Some remarks on coin use in Provence. New data from Fréjus (original) (raw)
indΝinΝitsΝarchaeologicalΝcontextΝprovideΝaΝmethodologicalΝframeworkΝtoΝassessΝforΝtheΝirstΝtimeΝtheΝnumismaticΝmaterialΝofΝaΝ wholeΝurbanΝsiteΝinΝitsΝcontextΝofΝstratigraphyΝandΝindΝcomplexes.ΝThanksΝtoΝtheΝtopographyΝofΝtheΝsettlement,ΝwhichΝstretchesΝ over the steep slope of a hill, standing walls and architectural elements of the buildings have survived -an exceptional and rather rare feature at Roman sites north of the Alps. The wealth of coins found on the Magdalensberg draws a unique picture of the distribution of coins in the living and working environment and relates to the private and personal sphere of coin use in a settlement at the fringe of the Roman Empire. The paper will examine the dataset of 578 Greek, Iron Age and Roman coins that apparently were deposited intentionally and irreversibly. Cases where coins were, for example, deposited under doorways, built into walls or hearths and deposited in wells or pits, indicate the situational meaning of the objects, and will contribute to the discussion on the function and use of coins beyond that of an economic medium.
Journal of Archaeological Numismatics 12, 2022
After examining the legal status and role of coinage in sanctuaries, we present a catalogue of the manipulations and transformations that have been undergone by coins discovered in places of worship, whether they are man-made or natural sites. These coins may have been the subject of choices at different levels (denomination, status, iconography) and manipulations (inscribed, fractional, consecrated coins). In the second part, we present the different categories of natural sites that have received deposits of coins, multiplying examples coming mainly from Northern Gaul. After observing the weakness of the data to define the role of coins in sanctuaries, we developed a sampling protocol to gather in a standardized form the numismatic information available during the excavation of places of worship. Keywords: anthroponumismatics – archaeonumismatics − places of worship − sampling protocol
2020
Review of Stefan Krmnicek, Jérémie Chameroy, Money matters: coin finds and ancient coin use. Bonn: Habelt Verlag, 2019. Pp. vi, 272. ISBN9783774941755 €69,00.
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.
Etudes Celtiques, 2020
Languedoc is a region of Mediterranean Gaul between the Agly and the Rhone. The settlement of the Phocaean colony of Massalia at the beginning of the 6th century, followed by the creation of Emporion, led to profound transformations in the Languedoc economy. These colonies are equipped with monetary series from the second half of the sixth century. The currency is used as an accounting unit for the value of trade. In the following century, we observe a diffusion of archaic coinages on oppida. The economic role of the currency, as a means of exchange, but also allowing wealth accumulation, is illustrated at the end of the 4th century by the hoard of Lattes. The obol of Marseille is at the time the coin used in trade in the western Mediterranean. The study of the archaeological contexts proves an early economic use of coinages in Languedoc but also a ritual use, putting an end to the idea of a causality of the Roman settlement in this region.
There can be no doubt that coins, like other valuables, played a major role as offerings to the gods. 1 Finds of coinage from temples and other religious sites are a recurrent theme in all coin-using cultures and periods. It is not surprising, then, to find the first Roman mint in or near the temple of Juno Moneta on the Capitol, nor should it surprise us that some historians thought that the origins of coinage were linked to a changing pattern of sacrifice. In his well-known work, Heiliges Geld (1924), 2 Bernhard Laum sought to demonstrate a direct link between the strict religious regulations relating to offerings and the origin of a monetary system. Offerings were used to establish relations with the gods and were regulated by vows. Transactions with gods were controlled by priests, who encouraged or imposed the use of donatives as a form of religious tribute. Offerings of all kinds of animals or products of nature, Laum reasoned, were replaced by symbolic representations or miniature objects, and eventually by coins. In other civilisations where the central administration was not well developed, only priests and religious centres were capable of introducing token money. Temples also sold surpluses, or resold the offerings that they had received. It is not hard to imagine how the wellknown early Roman dupondii minted at Nîmes and struck on a flan shaped like a pig's foot, were actually used in a religious ceremony. 3 Coin loss at religious sites can also of course be linked to the market activities which developed at these holy places. Markets and sanctuaries often go hand in hand and this commerce was frequently of the utmost economic importance to the local population. Today, no one still defends Laum's ideas on the origins of coinage, but it seems to me that the economic role of the Celtic religious caste has been under-estimated. Religious offerings of course are not limited to temples or sacred sites. Offerings in the private sphere did also exist but these are even more difficult for the archaeologist to trace, although a certain amount of progress is now being made in Iron Age studies. 4 The aim of this paper is not, however, to theorise about religion and coinage, but rather to offer a short evaluation of Iron Age coin finds from modern Belgium which might be considered as religious deposits. I have to confess at the outset that
The site is almost as significant for the coin types which are absent, as for those that are present. There are, for example, none of the Moneta Regis coins, which were minted at Acre. Until recently these coins were dated to the late twelfth or thirteenth century, but a recent hoard from Bet She'an suggests that the type is early, and its absence at Pilgrims' Castle might be regarded as a supporting argument (Berman 1995: 41^12). The most obvious lacuna is the series of French feudal coins, which is heavily represented in the Tripoli and Kessab hoards, as well as in the Caesarea and Acre site-finds. Stray losses cannot, in principle, be dated, and our first thought was that the picture at Caesarea and Acre intermingles coin losses of the late twelfth century with those from the first quarter of the thirteenth. 'Atlit, therefore, might serve to de fine how long the late twelfth-century French coins were permitted to remain in circulation.