Studying at the University of Verona
Here you can find information on the organisational aspects of the Programme, lecture timetables, learning activities and useful contact details for your time at the University, from enrolment to graduation.
Type D and Type F activities
Modules not yet included
Ancient Numismatics (2024/2025)
Teaching code
4S011082
Teacher
Coordinator
Credits
6
Language
Italian
Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)
L-ANT/04 - NUMISMATICS
Period
Primo semestre QPA dal Sep 30, 2024 al Dec 20, 2024.
Courses Single
Authorized
Prerequisites and basic notions
No prior knowledge of the subject in required, but some basic knowledge of history (mainly Greek and Roman) and of ancient geography (with the aid of a historical atlas) is recommended. The course is designed to attract students with a diverse range of interests and show them how Numismatics can give us a better understanding of different disciplines, especially History, Archaeology and Art History, and help us connect them together.
Program
The module is divided in two parts. The first one introduces the students to the discipline, presenting its general and methodological principles, including the subject-specific vocabulary. Then it gives a broad overview of the history of coinage in the ancient world, from its introduction in 7th century BC Asia Minor, all the way through the Greek and the Roman worlds, up until the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE and the transition to the early Medieval world.
First part: history of coinage from the origins to the Middle Ages
1. Introducing Numismatics
2. The invention of coinage
3. Coinage in the Greek world
4. Macedonia and the Hellenistic Kingdoms
5. Republican Rome
6. Roman imperial coinage
7. The Late Empire
8. The legacy of Rome and Medieval coinage
The second part of the course focuses on the role of Numismatics in archaeological studies and the fieldwork. You will learn how to analyse and interpret numismatic data withing their context of provenance on the basis of the typology of finds and their depositional background (stray finds, hoards, intentional deposition for votive-ritual purposes). Two classes intended as ‘lab seminars’ (the tenth and the fourteenth ones) will involve handling ancient coins from collections and from excavations brought by the teacher (coins found in the Roman villa at Negrar, Verona, and/or the Forum of Tarquinia), for which in presence attendance is recommended. The aim of these seminars is to learn how to approach the analysis of coins from excavations, from preliminary mechanical cleaning, to trying to decipher them to recognise and date them with a varying degree of approximation depending on their state of conservation, and to ultimately catalogue them, also referring to the main bibliographic repertoires.
Second part: coinage in its archaeological context
9. Bibliographic resources and databases
10. Lab seminar: identifying and cataloguing coins
11. Coinage and field-work: coin finds and hoards
12. Votive deposits and the "Charon's obol"
13. Coins from excavations at Verona and its territory
14. Lab seminar: cleaning and studying coins from excavations
15. Coin-like objects: medallions, contorniates and tesserae
Bibliography
Didactic methods
Classes will rely extensively on PowerPoint presentations that will be made available to the students on the e-learning platform. There will also be lab activities to work on coins form collection and on coin finds from the Roman villa in Negrar (VR) and/or the Forum of Tarquinia (VT). Teaching materials include slides to be integrated with reference readings.
Learning assessment procedures
The test is an interview in which students will be asked to identify coins in the classroom and from pictures, to give and approximate date and describe their stylistic and technical characteristics. Students will be asked to contextualise their answers in the relevant historical and archaeological framework. Further questions will be based on the broader topics discussed in the module, one of which can be chosen by the students.
Evaluation criteria
The final assessment will be based on the students’ knowledge and ability to identify the examples presented during the lectures, to give a technical description and chronological overview, as well as to draw broader conclusions on the social, economic, historical and cultural framework in which they were produced.
Exam language
italiano