ILLUMINATING THE SHADOW: COINAGE AS A TRANSFORMED AND TRANSFORMING MEDIUM BEYOND THE LIMES
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-11-27

Tacitus’ famous lines on the (non)-use of Roman coinage in Germania (Germ. 5, 3-5) has long been a cornerstone of the interpretation of how the peoples living to the north of the Limes employed Roman coins. It is reflected in Barry Cunliffe’s “Europe between the Oceans” (fig. 11.17), in which he divides the northern Barbaricum into Market, Rich Burial and Warrior Burial Zones based on distance from the Rhine/Danube frontier. However, with the publication of extensive corpora of finds of ancient coins, in particular from Germany, a new picture is emerging that is very different from that of divergent usage by the proximi and interiores of Tacitus. As a combination of material, text and image, as well as a medium that moved from the official milieu of production to the everyday environment of circulation, coins can throw light on a wide variety of aspects of the meeting of Rome and her northern neighbours. Drawing on the data from a comprehensive survey of coin finds from northern Germany, this contribution will consider the reasons and mechanisms of the influx of Roman coin into the northern Barbaricum; the ways in which the function of coinage and coins, both as monetary and non-monetary objects, could be transformed upon entering the new milieu; and the ambiguous role coins as originally unambiguous Roman objects that prominently displayed the head of the emperor played in the expression of identities in a “non-Roman” (?) society.


Author(s): Wigg-Wolf, David (RGK - Romano-Germanic Commission DAI)