Professor Kevin Butcher presented at the Third International Congress on the History of Money and Numismatics in the Mediterranean World in Antalya, Turkey 1st to 4th April 2024. The aim of the congress, limited to the Mediterranean region, was to bring together distinguished scholars working on the history of money and numismatics related to the Mediterranean world, to share original research findings, draw attention to the cultural and economic diversity that has shaped the Mediterranean from the Lydians to Islamic states, as well as highlight the monetary and economic history of Anatolia.

Congress Programme

How plundered Gaulish silver ended up in Roman coins (economist.com)

AS big as their empire was, the Romans never reached Greenland. Yet that remote island has become the place to go for those interested in ancient economic history. Greenland’s ice sheets preserve traces of atmospheric lead emitted in Europe and north Africa as part of the silver-making process. Since silver coins were ubiquitous in antiquity, fluctuations in lead levels serve as a proxy for the ups and downs of the ancient money supply.

Sometimes, though, such evidence throws up contradictions. In a paper published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences Jonathan Wood, an archaeologist at the University of Liverpool and his colleagues, offer an explanation. They suggest the Romans turned to recycling, of both their own silver, and—at the point of a pilum—other people’s.

Lucia Carbone, Andrew M. Burnett Associate Curator for Roman Coins at the American Numismatic Society summarizes 2 Day Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean (200 BCE–64 CE) Conference 17/18th April 2023 at the British School at Rome, Rome, Italy.

Day One: Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean (200 BCE–64 CE) Conference: Part I - American Numismatic Society

Day Two: Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean (200 BCE–64 CE) Conference, Part 2 - American Numismatic Society