• Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage
• 2017-2021close

This article aims at presenting an overview of recent research on Numismatics of Magna Graecia. It is based on a critical reading of major themes and approaches to Greek coinage trough a wide range of contextual studies. The available quantity of data is increasing daily and produces results under general models or theories, estimates or spatial analysis, covering several centuries of Greek coinages in Italy.

This is a survey of numismatic research on Punic coinage in Italy conducted in the twenty years. The Carthaginian series in Sicily, in the islands of the Strait of Sicily, in Sardinia and the Italian Peninsula date from the end of the 5th century B.C. to 211 B.C. They begin with the coins of Phoenician tradition minted by Motya, Panormos ans Solus and end with the series that circulated during Hannibal’s campaing in Italy. This review has made it possible to reexamine topics that are still open to investigation, including, in particular, the identification of Italian and island mints in relation to the monetary policy of the Carthaginian motherland.

The aim of this paper is to outline a short history of the ancient Numismatics studies in the 20th century and in the contury and in the context of the various ideologies. Special attention is given to the scholars influenced by the propaganda of the totalitarian regimes.

The Etruscan numismatics, with the exception of general catalogues (HN, EC, and ICC), is a research topic that has been mainly dealt with by italian scholars. After the international symposium organized in 1975 by the Centro Internazionale di Studi Numismatici, which saw the partecipation of outstading foreign scholars, the Etruscan numismatics became a theme mainly faces by italian researches, enough not to deserve a mention in the recent ‘Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage’. This article presents an overview of past research on Etruscan numismatics carried out over the last half century.

Medieval jettons or tessere mercantili are a class of material with still many aspects to be clarified, despite being studied since the 18th century. The lack of documentary sources and the still limited number of findings in archaeological contexts, in fact, make it difficult to reconstruct a sufficiently clear picture of the production, function and circulation of these objects, known by a great variety of types. This article presents four jettons of the series traditionally known as “Androcles and the Lion” found at the cathedral of Saint Lawrence in Grosseto (Tuscany-Italy). The place of discovery and the analysis of the associated materials provide precise chronological data about the probable period of use and the moment in which they terminated their function. The study also offers the opportunity to discuss different hypothesis related to the identification of the man with the lion.

This is a contribution relating to Celtic Numismatics in Europe with a reference to the main problems which arouse these mainly imitative emissions: chronological ones, the attribution of emissions to a given population, problems relating to technical and metallurgical aspects, relations with archaeology and with coins, especially Greek and Roman, of which there are certain chronological references, etc. In this analysis we proceeded geographically from West to East with a greater emphasis on the situation of studies in Italy to reach the conclusion that much remains to be done in many countries, due to the lack of research centres in some European countries. However, the discipline which still awaits its autonomy has a liveliness and it is acquiring ever greater dignity with the progress of studies and archaeological discoveries.