The numismatic two-day Conference “Tracing the local(s). The local world of
Mediterranean landscapes in Greek and Roman Coinage” at the end of
November (29-30) will be hosted by the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany.
The ancient Mediterranean was a cultural landscape inhabited by various local groups that formed these landscapes before the expansion of the Greeks and Romans. The term “local” is defined as a combination of special cultural characteristics which include language, religion, material culture and social structures, similarities in the outer habitus or customs that construct common ground. “Being local” could either be expressed by specific local features that only existed in a small geographic area but also by using an unusual combination of widespread and well-known attributes. However, it can be observed that presumably local attributes also occur outside their sphere of influence and can be adapted by other cultures and societies. This raises the question as to how these local attributes
were adapted and whether they retained their original context of meaning. This dynamic dimension of locality is particularly visible on the coins of the ancient cities, which used these coins also to highlight local features as part of their civic identity or to underline non-Greek or non-Roman origins.
Do local elements play a role in preserving traditional values or are they used to coin an alternate version of the past?
In this year’s VLAC II conference, entitled Tracing the local(s). The local world of the
Mediterranean landscapes in the Greek and Roman coinage, the presence and reception of local elements of different peoples and cultural groups from North Africa to Asia Minor to the Levant, will be examined on the basis of local coinage.
Organizers: Saskia Kerschbaum ([email protected]) or Hülya Vidin
([email protected])
Programme
Friday 29th November
14:30 Welcome: Fleur Kemmers (Goethe University Frankfurt)
and Johannes Wienand (University of Braunschweig)
14:45 Introduction: Hülya Vidin (Goethe University Frankfurt)and Saskia
Kerschbaum (DAI Munich)
Panel Ia: How to localise: different strategies of localisation in
regional patterns
15:00 Gunnar Dumke (University of Halle): Eastern bulls in the west. Using
animals as expression of local identity
15:45 Coffee break
16:15 Dario Calomino (Warwick University): Tracing the ‘locals’ in the
agonistic festivals of the Roman east
17:00 Ulrike Peter (BBAW): Local traces in the coinages issued under
Gordian III and Philip the Arab in the Balkan area
17:45 Break
Panel Ib: How to localise: different strategies of localisation in the
interaction with Roman culture
18:00 Robyn Le Blanc (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro):
Localizing a Roman colonial identity on civic coinage: the Marsyas of the
forum type in its local contexts
18:45 Denise Wilding (Warwick University): Local worlds on local tokens?
The Roman lead tokens of Gaul and Egypt as media of local expression
19:30 Wine reception
20:30 Dinner for speakers
Saturday 30th November
Panel II: Between tribes and cities: the urbanification of local features
9:00 Pero Ardjanliev (Archaeological Museum, Skopje): The coinage of the
Dassaretai and their urban centre
9:45 Simone Vogt (August Kestner Museum, Hannover): Roman or Oscan? The
coinage of Atella (Campania)
10:30 Coffee break
11:00 Saskia Kerschbaum (DAI Munich): Between image and language: local
features on early Sicilian coinage
11:45 Johannes Heinisch (DAI Munich): The tetradrachms from Segesta –
adoption of local patterns as a sign of victory
12:30 Lunch
Panel III: The landscapes of Asia Minor dealing with new political impacts
14:00 Hülya Vidin (Goethe University Frankfurt): Caria – autochthonous
ele-ments on coins between expression of local identity and making
politics
14:45 Annalisa Polosa (Sapienza University, Rome): Coins of Cilician
cities between Greek models, Seleucid ideologies and local traditions
15.15 Coffee break
16:00 Andrea Gorys (BBAW) – Bernhard Weisser (Münzkabinett Berlin), Thebe
– Adramyttion – Edremit. Münzgeschichte und historisches Gedächtnis in
einer mysischen Landschaft
16:45 Discussion
Moderation: Fleur Kemmers (Goethe University Frankfurt)
17:15 Close