RoCCAA · Roman Coin Circulation in Ancient Armenia
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2020-10-01 → 2023-07-02
- EU contribution
- €212,934
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Roman Coin Circulation in Ancient Armenia
Studying the Greater Armenian Kingdom, which was located in the Caucasus region, is important for the understanding of the regional perspective from the 1st century BCE to the beginning of the 5th century CE. Since the 1st century BCE, the Roman and Parthian/Sasanian empires both aimed by various policies to take and maintain their own influence over the Kingdom of Greater Armenia, which became a point of conflict between these two empires. Unfortunately, the dataset available for the study of the Greater Armenian Kingdom is quite limited and mostly derives from the Graeco-Roman sources. These data mainly offer a biased view of events, whilst the lack of contemporary Armenian or Parthian literature does not allow us to counterbalance the Roman imperialist overview of the Greater Armenian Kingdom. In accordance with the lacuna in the data, the RoCCAA project intended, as a first step, to analyse the circulation of Roman coins within the territory of the Kingdom of Greater Armenia from 95 BCE (the date of accession of Tigranes II) until the 428 CE, the date of the fall of Arsacid dynasty. Henceforth, it is fundamental for scholars to generate tangible evidence to improve the knowledge and understanding of the Greater Armenian Kingdom, as well as its interactions with neighbouring kingdoms and empires. The RoCCAA project offers a groundbreaking study in the sources submitted to analysis, and the methodology interlinked with an interdisciplinary approach. The project bridged gaps in the data for the region and highlighted the dominant role that the Roman coins play in the circulation of money from the 1st century CE in ancient Armenia. The current data, notably, point out the dominant role of Republican and Early Imperial coins in contrast with later centuries and attest of the singularity of the monetary circulation in ancient Armenia by contrast to others surrounding kingdoms. Additional discoveries with archaeological context will, however, be necessary to confirm and narrow the monetary patterns observed in the current available dataset. On the other hand, Roman provincial coins minted in Syria (especially in Antioch) are attested in some quantity in ancient Armenia. The presence of imitations minted in ancient Armenia or Upper Mesopotamia confirms the importance, as well as the regional circulation, of the genuine and imitative coins between Syria, ancient Armenia, and Upper Mesopotamia. Therefore, the project fills a gap in our understanding of monetary circulation in ancient Armenia, as well of Roman numismatics, especially monetary circulation in the Roman East, and lay the foundation a study of the monetary circulation of the whole Caucasus.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
This project intends to analyze Roman monetary circulation in the kingdom of Armenia from the Ist century BCE to the fall of the kingdom in 428 CE. Because of Armenia’s strategic location, several attempts were made to gain control of it, particularly by the Roman and Parthian/Sassanid empires, whose coinage found its way into Armenia. This project will study the evolution, the purpose and the impact of Roman coinage on the Armenian Kingdom.This project breaks away from Armenian studies, hitherto based solely on Greek and Roman textual sources, at a geographical and chronological level, as it focusses on concrete data from the Armenian Kingdom itself. Using an interdisciplinary approach, the project will improve our general understanding of Armenian and Roman history, but also clarify the regional history in the light of specific Armenian events, thanks to a new approach in the field of Armenian studies. Likewise, it will add new evidence to our knowledge of Roman coinage in the East. The preliminary data – a comprehensive coin corpus – has already been collected and catalogued.To successfully complete this project, I will join the numismatic team at Oxford University. This host institution is no doubt the ideal choice. Its eminent numismatists have worked on the provincial circulation of Roman imperial coinage, it houses both Armenian and Numismatics departments, and the Ashmolean Museum’s numismatic holdings at Oxford are of prime importance.This project requires good prior knowledge of the historical situation in Armenia as well as of the history and ambitions of the Roman, Parthian and Sassanid Empires. Numismatics in Armenia also needs to be grasped in all its diversity. For these reasons, it is necessary to master languages from the region, to be aware of past and current research and the many factors bearing on Armenian studies, such as Soviet ideology or nationalist issues. All these conditions are met here allowing this ground-breaking project to thrive.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE CHANCELLOR, MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD · OxfordCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union