This paper establishes the parameters for an archaeological study of money, debt, and finance as interrelated aspects of human economies. We begin with economic anthropology’s roots in the works of Mauss, Malinowski, and Polanyi before proceeding to the individual topics of money, debt, and finance and the ways in which they overlap in theory and practice. Archaeological research into these topics is of particular value because it expands our view of the social and political dynamics of economies beyond production, distribution, and consumption. The insights of economic anthropology and other social sciences can push archaeologists to look beyond material instruments to the effects of money, finance, and debt in the material world. When archaeologists recognize money, finance, and debt as socially enacted and socially transformative (just as they do for production, exchange, and consumption), they are able to study the origins of these fundamental components of human economies as well as their long, contentious, and dynamic histories. This paper showcases the contributions of the other papers assembled as part of a virtual special issue and calls on all archaeologists to examine economies of the past in new ways.

本文为作为人类经济相关方面的货币，债务和金融考古研究建立了参数。我们先从经济人类学的根源开始，研究莫斯，马林诺夫斯基和波兰尼，然后再探讨货币，债务和金融的各个主题，以及它们在理论和实践上的重叠方式。对这些主题的考古研究具有特别的价值，因为它扩展了我们对经济的社会和政治动态的认识，超越了生产，分配和消费。经济人类学和其他社会科学的见识可以促使考古学家将目光投向物质工具之外的物质，金钱，金融和债务的影响。当考古学家认识到金钱，财务，和债务一样，它们在社会上是具有法律效力和社会变革性的（就像它们在生产，交换和消费中一样），因此他们能够研究人类经济的这些基本组成部分的起源，以及悠久的，有争议的和动态的历史。本文展示了作为虚拟特刊的一部分而撰写的其他论文的贡献，并呼吁所有考古学家以新的方式审视过去的经济。