Coins are one of the most powerful, mysterious, and enduring inventions of classical antiquity. Invented in western Anatolia c. 2,700 years ago, coins transformed every economy into which they entered and quickly became one of the hallmarks of ancient Greek society above all others. Adorned with a bewildering array of symbols for the kings and city-states that minted them,
ranging from images of myth and religion to the instruments of war and peace, coins also carried social, religious and political meaning. Coins are therefore one of our greatest sources of knowledge about the history and culture of the Greeks and their neighbors, and numismatics has for over 500 years constituted the discipline devoted to understanding them.
This course will survey the history of ancient Greek coins from their inception down to the Roman Empire and will also examine a number of key interpretative issues and scholarly debates that help us to frame what we do and do not know. We will also cover the coinages issued by non-Greek peoples, such as the Phoenicians and Carthaginians as well as the early
Romans, all of whom were profoundly impacted by their adoption and adaptation of this quintessentially Greek phenomenon. Students will acquire the essential knowledge and skills specific to numismatics, including analysis of hoards, metrology, collections and their management, bibliography, and the history of Greek numismatics.
Course Attributes: AS HUM; AS LCD; FA HUM; AR HUM; EN H
