International Conference Call for Papers: Coinage, Minting, and Monetary Circulation in Antiquity and in the Middle Ages

I have been asked to publicize this call for papers for a numismatic conference at the University of Debrecen, Hungary. The conference will be held April 26-27, 2012.

The Department of History, the History Doctoral Program and the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Debrecen (Hungary) are organizing a conference on ancient and medieval coins, coinage, mints and minting, money circulation and in a broader sense of finances and monetary systems, financial-economic measures, regulations, dues and customs, tolls, taxation etc. The conference is expecting papers from the periods of the use of money, from the fields of the emergence of money in certain periods as well as different aspects of financial-economic history. The conference has a dual thematic scope, awaiting papers both from ancient historians and medievalists.

If you wish to deliver a paper, please submit a title and a short summary of 100 words by March 1, 2012 and send an abstract of 2,500 words in English/German by April 2, 2012 to the following email address: pforisek2@yahoo.com. Inquiries may be directed to Péter Forisek at the same email address.

The organizers will offer free accommodation and meals for the two days of the conference.

Comments on the Extension of the MOU with Cyprus

On January 18, the Cultural Property Advisory Committee (CPAC) of the U.S. Department of State held a public hearing in Washington. The committee was receiving public comment on the requests for extensions of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Peru and Cyprus; these MOUs are a vehicle to protect the cultural patrimony and archaeological resources of these nations from looting, trafficking, and smuggling. Speakers were asked to address any of the four determinations, upon which the committee makes their recommendations, in their written and oral comments. I attended this meeting and spoke in support of an extension with Cyprus. Below is a summary of my comments.

After introducing myself, I stated that my comments would be related to the first and second determinations. I discussed a January 2010 raid by police in Cyprus. It is one of the biggest antiquities busts in Cyprus' history. Members of the smuggling ring were arrested and 11 million euro ($15.5 million) in looted antiquities were confiscated. Among those objects were a miniature gold coffin, terracotta urns, limestone figures, and bronze and silver coins. This important seizure bears on the first and second determinations as 1) it shows that the cultural patrimony and archaeological resources of Cyprus are in jeopardy through pillage and 2) shows that the Republic of Cyprus is taking proactive measures within its own borders to combat plunder.

My primary area of expertise and research is Roman coinage. And, as many individuals who follow MOU hearings are well aware, the inclusion of coins in the designated list of objects protected through an MOU is a hotly contested issue as there is a flourishing trade in ancient coins and a great demand for new material. Therefore, I took the opportunity to point out to the committee the need to protect coins alongside other objects on the designated list, such as sculpture, ceramics, metalwork, etc. The above-mentioned seizure illustrates the fact that looters and smugglers often procure ancient coins and antiquities from the same sources, i.e. tombs and archaeological sites of various sorts.

After briefly discussing the international market for Cypriot material and providing some numbers, I countered one of the arguments that is most often used by opponents of the protection of coins. Essentially the argument goes like this: "coins circulated in antiquity and thus it is impossible to know in what nation they might have been found once they enter the North American marketplace; as a consequence of this, coins cannot be protected according to the framework of the Cultural Property Implementation Act." In response to this claim, I made the point that it is in fact true that coins circulated in antiquity. But coin circulation is actually a much more complex issue than is often presented to the committee by those opposed to the protection of coins. Some coins circulated more or less than others. One example I gave is the imperial gold and silver coinage, struck at Rome and Lugdunum (Lyons); this coinage circulated widely across the Roman Empire. But in contrast to this, some Greek coinages and the locally produced Roman provincial coinage circulated regionally or locally. Such locally produced and circulating coins are already protected in the current MOU with Cyprus.

One tradesman, who had submitted a letter in opposition to the inclusion of coins in the designated list, provided a list of hoards from outside of Cyprus that included Cypriot coins. In the letter it is claimed that the list provides "uncontestable (sic) evidence that these coins circulated in antiquity and since." Yes, coins circulated. But the letter in question did not examine the evidence in a critical way. After all, the hoard evidence from Cyprus itself was wholly omitted. As I pointed out in my letter and in my oral commentary, the hoard evidence, which deals primarily with the Cypriot coinage of the Hellenistic period, shows a remarkably greater proportion of Cypriot coins in Cypriot hoards in comparison with the foreign hoards. I cited eight hoards from Cyprus recorded in IGCH. In aggregate, coins of Cypriot type comprised 45% of the total of all hoards found in Cyprus. On the other hand, coins of Cypriot type, in aggregate, composed 9% of the foreign hoards mentioned in the other letter. That letter had a list of 33 hoards containing a total 3,662 coins, of which 313 are Cypriot. The much smaller number of eight hoards from Cyprus totaled 2,878 coins, 1,303 of which are Cypriot. The evidence indicates that Greek Cypriot coins are much more prominent in Cyprus than outside of Cyprus.

Finally, I addressed the Roman provincial coinage in Cyprus. The authoritative study on this series is D. Parks, The Roman Coinage of Cyprus (Nicosia, 2005). One chapter, "Circulation of Cypriot and Imported Coinage in Cyprus" (pp. 137-162), examines Cypriot coins from a number of sources and provides ample evidence that Roman coins of Cypriot type circulated abundantly on the island and less frequently outside of it. The current designated list only includes coins until c. AD 235. As there are also Cypriot coins of Byzantine and Venetian type, it was suggested that these be added to any renewal.

Two other numismatists, distinguished in their areas of expertise, provided testimony in support of the extension of the MOU and the continued protection of coins.

I expect that a summary of the public hearing will soon be posted on the website of the Archaeological Institute of America by someone who attended the meeting. Summaries of the public hearings in November on Belize and Bulgaria can be found here.

2012 American Numismatic Society Graduate Summer Seminar

Rick Witschonke, Curatorial Associate at the American Numismatic Society and co-director of the Graduate Summer Seminar, has indicated that the ANS is now taking applications for the 58th Annual Eric P. Newman Graduate Summer Seminar in Numismatics.

This is an excellent opportunity for graduate students in archaeology, art history, classics, history or any other related fields to be exposed to a diverse range of methods and applications in numismatics and to work with one of the finest collections in the world. See the announcement here.

David Gill Receives SAFE Beacon Award

Congratulations to David Gill, who will receive the 2012 SAFE Beacon Award. David was among first scholars to quantify the illicit and unethical trade in trafficked antiquities; his seminal articles (with Chris Chippendale) published in the American Journal of Archaeology were instrumental in raising awareness and sensitivity among the academic community.

David has maintained his publication agenda and in recent years has also taken his case to the public, most notably through his widely read weblog "Looting Matters." In recognition of his public advocacy, it was announced earlier this year that the Archaeological Institute of America would recognize David Gill with the Outstanding Public Service Award at the 2012 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.

It is good to see that David is being honored for his years of tireless work by these two awards in 2012.

Moving Again

I had a very productive postdoctoral appointment in the Coin Room at the Yale University Art Gallery for the past couple of years and now it has drawn to a close. I will certainly miss everyone there. In addition to the great people I was able to work with in the Art Gallery and in Classics, it was also a great pleasure to collaborate with the several courses that wished to learn about objects in the collection, to teach my own seminar last fall on a topic that was both fun for me and the students, and to design course-related and numismatic exhibits. We also made great progress on the digitization of the collection and have created photographic records of virtually all of the ancient coins. The next postdoc will get to coordinate the digitization of the medals and other parts of the collection and work with a new group of student employees in the fall.

In August, I am taking up a faculty appointment at Baylor University. I am excited about this new opportunity and look forward to working with my new colleagues, returning to the classroom, and having more time (maybe) for research.

There are many projects that I need to tackle (articles, my book, and a potential excavation project) and so updates to this website are likely to remain infrequent. However, if there is something that anyone would like to see here, I am always open to suggestions.

I think I have shared my new email address and contact information with everyone who needs it. If I inadvertently overlooked anyone, please let me know.

Numismatics and Archaeology in Rome

Sapienza University of Rome is advertising a call for a research poster session for its First International Workshop on Numismatics. The workshop will explore the relationship between coin finds and stratigraphy and other types of context, including the relationship between coin finds and other excavated objects. The call for posters (in Italian) can be found here.

Readers might be interested in reading about some previous conferences and symposia on "contextual numismatics" that were discussed here.

"Contexts and the Contextualization of Coin Finds - An International Colloquium"

"Contextual Numismatics: New Perspectives and Interdisciplinary Methodologies"

And the Coins in Context Colloquium in Frankfurt am Main in October 2007 that published the proceedings in a monograph: Coins in Context I: New Perspectives for the Interpretation of Coin Finds (Mainz, 2009), edited by H.-M. von Kaenel and F. Kemmers.

"Coin Project" Launched

It has been announced that "Coin Project" has been launched and made available for public use. Among other things, the site allows users to catalogue coins of various types and upload images.

I was invited to test the site several months back and it appeared to have several promising study applications. I have been unable to spend much more time with it than that, but I am sure that I will have cause to use it in the future. The website will no doubt become a source for quick images and will be consulted by researchers, especially now that CoinArchives is available only through paid subscription.

The architect of "Coin Project" discusses it in more detail here.

Finished

I defended my dissertation at the University of Missouri on September 10 and the Ph.D. was officially conferred on December 17, 2010. It's good to be finished, but I still remain incredibly busy. Now there is the pressure to publish aspects of the dissertation as quickly as possible with the aim of preparing monograph after a couple of foundation articles. Add to that work obligations, other research projects, and the intimidating task of finding employment in the present economy.

I will continue to post on various subjects related to numismatics and archaeology as time allows.

Numismatics at the 2011 APA/AIA

Once again there will be no shortage of numismatic topics presented at the next Joint Annual Meeting of the American Philological Association (APA) and the Archaeological Institute of America on January 6-9, 2011 in San Antonio. A total of three panels will be devoted to numismatic research.

The Friends of Numismatics have organized an APA panel (session 12) on "Coinage and Art: Techniques and Production" that takes place on Friday, January 6 at 11:15AM. See the full list of APA panels and abstracts.

There are two AIA sessions. The first is an organized colloquium (session 4C) on "Production and Consumption Mechanics in Hellenistic and Classical-Period Coinage," which begins on Saturday, January 7 at 8:30AM. The second is an open session (6F) on Numismatics on the same day at 2:45 PM. See the AIA's preliminary program.