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"Interpretation and Imitation of Classical Greek Coin Types"
MARBURGER BEITRÄGE ZUR ANTIKEN HANDELS-, WIRTSCHAFTS- UND SOZIALGESCHICHTE, 2010
The present article explores the use of diagnostic types in the interpretation of Classical Greek coin types. Whereas it is not always possible to say definitively whether given coin types may have had economic significance, political significance, both, or something else entirely for their recipients, the study of large numbers of coins, whether on the market, in public collections, or in hoards yields useful results. Investigation reveals that there was a large degree of coherence in the sorts of types employed by dozens of the most important issuing authorities of the Classical world. Any notion that the Classical period was a Wild West free-for-all of largely interchangeable and meaningless types now seems improbable. The common perception of extreme type flux before Alexander is mistaken, probably because scholars hitherto gathered their data and impressions from museum collections, whose acquisitions naturally tend towards new varieties, the unusual, and the unique, at the expense of the run-of-the-mill that in fact made up the bulk of coins in antiquity and the majority of the material on the market today. The Hellenistic centuries did indeed see a further standardization and limitation of what poleis put on their coins, but the process had its inception with the arrival of coined money in European Greece, circa 550 BC, not in the carnage of Chaeronea. The copying of well-known diagnostic types by other issuing authorities raises the question of intentionality, and this paper will explore two possible explanations for a close imitation of Athenian coin iconography. This article is not concerned with the widespread and multifaceted phenomenon of coin forgery for economic reasons (one thinks here especially of plated fourrées, or of the good-silver copies of Athenian owls made in the ancient Near East), since this has been well discussed already, but with the extent and semiotics of image appropriation on Classical Greek coinage.
The ancient temple dedicated to the Roman Emperor Augustus on the hilltop of Tarraco (today’s Tarragona), was the main element of the sacred precinct of the Imperial cult. It was a two hectare square, bordered by a portico with an attic decorated with a sequence of clypeus (i.e. monumental shields) made with marble plates from the Luni-Carrara’s quarries. This contribution presents the results of the analysis of a three-dimensional photogrammetric survey of one of these clipeus, partially restored and exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona. The perimeter ring was bounded by a sequence of meanders inscribed in a polygon of 11 sides, a hendecagon. Moreover, a closer geometric analysis suggests that the relationship between the outer meander rim and the oval pearl ring that delimited the divinity of Jupiter Ammon can be accurately determined by the diagonals of an octagon inscribed in the perimeter of the clypeus. This double evidence suggests a combined layout, in the same design, of an octagon and a hendecagon. Hypothetically, this could be achieved by combining the octagon with the approximation to Pi used in antiquity: 22/7 of the circle’s diameter. This method allows the drawing of a hendecagon with a clearly higher precision than with other ancient methods. Even the modelling of the motifs that separate the different decorative stripes corroborates the geometric scheme that we propose.
The ancient temple dedicated to the Roman Emperor Augustus at the hilltop of Tarraco (today's Tarragona), was the main element of the sacred precinct of the imperial cult. It was a 2 hectare square, bordered by a portico with an attic decorated with a sequence of clypei (i.e. monumental shields) made with marble plates from the quarries of Luni-Carrara. This contribution presents the results of the analysis of a threedimensional photogrammetric survey of one of these clypeus, partially restored and exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona. The perimeter ring was bounded by a sequence of meanders inscribed in a polygon of 11 sides, a hendecagon. Moreover, a closer geometric analysis suggests that the relationship between the outer meanderer rim and the oval pearl ring that delimited the divinity of Jupiter Ammon can be determined accurately by the diagonals of an octagon inscribed in the perimeter of the clypeus. This double evidence suggests a combined layout, in the same design, of an octagon and a hendecagon. Hypothetically, this could be achieved by combining the octagon with the approximation to Pi used .antiquity: 2217 of the circle's diameter. This method allows the drawing of a hendecagon with a clearly higher precision than with other ancient methods. Even the modeling of the motifs that separate the different decorative stripes corroborate the geometric scheme that we propose.
Pythagoras and the Incuse Coins of Magna Graecia
published in the Celator, Journal of Ancient and Medieval Coinage, Vol 26, No. 4, Apr. 2012., 2012
There has long been a theory that Pythagoras was the mind (and hand) behind the incuse coinage of Magna Graecia. This article goes one further and suggested that through Pythagorean symbolism (particularly geometry), the connection between Pythagoras and the coinage can be demonstrated. This "geometry" is to be seen in drafting out the features of a particular Krotoniate stater, found in Hirmer and Franke (or Hirmer and Kraay), p. 92.