The texts from the ancient city of Mari in Syria, dating from the 19th and 18th centuries BC, provide us with some particularly interesting certifications. The important thing was to be able to note the weight of the metal changing hands. To an administrator in antiquity it was not the object’s appearance that primarily mattered, so much as its mass. Metal was a rare material, and its circulation gave rise to detailed book-keeping. The ancient Near East has left us a sizeable body of written documents, of which the archives about metal make up a not inconsiderable part.

The team, coordinated by Philippe Quenet, is comprised of archaeologists and epigraphers specialized in various fields of the ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern civilizations, namely Michèle Casanova, Virginie Danrey, Sylvie Donnat, Denis Lacambre, Geneviève Pierrat-Bonnefois. Therefore a new investigation of the lapis lazuli assemblage, which is one of the most impressive of the Ancient East found in a closed context, has been initiated by the 'Tôd Treasure Lapis Lazuli Project of Publication'. While a long-lasting controversy focused on the silver vessel until the 1990s and contributed to bring into light the metallic artefacts, the lapis lazuli collection, massively Mesopotamian in style and manufacture, has never been thoroughly examined, nor has it been paid the attention it would actually deserve. Buried under the reign of king Amenemhat II (19th century BC), this deposit consisted of four chests containing luxury items predominantly made of silver and lapis lazuli. Bisson de la Roque in the Temple of Montu at Tôd (Egypt), the so-called Tôd Treasure has remained badly known.

Halma point treasure