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Classics and Ancient History

David Swan

[Title and full name]

Postgraduate Researcher

Email: D dot R dot Swan at warwick dot ac dot uk
Humanities Building, University Road
University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL

About

I am a final year PhD student supervised by Clare Rowan and Kevin Butcher. I received first class honours in my BA in Ancient History and Classical Archaeology at the University of Warwick in 2015 and in 2016 I received my MSt in Archaeology at the Univerity of Oxford. I have acted as an Outreach Assistant for the Department and I have led many Outreach sessions at the university, in schools and in museums.

I have volunteered on the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire Project from 2015 to 2017. I have been a member of the University of Warwick's Classics Department SSLC from 2012-2017, and I have worked as the Outreach assistant for the Department, organising the Warwick Drama Festival for Schools. I have interned and volunteered in roles at the Ashmolean, the British Museum, Warwick Museum and Ashford Museum.

Research interests

Current: Cross-Channel Hoarding in the Late Iron Age and Early Roman Periods (200 BC to AD 43).

It has long been recognised that Iron Age Britain and Gaul shared cultural similarities, which had developed throughout a long history of exchange across the English Channel, beginning from early prehistory. However, while it is known that coinage was introduced to Britain through Gaul, the implications of the introduction of this shared medium in cross-Channel relations has yet to be explored.

My thesis uses coin hoards to understand how close the connection was between Gaul and Britain in the late Iron Age to early Roman periods (200 BC to AD 43). The metals of the coins within these hoards are mapped, showing regional and chronological changes in what coins were hoarded. Patterns in the coin hoards are examined to determine the extent of cross-Channel influences: if it was just the medium that was introduced, or whether the connection was so great that the norms surrounding the use of coins also travelled across the Channel, and whether coin users and producers on both sides of the Channel adapted to each other over time.

Below is the data set I have used for my used for my research. This has been made public so as to be accessible to other researchers. It includes the details on hoards from southern Britain and northern Gaul with a terminus post quem from 200 BC to AD 43. Hoards with only limited information on their contents are not included, and should be accessed in their original publications.

Hoard Data Set

Administrative Roles

  • Researcher Development Facilitator of the Doctoral College.
  • Work in Progress Student Coordinator of the University of Warwick's Classics Department
  • Outreach Assistant of the University of Warwick's Classics Department.
  • SSLC Member of the University of Warwick's Classics Department.
  • Volunteer of the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire Project
  • PhD Teacher of the University of Warwick's Classics Department.

Articles

  • Swan, D. (2018) "The Carnyx on Celtic and Roman Republican Coinage", The Antiquaries Journal 98
  • Rowan, C. & Swan, D. (2015) "Victory, Torcs and Iconology in Rome and Britain", Journal of the Numismatic Association of Australia 25
  • Swan, D. (2014) "Attitudes towards and use of the sling in Iron Age Britain", Reinvention 7.2

Conference Posters

  • "Hoarding during the Antonine Plague", Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire Project Conference (2016)

Blogs

Links