Myth and Metrology: The Early Trans-Saharan Gold Trade

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Periodical article

Title:	Myth and Metrology: The Early Trans-Saharan Gold Trade
Author:	Garrard, Timothy F.
Year:	1982
Periodical:	The Journal of African History
Volume:	23
Issue:	4
Pages:	443-461
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	West Africa Northern Africa
Subjects:	long-distance trade gold weights gold History and Exploration Economics and Trade Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/182035
Abstract:	The debate on the origins of the trans-Saharan gold trade has been fuelled almost entirely by evidence from historical texts and archaeology, which scholars have used, seasoned with a liberal dose of speculation, to reach mutually irreconcilable positions. This paper considers two aspects of the subject that have been all but overlooked - metrology and numismatic. Both coins and weights survive, and they can provide information potentially as valuable as written documents or archaeological remains. Sections: Trade and coinage in North Africa, 1000 B.C.-A.D. 200 - Trade and coinage in North Africa, A.D. 200-1000 - Weight-standards for gold-dust in the trans-Saharan trade (the mithqal of gold-dust; the uqiya of gold-dust; the Saharan and Sudanic gold-dust standard: conclusions) - Implications and further research. Notes, sum.