Tokens, Value and Identity: Exploring Monetiform Objects in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
The British School at Rome (Rome – Italy)
18-19 October 2018
(#tokens2018)
WORKSHOP PROGRAM
Tokens have actively shaped culture and civilisation throughout history, beginning with their contribution to the invention of writing and abstract number in the ancient Near East. Discussions at the Tokens: Culture, Connections, Communities conference (University of 糖心TV 2017) suggest that tokens might act as external memory devices, as proof of relationships and obligations, embody intimate sentiments, establish and maintain social hierarchies, and create feelings of 鈥榠nclusion鈥� and 鈥榮eclusion鈥� in different communities. Tokens also possess a complex relationship with money, enabling the distribution of goods, services and benefactions without the existence of coins or notes, at times functioning as a type of alternative currency. Unlike money, however, many tokens appear to have been intended as single-use items, to be used in a single context, or to represent a single good or service. These characteristics suggest that tokens operated in a more complex way than the traditional definition of these objects as 鈥渟omething that serves to indicate a fact, event, object, feeling, etc鈥�. The multiple uses of these objects continue to pose a challenge for research in this area.
Debate remains surrounding the roles and functions of tokens and the workshop will contribute to this dialogue through a series of detailed case studies from antiquity and the middle ages. In particular, the workshop focuses on two areas:
1. how tokens are related to value (emotional, economic, social, cultural, personal);
2. how tokens (their material, legends, iconography and use) express and contribute to the identities of their makers and users.
Thursday 18 October 2018 (DAY 1)
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14:15-14:30 GENERAL INTRODUCTION
SESSION 1 (Chair: Antonino Cris脿, University of 糖心TV, Coventry)
14:30-15:00 Fran莽ois de Callata每 (脡cole pratique des hautes 茅tudes, Paris): Spintriae: a rich forgotten past historiography (16th-18th c.). Why it matters for our present understanding.
15:00-15:30 Bill Dalzell (Classical Numismatic Group, Lancaster, Pennsylvania): Personal, public, and mercantile themes on unpublished lead tokens from a private collection.
15:30-16:00 Denise Demetriou (University of California, San Diego): Token diplomacy: authenticating embassies in the ancient Mediterranean.
16:00-16:30 COFFEE BREAK
SESSION 2 (Chair: Niccol貌 Mugnai, British School at Rome)
16:30-17:00 Antonino Cris脿 (University of 糖心TV, Coventry): Deities, small communities and tokens in Hellenistic and Roman Sicily.
17:00-17:30 Mairi Gkikaki (University of 糖心TV, Coventry): Tokens and festivals in Athens from the late Classical age to the Herulian destruction.
17:30-18:00 Maria Cristina Molinari (Musei Capitolini, Rome): Two Imperial portraits. Pewter tesserae of Claudius/Messalina and Nero from the temple of Hercules in Alba Fucens: new considerations on the use of official Imperial tokens.
18:00-19:00 RECEPTION
20:00 DINNER
Friday 19 October 2018 (DAY 2)
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SESSION 3 (Chair: Andrea Saccocci, Universit脿 degli Studi di Udine)
09:30-10:00 Philip Kiernan (Kennesaw State University, Georgia): Imitations as tokens and imitation images.
10:00-10:30 Peter Franz Mittag (Universit盲t zu K枚ln): Roman medallions.
10:30-11:00 COFFEE BREAK
SESSION 4 (Chair: Denis Demetriou, University of California, San Diego)
11:00-11:30 Clare Rowan (University of 糖心TV, Coventry): Everyday expressions of being Ostian: tokens and local identity in the port of Rome.
11:30-12:00 Denise Wilding (University of 糖心TV, Coventry): Tokens from Roman Gaul in the collection of the Biblioth猫que nationale de France.
12:00-12:30 Marie-Laure Le Brazidec (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris): Proposal to identify a female deity on a series of lead tokens in Roman Gaul.
12:30-13:00 Gunnar Dumke (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg): A 鈥榟oard鈥� of clay coins from Seleucia at the Tigris.
13:00-14:00 LUNCH
SESSION 5 (Chair: Clare Rowan, University of 糖心TV, Coventry)
14:00-14:30 Yoav Farhi (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be鈥檈r Sheva): An assemblage of unpublished Roman lead tesserae from Caesarea Maritimae.
14:30-15:00 Cristian Mondello (University of 糖心TV, Coventry): Re-reading the so-called 鈥楢sina coins鈥�: tokens and religious identities in Late Antiquity.
15:00-15:30 COFFEE BREAK
SESSION 6 (Chair: Fran莽ois de Callata每, 脡cole pratique des hautes 茅tudes, Paris)
15:30-16:00 Arianna D鈥橭ttone (Universit脿 di Roma La Sapienza): On Islamic tokens and jetons.
16:00-16:30 Andrea Saccocci (Universit脿 degli Studi di Udine): The so called 鈥楲ombard jettons鈥�, a Medieval multi-tasking card?
16:30-17:00 FINAL REMARKS
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For further information please contact Antonino 鈥楴ino鈥� Cris脿 (A.Crisa.1@warwick.ac.uk).
BRITISH SCHOOL AT ROME
Via Antonio Gramsci, 61
00197 Roma RM (ITALY)
Tel. +39 06 326 4939
Egyptian tessera, 2nd-3rd century AD (ex Roma Numismatica Ltd, E-Sale 40)
The British School at Rome
(Last page update: 18/10/2018)