Some imitation Islamic coins minted in early medieval Europe

This is another very quick post, with the aim of drawing together some of the imitation Islamic coins that were minted by medieval European rulers. The first coin is perhaps the most famous of these imitations, namely Offa's dinar:

An eighth-century coin of Offa, Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia, based on a gold dinar of the 'Abbāsid caliph Al-Mansur struck in AD 773/4. Note, the legend OFFA REX is upside down relative to the Arabic (image: British Museum).

A genuine gold dinar of the 'Abbāsid caliph Al-Mansur struck in AD 773/4, housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Note, the image has been rotated to match the Offa dinar and enable easy comparison (image: Fitzwilliam Museum) 

This coin was struck by the Anglo-Saxon king Offa of Mercia in the later eighth century and closely copied a dinar of the 'Abbāsid caliph al-Mansur minted in AD 773/4. Procured in Rome in the nineteenth century, the coin is currently in the British Museum and is the only surviving example of its issue. As to its meaning and import, this is very much open to debate. On the one hand, it may have been one of the 365 mancuses (a word that probably refers to Islamic dinars) that Offa agree to pay to the papacy every year, although the British Museum suggests that 'it is unlikely that any Christian king would have sent the pope a coin with an inscription stating that "there is no God but Allah alone"'. Alternatively, it may have been produced for use in overseas trade, and in this context it is worth noting that the coin has clearly circulated and is not in mint condition. In either case, its existence necessarily implies the presence of its prototype in eighth-century England, which is interesting in itself, as it adds to the small corpus of eighth-century Islamic gold and copper coins and imitations that are known from England:

The distribution of Islamic gold and copper coins of the eighth & early ninth centuries in England and western Europe, both genuine and contemporary imitations, including two notional eighth-century dinars located at London to reflect the prototypes of the Offa dinar and the second Anglo-Saxon imitative issue, discussed below (drawn by C. R. Green). The map is based primarily on data from McCormick, 2001 (for the European coins), Naismith, 2005, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme (for the British), with the addition of EMC 2007.0235, an Abbasid dinar of al-Mahdi, dated 784/5, from Brandon, Suffolk. It is worth noting that copper fulus are a very rare find indeed in eastern and northern Europe and they appear to be largely unrelated to the Viking use of Islamic silver dirhams; as such, the eighth-century copper fulus from Britain that are plotted here most probably arrived in the pre-Viking era with the gold dinars, rather than with the silver dirhams brought to Britain by the Vikings in the later ninth and tenth centuries.

The Ballycottin cross brooch, an Anglo-Carolingian brooch of the eighth or ninth century with a black glass centre featuring an Arabic inscription, either sha['a] [a]llah (or `bismillah'?) or tubna lilllah, that is 'As God wills' (or 'In the name of Allah'?) or 'We have repented to God' . Click the image for a larger view of the brooch or here for a larger view of the inscription alone (image: British Museum) 

With regard to these early Islamic gold and copper coins from England, they are thought to have a separate, pre-Viking origin to the Islamic silver dirhams found in England, which are believed to have mainly arrived with the Vikings. As such, they may well constitute evidence of trading between pre-Viking England and at least the Mediterranean world, and thus offer some further potential support for the second interpretation of Offa's dinar noted above. Moreover, in this context, two points are worth noting. First, an eighth- or ninth-century Anglo-Carolingian cross brooch with an early Arabic inscription in its centre, illustrated above, was found at Ballycottin Bog, Co. Cork, Ireland in the nineteenth century. This brooch is highly intriguing and it has been suggested that it was, potentially, an item worn by a ?Carolingian trader of that era who personally traded in both Ireland and the Islamic world (presumably Iberia) and so desired an object that referenced both Christianity and Islam. Needless to say, if such traders were visiting eighth- or ninth-century Ireland, then it seems very likely that they were visiting England in that era as well, and it is moreover credible that Anglo-Saxon merchants could themselves have plied such a trade route too. Such trading links may also underlie the apparent reference to trade with ninth-century Dublin in the Nuzhat al-Mushtaq of the Muslim cartographer Al-Idrisi (produced in Sicily c. 1154). This draws on an earlier Arabic work entitled the Book of Marvels, which mentioned abandoned towns in Ireland and stated that 'ships used to put in there and visit there, buying from the inhabitants amber and coloured stones'. This allusion has been plausibly read as 'a clear suggestion that amber (whether raw or worked) may have been exported from Ireland (presumably Dublin) to Muslim Spain' in the ninth century, before the abandonment of Dublin by the Vikings in 902.

Second, the Offa dinar does not stand alone. There are, in fact, a number of imitation dinars of the same period now known that have no additions of the type seen on the Offa coin. These are thought to have been struck in Carolingian Europe, probably in the reign of Charlemagne himself, and it has been suggested that the Offa dinar was actually copied from one of these Carolingian imitative issues. Also of considerable interest is another imitative gold dinar that does have additions made to the design, in the form of three small crosses. This coin imitates an 'Abbāsid dinar of 789–90/792–3 and is thought to be most probably another Anglo-Saxon imitative issue, presumably struck either by Offa (r. 757–96) or possibly by Coenwulf of Mercia (r. 796–821).

An eighth-century imitation of an 'Abbāsid dinar of AD 773/4, thought to be minted in Carolingian Europe by Charlemagne (image: Fitzwilliam Museum) 

An imitation of an 'Abbāsid gold dinar of 789–90/792–3 with added crosses, thought to have been struck in Anglo-Saxon England, perhaps either by Offa or Coenwulf of Mercia; note, so far as I am aware, no colour, large-scale image of this coin is available (image: Webster & Backhouse, 1991, fig. 148b)

Needless to say, the Anglo-Saxons and the Carolingians were not alone in deciding to strike coins that imitated Islamic coins in the early medieval period, and the remainder of this post illustrates a selection of these imitations that date from the ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries, starting with those of the Kievan Rus'. Recent work has established that the first coinage of the Kievan Rus', of which thirteen examples survive, was probably issued by Grand Princess Olga in c. 950 and took the form of an imitation of a Sāmānid silver dirham of Nasr bin Ahmad (913–42) to which a cross and a bird were added. The fact that the first Rus' coinage imitated an Islamic dirham is interesting, although perhaps unsurprising, given that many millions of dirhams appear to have been imported into northern and eastern Europe by the Vikings/Rus' as a result of their trade with the Islamic world (perhaps primarily involving slaves). As to the additions that were made to the dirham design, the cross is thought to represent Olga of Kiev's conversion to Christianity in perhaps the late 940s and the bird—almost certainly a falcon—the goddess Freyja, with Kovalev arguing that Olga was probably a devotee of this goddess and the supreme priestess of Freyja for the Rus' state prior to her conversion to Christianity.

A 'Christian falcon' imitation dirham issued by the Kievan Rus' in c. 950, reused twice as a pendant and found in Estonia (image: British Museum)

Another interesting example of the use of imitation Islamic coins comes from ninth-century Khazaria (aka the Khazar Khanate), which lay in the far south-east of continental Europe and had an important intermediary role in trade relations between the Islamic world and northern Europe in the early medieval period. Up until the early ninth century, the Khazars appear to have minted no coins themselves. However, a sharp decline in dirham production by the 'Abbāsid mints in the 820s altered this situation, with the Khazars starting to mint imitation dirhams in order to supplement the supply of genuine coins and so ensure that they were able to continue to attract Rus' merchants to their domain, as the latter were said to only accepted silver dirhams in exchange for their goods. The first of these Khazar issues were straightforward imitations of 'Abbāsid dirhams, but in 837/8 this changed too. In that year, the Khazars issued a number of new imitation dirhams that were altered in significant ways, most simply through the addition of a 'tamgha' (clan identity mark) and/or a mint name Arḍ al-Khazar ('Land of the Khazars'), and more dramatically on some coins through the addition of an Arabic line reading Mūsā rasūl Allāh, 'Moses is the Apostle/Messenger of God'. These messages are considered to have been added to the coins in the immediate wake of a Khazar coup d'état and the conversion of the Khazar elite to Judaism, with the aim of asserting Khazar and Turkic identity and 'undoing' inscriptions on regular dirhams that referred to Muhammad, affirming instead the tenets of Judaism. In this context, it is worth noting that such profoundly modified issues do not seem to have been issued after 837/8—subsequent Khazar imitation dirhams did include alterations, including marginal legends of tamgha-like signs (see below), but there were no such overt political-religious statements as are found on the 837/8 issues.

A Khazar "Moses" dirham, minted in 837/8 and found in a hoard on the Baltic island of Gotland; details of the hoard are available in Swedish here, including the press image reproduced above (image: Kungl. Myntkabinettet)

A late ninth- or very early tenth-century Khazar imitation dirham, with the outer edge legend transformed into tamgha-like signs; this example was found near to Acklam, North Yorkshire, and appears to have been reused as a Viking brooch-fitting (image: PAS)

Finally, western Europe from the later tenth century saw a number of Christian rulers in southern Italy and Spain start to issue imitation gold dinars. For example, the quarter dinars issued by the Fatimid rulers of Muslim Sicily were popular on the Italian mainland and known there as tari or tareni (probably from an Arabic term meaning 'freshly minted'). In response to this, it appears that from the mid-tenth century the Christian princes of Salerno in southern Italy started to issue their own imitation tari with pseudo-Arabic inscriptions, with the rulers of Amalfi following suite by the end of the century too. Such imitation tari seem to have been issued with trade in mind and circulated alongside genuine Fatimid quarter dinars in southern Italy, and when the Normans conquered Salerno and Palermo (Sicily) in the eleventh century, they continued to mint coins of this type and retained their Arabic inscriptions to satisfy the requirements of trade. There were, however, alterations made to the southern Italian and Sicilian coins under the Normans. For instance, after 1085 Roger I added a form of Christian cross to the front of his coins and after 1112 Roger II dropped the second half of the Muslim profession of faith from his Sicilian tari, leaving only 'There is no God but God', with further Christian elements added over time and the Muslim profession of faith dropped entirely after 1132. Similarly, the tari of Salerno saw changes after 1130, both in terms of their design and the fact that their Arabic inscriptions became, for the first time, correct and legible.

A tenth-century tari of Gisulfo I of Salerno, imitating a Fatimid quarter dinar (image: Wikimedia Commons)

An imitative gold mancus of Barcelona, struck after 1018 (image: Piscolabis Librorum)

The content of this post and page, including any original illustrations, is Copyright © Caitlin R. Green, 2015, All Rights Reserved. Non-original images used here are sourced from a number of places; if there are any objections to me using these pictures in this post, please contact me and I will remove them.

Some Roman slave shackles and figurines recorded from Britain by the PAS

The following post shares a handful of interesting recent finds relating to slavery in Roman Britain that have been recorded by the Portable Antiquities Scheme, along with two updated distribution maps of the artefact types in question.

The distribution of Roman-era iron slave shackles in Britain and western Gaul, based primarily on Henning, 2008, and data from the Portable Antiquities Scheme (drawn by C. R. Green)

A Roman iron slave shackle, discovered near to Winchester, Hampshire (image: PAS)

The first two finds are Roman-era slave shackles, found by metal-detectorists in Norfolk and Hampshire. Such items are found predominantly on rural sites both in Britain and on the continent and are thought to be indicative of at least a proportion of the rural workforce having been shackled during the Roman period. Certainly, there appears to be plentiful written evidence indicating that shackles and chains were regularly used as a punishment for slaves in the Roman era, with it being said that a slave lived in fear of offending his master 'lest he order him to be whipped, to be put in shackles, to be imprisoned', and also that a slave might be identified by the black marks on his ankles. The distribution map of such finds that is included here shows that while a few shackles have been found in the north and west of Britain, the vast majority come from lowland Britain, where they were presumably associated with a villa economy making use of physically coerced labour. 

With regard to the practical functioning of these items, a pair of shackles linked by a padlock bar is exhibited in Norwich Castle Museum (see the image below) and F. H. Thompson has the following to say on the matter:

in use, the shackles were placed round the captive’s ankles, the bent loops passed through their counterparts, and the protruding ends of the former then slipped over the padlock bar. It was evidently a device intended to give greater security in that it prevented the forcing apart of shackle terminals.

A pair of slave shackles linked by a padlock bar, on display in Norwich Castle Museum (image: Murdilka)

The other finds noted here consist of a number of small figurines of 'bound captives', usually dated to the second or third century AD. A survey of these items by Ralph Jackson in 2005 recorded sixteen examples, all from Britain and the Rhine/Danube frontier region, and further recording by Emma Durham and the Portable Antiquities Scheme has raised the number known from Britain to twelve (the PAS's examples come from Hampshire, North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, and Lincolnshire again). As to their imagery and use, it has been argued that these figurines are very likely to depict and represent slaves, and that they may consequently have some connection with the Roman slave trade in Britain. In this regard, it can be observed that the figurines were clearly meant to be mounted through their perforations, though whether this would have been via iron fittings or cords remains unclear. It is also interesting to note that these Roman symbols of slavery and/or the slave trade have a less concentrated distribution in Britain than do the Roman slave shackles, suggesting that these two artefact types may perhaps reflect different aspects of Roman slavery and the slave-trade.

The distribution of Roman 'bound captive' figurines in Britain, after data recorded by Durham, 2012, and the Portable Antiquities Scheme (drawn by C. R. Green)

A Roman figurine of a bound captive, with a flat back and a vertical & horizontal piercing for mounting; found in Broxholme, Lincolnshire (image: PAS)

A Roman figurine of a bound captive, with a flat back and a vertical & horizontal piercing for mounting; found near Andover, Hampshire (image: PAS)

The content of this post and page, including any original illustrations, is Copyright © Caitlin R. Green, 2015, All Rights Reserved. Non-original images used here are sourced from the PAS and Murdilka's Livejournal (the Norwich Castle shackles); if there are any objections to me using these pictures in this post, please contact me and I will remove them.

Roman mosaics from the Greetwell villa-palace and other sites in Lincolnshire

The following post collects together a number of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century illustrations of Roman mosaics found in Lincolnshire, starting with the mosaics found at a major complex discovered during mining at Greetwell Fields, Lincoln. 

Plan of Greetwell villa-palace, drawn in the late nineteenth century; click image for a larger view (from Green, 2012, fig. 3)

Detail of the bath suite and the western end of the main east–west corridor at the Greetwell villa-palace (from Green, 2012, fig. 3)

One of the corridor mosaics from the Greetwell villa-palace; click image for a larger view (image: The Collection: Art and Archaeology)

The Greetwell mosaics were found in approximately the area of the current Lincoln hospital during ironstone mining from 1883–94, with their discovery commemorated by the modern street-name 'Roman Pavement'. The mosaics discovered here have been described as being of 'palatial scale and quality' and were part of the decorative scheme of an exceptionally large Roman villa-palace, which occupied a magnificent position on the hilltop overlooking the Witham valley, probably originally in the form of a very large courtyard surrounded by four immense corridors, off which were located the main accommodation, baths suite and the like. It has been argued that this villa-palace is likely to have been the official residence of the governor of the Late Roman province of Britannia Secunda, the capital of which was Lincoln, with the villa-palace appearing to have been occupied right up until the end of the coin sequence in the early fifth century and maintained to a high standard. 

Needless to say, the last points above are of considerable interest in light of the hints of possible post-Roman provincial continuity discussed previously, and in this light it is also important to note the recent suggestion that the villa-palace's estate was actually preserved intact throughout the whole of the Anglo-Saxon period and into the medieval period, with its reconstructed boundaries matching those of the later Monks Leys estate almost exactly (the latter is first recorded just after the Norman Conquest, but has been considered to potentially have its origins in a pre-Viking minster estate). A case has also been made for the early medieval and later tenurial arrangements of a large region to the north of the Witham and east of Lincoln and Ermine Street to have had their origins in two large territories dependent upon the Greetwell villa-palace and a more modest, but still significant, villa at Scupholme.

Two fragments of painted wall plaster from the Greetwell villa-palace, on display in The Collection, Lincoln (photo: C. R. Green)

Unfortunately, the remains of Greetwell villa-palace and its mosaics were completely destroyed by the mining operations of the late nineteenth century, with the result that all that survives of this important site are a few finds, some fragments of painted wall plaster, a plan of the site made by the manager of the ironstone mine (pictured above), and some contemporary reports. The following excerpts are from one of these reports, published in Scientific American Supplement, Vol. XXXII, No. 821, in 1891, which describes the site, its destruction, and the making of the surviving plan:

For some weeks past, remains of a Roman villa have been exposed to view by Mr. Ramsden's miners in Greetwell Fields. From, the extent of the tesselated pavements laid bare there is hardly any doubt that in the Greetwell Fields, in centuries long gone by, there stood a Roman mansion, which for magnitude was perhaps unrivaled in England... What a pity it is that the inhabitants of Lincoln have not made an effort to preserve these precious relics of the grandeur of the Roman occupation, an occupation to which England owes so much...

Although these relics of a remote age are being dug up and are being destroyed, it is not the fault of Mr. Ramsden, for he not only preserved them as long as he conveniently could, but he also had the soil removed from over them, and had them thoroughly washed, in order that people might have an opportunity of seeing their extent and beauty... Mr. Ramsden, the manager of the Ironstone Works, is keeping a plan of the whole of the pavement, which he is coloring in exact imitation of the original work. This, when completed, will be most interesting, and he will be quite willing to show it to any one desirous of inspecting the same.

A contemporary plan showing the location of the Greetwell villa-palace (image: The Collection: Art and Archaeology)

Although the Greetwell villa-palace is almost certainly the most important villa in the Lincoln region, it was by no means the only one, and the second half of this post brings together and shares a number of antiquarian illustrations of mosaics found at some of these other villas, all of which were drawn and/or published by William Fowler of Winterton (1761–1832).

The first set of images consists of the mosaics that were discovered at the well-known Winterton Roman Villa in North Lincolnshire, including its famous mid-fourth-century Orpheus mosaic, along with a plan of the site in c. AD 350:

An illustration of mosaics found at the Winterton Roman villa, published 1798; click image for a larger view (PD image via the BL/SPL King George III Collection)

Detail of the mid- to late fourth-century Orpheus mosaic at Winterton Roman villa; click image for a larger view (PD image via Wikimedia Commons)

Plan of Winterton Roman villa in c.AD 350; red squares indicate rooms with mosaics (image: Wikimedia Commons)

The second set of images are of the mosaics that belonged to the Roman villa at Horkstow, North Lincolnshire. The plan of this villa is now unrecoverable due to the disturbance the site has suffered over the years, but the mosaics survive and are currently housed in Hull Museum; they again include a (fragmentary) mid-fourth-century Orpheus mosaic, as well as the well-known 'chariot race' mosaic:

An illustration of mosaics found at the Horkstow Roman villa, published c.1800; click image for a larger view (PD image via the BL/SPL King George III Collection)

Detail of the fragmentary, fourth-century Orpheus mosaic from Horkstow Roman villa; click image for a larger view (PD image via the BL/SPL King George III Collection)

Detail of the chariot race mosaic from Horkstow Roman villa; click image for a larger view (PD image via The Collection)

The third set of images consists of the plan of the important Roman villa at Scampton, Lincolnshire, and its mosaic; this site was excavated in 1795 and described in the following manner in a publication of 1808 (reissued 1810):

In the year 1795, some workmen, digging for stone in a field south-east of the village, and north of Tilbridge-lane, were observed to turn up several red tiles, which, on inspection, Mr Illingworth conceived to be Roman.  This induced him to survey the general appearance of the surrounding spot; and being struck with obvious traces of foundations, he directed the men to dig towards them, when they came to a wall two feet beneath the surface, and shortly after to a Roman pavement.  The result was, that the foundations of nearly a whole Roman villa were traced and accurately examined; and the situation of the place, the nature of the walls, the dimensions of some apartments, the number and beauty of the tessellated pavements, and the regular plan of the whole, leave little doubt of its having been a villa of considerable distinction and elegance.

An illustration of mosaics found at the Scampton villa, published 1800; click image for a larger view (PD image via the BL/SPL King George III Collection)

Plan of Scampton Roman villa, published in 1808; click image for a larger view (PD image via The Collection, also available on Google Books)

The fourth and final set of images are of the Roman villa at Denton, near Grantham, Lincolnshire, which saw the main focus of its occupation occurring in and after the late fourth century. The results of the Ministry of Works excavation here in the 1940s demonstrated that Denton villa was rebuilt in stone sometime after c. AD 370 into a basilican-type structure of at least seven rooms with mosaics (plus a separate bath-house to the south), based on the fact that this rebuilding clearly overlaid a coin of Valentinian I, 364–75, and another of Gratian, 367–83. Furthermore, the excavator suggested that the Denton villa may well then have continued to be maintained perhaps as late as the sixth century, given that: 

1. there was a subsequent phase of rebuilding in stone and occupation after the one that occurred post-c. 370, with the excavator dating this building phase to probably the fifth century; 
2. two graves were discovered inside the villa, one of which was associated with a sixth-century 'Anglo-Saxon' pot; and
3. that these graves were located in central locations within two rooms and their fill contained no roof tile, slate or similar evidence of villa destruction, only tesserae, implying that the villa still stood and had not fallen into complete disrepair even by that late date.

A late fourth-century mosaic from Denton Roman villa, published in 1800; click image for a larger view (PD image via the BL/SPL King George III Collection)

Plan of Denton Roman villa, showing Phase II in white, constructed c.370 or after, and the rebuilding of Phase III (black), dated to probably the fifth century. Click the image above for a larger version of this plan, which is Smith, 1964, fig. 3.

Photograph from the 1948 and 1949 excavation of Denton Roman villa, showing a mosaic pavement on the south side (image: Smith, 1964, plate 7)

The content of this post and page, including any original illustrations, is Copyright © Caitlin R. Green, 2015, All Rights Reserved, and should not be used without permission.

Ptolemaic coins recorded from Britain by the Portable Antiquities Scheme

The primary aim of the following post is to very quickly share a distribution map of Ptolemaic coins that have been recorded from Britain on the PAS. The coins mapped and briefly discussed below date from the reigns of Ptolemy I to Ptolemy VIII, c.323–127 BC, and were minted in Egypt, Cyprus and Libya.

Distribution of Ptolemaic coins dating from the reigns of Ptolemy I to Ptolemy VIII, c.323–127 BC, recorded from Britain on the PAS through to February 2015 (drawn by C. R. Green)

As can be seen from the above map, the PAS records a small but significant number of these coins from Britain, many of which were found on or near to the coast or major rivers. Jennifer and Lloyd Laing, writing before the PAS came into existence, noted that the corpus of 'Greek autonomous issues' then known from Britain was dominated by Carthaginian coins, rivalled only by Ptolemaic issues, and the finds recorded from the PAS reproduce this pattern, as can be seen from the following map of mint sites of Mediterranean Greek autonomous issues. The varying size of the circles depicted on this map reflect the relative numbers of pre-Roman Greek coins from that mint that have been recorded from Britain by the PAS, with Carthaginian issues (minted in North Africa, Sardinia, Sicily and Ibiza) clearly most common of all, but Ptolemaic issues (minted in Egypt, Cyprus and Libya) a close second, and then coins from other areas and dynasties—such as Marseilles, Macedonia and the Seleucid Empire—being much less frequently found.

Mints producing the Mediterranean Greek autonomous coins that have been recorded from Britain by the Portable Antiquities Scheme (drawn by C. R.. Green)

Needless to say, a key question with regard to these coins is whether they are best seen as modern or ancient losses. With regard to this, several points can be made. First, the PAS coins do not stand alone, but instead form part of a larger corpus of Ptolemaic coins found in Britain over the course of more than a century, which is sufficiently substantial that we would have to assume a quite surprising and arguably implausible number of careless nineteenth- and twentieth-century coin collectors existed in Britain in order to explain it away. As Martin Biddle argued in 1975, when discussing the eight to ten Ptolemaic coins found in and around Winchester (Hampshire) during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, 'the proverbial absent-minded college don or cathedral canon, dropping items of his collection here, there and everywhere... has never seemed a very convincing character', and the number of finds and extensive time period over which they have been made means that these coins should probably be seen as genuine ancient losses unless there is obvious evidence to the contrary, rather than modern losses or even hoaxes.

Second, if some of the Carthaginian coins are thought to have been ancient losses that arrived during Britain's Iron Age, rather than in the Roman period, then there seems little reason why the same cannot be true of the Ptolemaic issues too. Indeed, it is worth observing that, for example, the Winchester coins are probably to be associated with the Middle to Late Iron Age oppidum at Winchester.

Third and finally, the map of coin mints included above does not look quite how we might expect it to if the Greek autonomous issues that have been found in a Britain were simply a random selection of losses from modern-era ancient coin collections. As was the case with the pre-PAS finds that Jennifer and Lloyd Laing mention, the PAS dataset is clearly dominated by Carthaginian and Ptolemaic issues, with, for example, notably fewer Macedonian, Anatolian, Syracusan, or pre-Hellenistic (Classical) Greek autonomous coins represented. This differential loss is interesting and might well inspire some confidence that many of the pre-Roman Greek coins that have been been found in Britain are indeed genuinely ancient losses.

The distribution of all coins from the neighbouring Hellenistic Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires that have been found in Britain through to 2015, as recorded by the PAS, Pastscape and Milne (image: C. R. Green). Note, the predominantly coastal and riverine distribution of these coins is of some potential interest in light of the discussion of the possible origins of Ptolemaic coins found in Britain offered above, and it is furthermore worth observing that at least one person buried in fourth–third century BC Kent is now thought likely to have actually grown up in the Nile Delta. Although the majority of the coins plotted here are Ptolemaic, a small but notable proportion are Seleucid, particularly from Exeter; in 1987, Malcolm Todd followed Milne and Goodchild in arguing that these coins may credibly reflect visits by eastern Mediterranean traders to the Exe Estuary/south coast in the pre-Roman period (and note here the Mediterranean anchor and Mediterranean-style harbour of this period recently discovered at Plymouth and Poole, respectively), although the Exeter collection of Hellenistic and later coins has also been conversely subjected to a degree of (arguably somewhat hypercritical) scepticism by George Boon too.

Map of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires in c. 200 BC, drawn by Thomas Lessman (image: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).

The content of this post and page, including any original illustrations, is Copyright © Caitlin R. Green, 2015, 2016, All Rights Reserved, and should not be used without permission.