VU Research Portal The impact of empire on market prices in Babylon Pirngruber, R. 2012 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Pirngruber, R. (2012). The impact of empire on market prices in Babylon: in the Late Achaemenid and Seleucid periods, ca. 400 - 140 B.C. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 25. Sep. 2021 THE IMPACT OF EMPIRE ON MARKET PRICES IN BABYLON in the Late Achaemenid and Seleucid periods, ca. 400 – 140 B.C. R. Pirngruber VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT THE IMPACT OF EMPIRE ON MARKET PRICES IN BABYLON in the Late Achaemenid and Seleucid periods, ca. 400 – 140 B.C. ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad Doctor aan de Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, op gezag van de rector magnificus prof.dr. L.M. Bouter, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van de promotiecommissie van de faculteit der Letteren op vrijdag 16 maart 2012 om 11.45 uur in de aula van de universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105 door Reinhard Wilfried Pirngruber geboren te Wels, Oostenrijk promotor: prof.dr. R.J. van der Spek PREFACE This thesis is the result of an interdisciplinary 4-year research project entitled “On the efficiency of markets for agricultural products in pre-industrial societies: The case of Babylonia c. 400 – c. 60 BC” financed by ‘The Netherlands’ Organization for Scientific Research’ (NWO). In the first place, I would like to thank Bert van der Spek, for including me in this exciting project he devised, and the interest with which he followed my work over the years. His valuable criticisms and suggestions greatly benefitted the quality of this thesis. I also would like to acknowledge the advice received over the years from fellow project members Joost Huijs and Bas van Leeuwen, and from the lecturers in Assyriology at the VU University, C. Waerzeggers and K. Kleber. Especially Bas’ wisdom in all things economic was of great help. I am indebted to several other people who have helped me in one way or another with their advice, and by making accessible yet unpublished papers. Among them, I would like to mention my former colleagues and teachers from Vienna, H. Baker, J. Hackl, and M. Jursa. I also would like to thank M. Stol for providing me with the opportunity to write reviews for Bibliotheca Orientalis. The greatest thank I owe to my family whose support I could always be sure of, and who never opposed my choice of studying Ancient Near Eastern history, a subject increasingly under threat of being eradicated because not economically profitable. I want to dedicate this book to Micaela. Thank you for having dared to come with me, for your constant encouragement, comfort, and distraction, and for brightening up my world. Table of contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 2. The sources and their context 2.1 The Astronomical Diaries: Structure, purpose, and development .................... 5 2.1.2 The development of the historical sections .............................................. 7 2.1.3 History and divination ... ......................................................................... 10 2.1.4 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 12 2.2 The prices of the Astronomical Diaries in their literary context ... .................. 18 2.3 The economic background and price quotations in everyday documents ........ 20 3. A price history of Babylonia, ca. 400 – ca. 140 BC 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 27 3.2 The Late Achaemenid period ........................................................................... 28 3.3 The Hellenistic period from the conquests of Alexander the Great until the consolidation of the Seleucid kingdom ............................................................. 38 3.4 The Early Seleucid period: Seleucus I to Seleucus III, ca. 305-223 BC .......... 47 3.5 The Later Seleucid period: Antiochus III to the Parthian conquest, ca. 225- 140 BC ............................................................................................................ 55 3.6 Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 65 4. Price outliers and histoire événementielle 4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 72 4.2 high-ranking outliers ......................................................................................... 72 4.3 Outliers in the absence of clear historical information ..................................... 79 4.4 Low-ranking outliers ....................................................................................... 83 4.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 85 5. Historical events in a quantitative analysis 5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 87 5.2 The impact of warfare on commodity prices .................................................... 90 5.2.1 The different categories of warfare ........................................................... 90 5.2.2 Regression results ................................................................................... 101 5.3 The causes underlying prices rises ................................................................. 104 5.3.1 Warfare-related factors .......................................................................... 104 5.3.2 Regression results ................................................................................... 108 5.4 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 109 6. Price volatility and storage 6.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 111 6.2 The price data of the Astronomical Diaries and their relevance for storage .. 113 6.3 Archival evidence and storage facilities ......................................................... 115 7. Conclusion and outlook ....................................................................................... 125 Appendix: Commentary to the historical sections of the Astronomical Diaries ..... 128 ADART I: 1. Diaries of the Late Achaemenid period ........................................... 130 ADART I: 2. Diaries of the Early Hellenistic period .............................................. 161 ADART I: 3. Diaries of the Seleucid period 1 ........................................................ 174 ADART II: Diaries of the Seleucid period 2 ........................................................... 196 ADART III: Diaries of the Seleucid period 3 .......................................................... 265 Literature and abbreviations ................................................................................... 296 1. Introduction With a total of more than 2,000 observations of the silver equivalents of six different commodities, among which the staple foods barley and dates, the Astronomical Diaries (henceforth ADs, or Diaries) and the Late Babylonian Commodity price lists provide us with one of the largest economic datasets for any pre-industrial society in world history.1 This wealth of material has not failed to elicit scientific interest, and two monographs as well as several smaller articles have already been dedicated to an analysis of the price equivalents of the ADs. The first systematic investigation of this price series was A. Slotsky’s The bourse of Babylon from 1997, it was followed in 2001 by A history of Babylonian prices in the first millennium BC – I. Prices of basic commodities by P. Vargyas. The former certainly chose for a more innovative approach. A trained economist, A. Slotsky attempted a statistical examination of the long-term trends in the datasets of the individual commodities by means of a regression analysis. P. Vargyas on the other hand provided a discussion of both short-term and long-term fluctuations, but employed a much cruder methodology and restricted himself mainly to simple discussions of changes in the monthly equivalents and of centennial averages. However, these investigations have met with severe criticism. An important review of both studies by R. van der Spek and C. Mandemakers (2003) found fault in particular with the failure of both authors to convert the silver equivalents into genuine prices prior to analysis which in both cases lead to several