Day in the Life of a Bronze age Trader

Hello my name is Abby, I am going to walk you through one day of my life in Mesopotamia. I live in a nice climate. It is not to hot or too cold so me and my tribe can live here easily. Also we live by two rivers called the Tigris and Euphrates river. They have clean water that we can drink from and we also use the water to water our crops. Everyone here has a certain role to play in our society. They can be farmers, traders, leaders, hunters, gatherers, and other jobs for tasks we might need done. As for me, I am a trader. I go to the market all day to sell, and trade our goods. I usually trade what we have a surplus of. We usually have a surplus of, grains, bronze tools, and stone tools. Now let’s head out to the market.

Before I leave I have to fill my carts up with all of the goods that I want to sell. On my carts I am using a brand new invention. That invention is the wheel. The wheel helps us move our good farther, it also helps us take more of our goods at once. Okay, now that we are all packed up lets go. Before we get to the market you might want to know that they are quite crowded so be careful.  You know what some of my goods are, but since I have some extra time I can tell you the others. They are weapons, pottery, tools, baskets, cloth, food, and spices. When we eventually get to the market we will be trading others for things that we want or need. We will not be trading our things for grain because we do not need any more of it. Oh look over there, it is the market. Today is going to be a busy day.

Now I try to grab attention to my products so they think that my products are the best. Oh here is a costumer that seems interested in our helmets, let me show you how I sell. Hello would you like trade your cattle for these helmets. These helmets are made of bronze. They are very hard, harder than copper. Yes, yes, two cows for five helmets, do we have a deal. Ok good here you go. See this was a good trade because, we did not need so many helmets but we do need some cattle.  Ooh another person. These are very good weapons they are very strong and reliable. Ok just give me six grinders for ten of these. I do this for the rest of this and every other afternoon. The rest of my sales usually go the same way for the rest of the night. So I do not keep you all night I would just like to say that this is the life of a merchant in Mesopotamia.