We are pleased to announce a new publication from our sibling publisher Internet Archaeology, which reuses data archived with the Archaeology Data Service.
This paper argues that the traditional method of studying the geological origin of silver coins may not be effective due to alterations caused by refining and recycling. Instead this analysis focuses on analysing the composition of over 1000 silver coins from various time periods to propose that different sources of lead were used in minting coins from different regions, with evidence of extensive mixing during certain historical periods.
Read the full paper here on the Internet Archaeology website: https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.61.10
Cite this paper as:
Wood, J.R., Ponting, M. and Butcher, K. 2023 Mints not Mines: a macroscale investigation of Roman silver coinage, Internet Archaeology 61. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.61.10
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 835180)
The digital archive used as the source for this paper was deposited with the ADS back in 2005 and updated in 2015, based on primary research funded by the AHRC and the Leverhulme Trust. The archive provides an extensive database of Roman Silver coins, which date from the reign of Augustus to the reform of Trajan (27 BC – AD 100). The dataset consists of the numismatic descriptions, pictures of the coins and ICP-AES and AAS analyses of each coin.
Copyright for images. © Dr Matthew Ponting, Kevin Butcher
