An interdisciplinary conference at the University of Warwick, 8-10 June 2017 (#tknconf)

Programme and abstracts

Available to download as a pdf document.

Venue: The Oculus, OC1.04, The University of Warwick

Token, © The Trustees of the British Museum

Thursday 8th June 2017

11.00am: Welcome (Clare Rowan)

Token “Becoming”: The creation and alteration of tokens and belief

Chair: Antonino Crisà (Warwick)

11.15-11.45am: ‘Success to the seventeen united bright stars’; the Spithead mutiny of 1797 recorded on a sailor’s love token. Bridget Millmore (University of Brighton / British Museum volunteer)

11.45am-12.15pm: “Blessings made of dust”: Byzantine pilgrim tokens and their role in the devotional practices of pilgrimage. Vicky Foskolou (University of Crete)

12.15-12.45pm: Tokens as amulets? Some remarks about Christian iconographies on contorniates. Cristian Mondello (Università degli Studi di Messina, Italy)

12.45-1.45pm: Lunch

Tokens and the Representation of Future Potential

Chair: David Swan (Warwick)

1.45-2.15 pm: Athenian Tokens, Knowns and Unknowns: An Overview. Jack Kroll (University of Oxford)

2.15-2.45 pm: Tokens in Hindu Marriage Ceremonies: Forming a Bond and Beyond. Shipra Upadhyay (Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, India)

Tokens, Money, and Value

Chair: Fleur Kemmers (Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main)

2.45-3.15pm: 'Currency or coupons? The role of lead tokens in Roman Egypt' Denise Wilding (Warwick)

3.15-3.45pm: The foreign bronze coins of the Athenian agora in the 4th century BC as token money. Kenneth Sheedy (Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies, Macquarie University, Australia)

3.45-4.15pm: Coffee

4.15-4.45pm: The unpublished Iberian tokens in the Richard B. Witschonke Collection at the American Numismatic Society. Lucia Francesca Carbone (American Numismatic Society, NY, USA)

4.45-5.15pm: Towards a Commodity Theory of Token Money: (Material-)Semiotic Approaches to the Intrinsic Value of Fiat Currencies. Chris Vasantkumar (Macquarie University, Australia)

5.15-6.15: Plenary lecture: Tokens, Honor, Tribute, Tithe: Rank and Recognition in the Making of Money. Bill Maurer (UC Irvine)

6.15pm: Drinks reception

7.30pm: Dinner at Xananas restaurant, University of Warwick.

Friday, 9th June 2017

Tokens in Museums: Problems and Potential

Chair: Denise Wilding (Warwick)

10-10.30am: Tokens from the Collections in the Numismatic Museum Brought to Light. George Kakavas (Athens Numismatic Museum)

10.30-11am: Tokens inside and outside the excavation context: seeking the origin. Examples of clay tokens from the collections of the Athens Numismatic Museum. Stamatoula Makrypodi (Athens Numismatic Museum)

11-11.30am: Coffee

Tokens within the Landscape: Interpreting Archaeological Context

Chair: Alessandra Tafaro (Warwick)

11.30am-12pm: A hoard of tokens in the Agora: advertising prestige and exclusive civic identity in Roman Athens. Mairi Gkikaki (Warwick) and Brian Martens (Oxford)

12-12.30pm: A terracotta token in context: a fortunate and recorded discovery from the necropolis of Tindari (Messina, 1896). Antonino Crisà (Warwick)

12.30-1pm: The Holme Cultram Abbey series and English tokens 1200-1530. Kate Rennicks (University of Bristol)

1.00-1.40pm: Lunch

Tokens and their creators: authority and community

Chair: Charlotte Mann (Warwick)

1.45-2.15pm: How royal tokens constituted an art medium which strengthened the monarchical system of the 17th century. Sabrina Valin (Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense)

2.15-2.45pm: Seventeenth Century Tokens and their Issuers: Placing Tokens in their Social and Economic Context. Laura Burnett (Portable Antiquities Scheme, Somerset)

2.45-3.15pm: Casting Communities. The tokens and moulds from ancient Rome. Clare Rowan (Warwick)

3.15-3.45pm: Civic Life in Roman Asia Minor and the World of Ephesian Tesserae. Christina Kuhn (Oxford)

3.45-4.15pm: Coffee

Tokens, Authority and Government

4.15-5.15pm: Plenary Lecture: The Invention of Tokens. Denise Schmandt-Besserat (Texas)

Conference dinner: The Queen and Castle, Kennilworth, 7pm.

Saturday, 10th June

Tokens, Authority and Government (continued)

Chair: George Kakavas (Athens Numismatic Museum)

10-10.30am: Owls Depicted on Lead Tokens/Symbola: A General Approach. Efterpi Ralli (Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports)

10.30am-11am: The armour tokens from the Athenian Agora. Martin Schäfer (Archaeological Society, Athens)

11am-11.30am: Coffee

Tokens and Cognition

Chair: Andrew Burnett (British Museum)

11.30 – 12pm: How a (material) token becomes a (conceptual) one: insight from numbers in the ancient Near East. Karenleigh A. Overmann (University of Oxford)

12-12.30pm: Healing and Harming: the Token in early modern England. Annie Thwaite (University of Cambridge)

12.30-12.45pm: Thanks and farewell.