How do we document ancient coinage? (original) (raw)
Related papers
Group and individual tragedies in Roman Europe. The evidence of hoards, epigraphic and literary sources, 2020
F. Stroobants, The use of coinage for large payments at Roman Sagalassos (SW Anatolia). Combining evidence from historical sources, coin finds and regional hoards, in: C. Găzdac (ed.), Group and individual tragedies in Roman Europe. The evidence of hoards, epigraphic and literary sources, Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology Monographic Series 1, 2020, p. 461-488. This paper wishes to analyse the use of high-value coinage for large payments at Sagalassos during the Roman imperial and late Roman period. To start, two case-studies on possible contexts in which large payments could have taken place, i.e. taxation and public expenses, will be presented for Roman Asia Minor and the region of Sagalassos in particular. Afterwards, the article will focus on the concrete evidence that exists for large transactions and/or the use of high-value coinage, from both historical sources, coin finds from the excavations, and regional hoard evidence. These different material categories will afterwards be combined to analyse the role coinage might have played when large sums had to be paid by the citizens, elite or civic government at Sagalassos.
COINS IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology, 2020
The present paper is presenting a case study of a controlled archaeological investigation on an area from the former colonia of Napoca in Roman Dacia (today, Cluj-Napoca in Romania). The analysis of coin finds, issuers, types, denominations, within the archaeological contexts they were found in, reveal the fact that only the coin itself may lead the archaeologist into a pitfall, if other aspects are not taken into account: the historical background of the site and the monetary politics of the time.
JOURNAL OF ANCIENT HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY
The present paper is presenting a case study of a controlled archaeological investigation on an area from the former colonia of Napoca in Roman Dacia (today, Cluj-Napoca in Romania). The analysis of coin finds, issuers, types, denominations, within the archaeological contexts they were found in, reveal the fact that only the coin itself may lead the archaeologist into a pitfall, if other aspects are not taken into account: the historical background of the site and the monetary politics of the time.
Money Matters. Coin Finds and Ancient Coin Use
2019
The papers collected in this volume originated in a conference on money and ritual in th Greco-Roman world held in 2015. It also serves as a festschrift of sorts for Hans-Christop Noeske, the doktorvater of both editors and a scholar of coin finds in Roman Egypt. Coin themselves — though catalogued meticulously in many of the articles, with pictures — a not the focus of most of the articles in this collection. Instead, the broad theme of the vol is coin finds: the sites and contexts in which archaeologists find ancient coins, and what might learn from them about how the coins were used. The articles are mostly in English with some in German (4), French (3) and Italian (3).
This chapter investigates money as an object of scholarly interpretation as well as an archaeological artefact that provides evidence on ancient commodification, exchange, and consumption patterns. It briefly looks at evidence on how money was made, used, and lost in connection with recent debates about the ancient economy, the expression of identity through material culture, and colonialism. It concludes with some comments about the way we conceptualize coins in the present and the ethics of collecting cultural property, with no pretension of exhaustive coverage. I will focus on the Roman economy between the third century BCE and the second century CE and the relationship between Rome and the provinces, money, and imperialism, but I will also make punctual references to other geographical and chronological contexts to widen the discussion. The main aim of the following pages, mostly illustrated with examples from the ancient Roman world, is to make the point that the interpretation of money -and a particular kind of money: coins- needs to be part of ongoing debates in archaeology and cultural anthropology about the interpretation of material culture.