Monnaies gauloises et recrutement auxiliaire en Gaule chevelue, de César à Auguste (original) (raw)
2017, Revue internationale d'Histoire militaire ancienne
Published in: Revue internationale d'Histoire militaire ancienne, 6, 2017, p. 65-81. Résumé : En l’absence de sources littéraires ou épigraphiques, les trouvailles de monnaies gauloises sur les sites militaires de la seconde moitié du Ier s. av. J.-C. et du début de notre ère sont parmi les seuls documents susceptibles de nous apporter des informations sur l’origine des soldats auxiliaires gaulois au service de l’armée romaine. Cet article fait le point sur les interprétations proposées dans les années 1970 et 1980, puis examine les découvertes archéologiques récentes, en se penchant successivement sur les monnayages en argent puis sur ceux en bronze, avec une étude de cas sur les monnaies frappées dans le Centre-Ouest. Les possibilités et les limites d’une telle recherche apparaissent clairement : les monnaies peuvent révéler des mouvements de troupes, voire l’origine des soldats, mais les résultats de l’étude numismatique doivent être systématiquement replacés dans le contexte historique de l’époque et si possible confrontés avec d’autres catégories de mobilier archéologique. / Abstract : Gallic coins found on military sites from the second half of the 1st c. AD and the beginning of the 1st c. AD are one of the only sources at our disposal to study the origin of Gallic auxiliary soldiers in this period, since we lack literary and epigraphic evidence on the subject. This problem has been tackled mainly in the 1970s and 1980s. After giving an overview of the debate, this paper turns to recent archaeological data. It focuses first on silver, second on bronze coinage, with a case-study on coins minted in the “Centre-Ouest” of modern France. The potential as well as the limits of such studies are clear: coin finds can yield information on the movements of troops, even on the origin of soldiers. But the results of the numismatic study must be interpreted in the light of the historical context of the period under study. Whenever possible, they should be confronted with other categories of archaeological finds.
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2021
El propósito de esta conferencia es profundizar en el estudio de las conexiones militares en torno al mar Mediterráneo y el centro y norte de Europa, desde los tiempos del clasicismo griego hasta la temprana edad bizantina y musulmana. Interesa también examinar aspectos teóricos y regionales en torno a la transferencia de riquezas (monedas, joyas) y de tierras, así como a la conformación de cuerpos políticos específicos y narraciones épica. The aim of this conference is to advance the study on the topic of military connectivity around the Ancient Mediterranean and Central and Northern Europe, from Classic Greece to early Byzantine and Muslim times. We are also concerned to examine both theoretical and regional approaches to the transfer of riches (coins, jewelry) and lands and the building of specific political bodies and epic tales.
Antiquity: (Re)discovering the Gaulcross hoard
Modern excavations can sometimes provide surprising new insights on antiquarian finds of metalwork. The Pictish silver hoard from Gaulcross in northeastern Scotland provides an excellent example. Recent fieldwork, including metal-detecting, has clarified the size and composition of the hoard, and uncovered 100 new silver items, including coins, fragments of brooches and bracelets, ingots and parcels of cut, bent and broken silver known as Hacksilber. Comparisons with other hoards and with Pictish symbol stones illustrate the circumstances and date of deposition, the origin of the silver and the forms of society emerging in Scotland in the post-Roman period.
The archaeology of kingship: Gaulish coins as documentary evidence
Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 2018
This article arose out of research concerning the kingship of Tara. One of the most astonishing descriptions of an Irish king was written by Giraldus Cambrensis in the twelfth century. In this the king embraced a horse and declared himself to be a beast also – he identifies himself with the horse. It has been suggested that the nearest parallel lay in the horse sacrifice of ancient India. Some scholars cast doubt on this connection. However, echoes of such activity are to be found in western Europe. In folklore in Ireland and elsewhere (particularly in Brittany) there is a motif of the king with horse’s ears. The image of a horse with the head of a man is found on ancient Gaulish coins. In Hindu areas of the east there are statues of men with the head of a horse – the inverse of the image on Gaulish coins. The symbol on Gaulish coins has not been satisfactorily explained. This article argues that the explanation lies in kingship and that the evidence from ancient Ireland strongly supports this argument.
AAS 18 / Atuatuca 3, Publications of the Gallo-Roman Museum of Tongeren, 2012
COMPLETE EDITION Roymans N., Creemers G. & Scheers S. (Eds), Late Iron Age Gold Hoards from the Low Countries and the Caesarian Conquest of Northern Gaul, Amsterdam Archaeological Studies 18 / Atuatuca 3, Publications of the Gallo-Roman Museum of Tongeren, Amsterdam, 2012. This volume presents eight new Iron Age gold hoards from the southern Netherlands and Belgium, consisting of gold coinages and in several cases also gold ornaments. The study of these gold hoards provides a wealth of new information on the archaeological contexts in which they were found, on the dating of many coin types and jewellery, and on the social role of gold in pre-Roman society. All these hoards seem to have been buried in the 50s BC, thus making a direct association with the historical context of Caesar's war campaigns in northern Gaul very plausible. This makes the volume important for archaeologists as well as numismatists and historians.
BAR Publishing, 2020
How did the ‘Fall of the Roman Empire’ change social and economic networks in eastern Gaul, and how did new ‘barbarian’ political frontiers shape those changes? Synthesising historical and archaeological approaches, this interdisciplinary study combines text-based prosopography with distribution analysis of ceramics and ‘pseudo-imperial’ coins in Burgundy and beyond. The study reveals that the frontiers of the second Burgundian kingdom (5th-6th centuries) curtailed traditional movements along one of Europe’s key riverine corridors and reshaped, temporarily, the mental geographies imagined by local Gallo-Romans, until Merovingian princes conquered the region. The book includes the most thorough assessment to date of the distribution of Burgundian coins found across France. Illuminating the Burgundian kingdom’s internal dynamics and its foreign relations, this assessment revises current understandings of the circulation of gold money across sixth-century Gaul, correcting over-generalisations that can obscure the importance of political frontiers at the end of antiquity.
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