We have documented more than 200 relative values of gold and silver across almost 3000 years (2500 bce–400 ce) to establish value benchmarks for essentially pure metal. Our aim is to improve understanding of ancient economies by enabling regional and temporal comparisons of these relative values. First, we establish silver as an early, reliable benchmark for valuing gold of varying purity before implementation of parting. Whilst purity accounted for two to threefold variation in the value of gold, we conclude that availability was more influential. Access to Nubian gold until about 1100 bce seems an important influence on gold-silver value ratios in Egypt and the Near East, which increased significantly following loss of this source. This investigation yields a suite of relative values for essentially pure gold and silver, subdivided by regions and intervals from 2500 bce–400 ce. These will enable future comparisons of precious metal-denominated costs of labour and commodities, including with today.

我们记录了近 3000 年（公元前 2500年– 公元 400年）内 200 多种黄金和白银的相对价值，以建立基本纯金属的价值基准。我们的目标是通过对这些相对价值进行区域和时间比较来增进对古代经济的理解。首先，我们将白银建立为早期、可靠的基准，用于在实施分离之前对不同纯度的黄金进行估价。虽然纯度导致黄金价值的两到三倍变化，但我们得出结论，可用性的影响更大。直到公元前约 1100 年，努比亚黄金的获取似乎对埃及和近东地区的金银价值比率产生了重要影响，在失去这一来源后，金银价值比率显着增加。这项调查得出了一套基本纯金和白银的相对价值，按地区和时间间隔（公元前 2500 年至公元400年）细分。这些将使未来以贵金属计价的劳动力和商品成本（包括与今天的成本）进行比较。