, currency, and financial crises. The audience will also learn to see the Ishtar Gate and the Parthenon in a new light.
Emanuel Mayer is a classical archaeologist and ancient historian, who works on the intersections between economic and social history, ancient urban life, and visual culture. He is an associate professor of history at Yale-NUS College in Singapore. The current focus of his research is on pre-modern financial history across Eurasia and the economic and cultural consequences of Indo-Roman trade.
*The lecture will be held in English.