Gregory's Server@robinhood *495,000 years before the invention of currency
Just to really drive home the incredibly tiny amount of time money has existed. And that's giving a very generous 5,000 years where money in some form kind of existed at all (which is, itself, an overestimation of how long money has existed).
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@mousefriend @robinhood yeah, economist types really love severely overstating how long money has existed Sure, there's a long history of items that were probably used as some kind of voucher or token. But I don't think there's any evidence of them being used in any way that would resemble a currency. Also the idea of bartering as a precursor to money isn't real either. Zero evidence for it, just something some guy made up. The closest you get is the general concept of owing someone a favor. |
@robinhood for those who will ask:
~500,000 years ago some pre-Sapien hominids in Zambia were making pigment intentionally. That is, by our understanding, the oldest evidence of human art because unless you're using the pigment For something, it's very unlikely you'd spend the time to Make it.
Plus there are some lines drawn in red ochre that are only a few 10s of thousands of years newer than the Zambia find.