Preliminary Programme

Determining the circulation patterns of a particular coin is difficult or impossible. Besides, a map of discoveries reveals only the last place where the coins were used, but says nothing of their previous circulation. However, if a coin bears a foreign countermark it proves that it had circulated in a given location (the place where the countermark has been applied). This in turn can reveal the existence of a commercial network.
A first case is provided by some Ptolemaic coins countermarked at Byzantium in the third century BCE: they tended to come back to the zone where they had been minted, which fits with the role hub of Byzantium for trade relations. The second case is that of the coins of a group of Pamphylian/Lycian cities in the second century BCE. These coins were countermarked all over the Attalid kingdom, which at some point introduced a new and lower weight standard for its own coinage. Their circulation reveals the role of a hub in trade relation of the Pamphylian cities between inland Asia Minor under Attalid control and Seleukid Syria after 188 BC. (Show less)

A distinctive feature of Hellenistic economies is the proliferation of manufactured metalware Within this, even though gold was not as common as silver, gold objects are reported in literary descriptions of royal processions and in the triumphs of Roman generals at Rome, while the remarkably high quality of contemporary gold objects complements effectively the widespread Hellenistic gold (coin and other) hoard finds.
The present paper aims to combine coined gold (retaining its intrinsic value) with gold traded commodities and to identify (through documentary evidence) the networks that prompted their movement and that emerged because of and in the process of their production and transmission in Hellenistic and Roman markets and beyond. In describing these networks and in analysing the functions of gold items within and through (re)distribution mechanisms, we will ultimately reassess their nature and economic significance. We will also investigate their contribution to the formation of ‘globalising’ Hellenistic and Roman economic patterns. (Show less)

The permanent need for vital commodities like salt has been a key driver for the creation of supply networks in ancient Rome and earlier. These were to ensure reliable distributions of salt especially into remote locations with low or no salt deposits of their own.
There are numerous underlying requirements for such distribution networks to develop. The economical, political or social incentives for each actor in the supply chain, from salt mines to consumer, must have been somehow attuned to each other in order to achieve a certain level of reliability and continuity of salt delivery. The actors had to be in constant touch with each other building a broad communication and information network across Europe.
This paper analyzes the economical structures, activities and motivations around salt supply in central Europe for the Roman Empire. To what extend was salt trade economically lucrative or had there been other motivations and which sources provide sufficient evidence for the existence of salt trading over long distances requiring established network channels? (Show less)