Resources and the Roman Imperial economy: The metallurgy of the denarius as a source of information on the exploitation of natural resources and the political and economic context

资源与罗马帝国经济：第纳尔的冶金学作为自然资源开发以及政治和经济背景的信息来源

• 批准号: 409029802
• 负责人: Professorin Dr. Sabine Klein
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Römisch-Germanische Kommission (RGK) Frankfurt a.M.
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2017-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/409029802?language=en
• 关键词: Resources; Roman; Imperial; economy; metallurgy

300 years after the coin reform of Augustus, the coinage system of the Early and Middle Empire had collapsed. The production of bronze denominations had been virtually suspended, the silver content of the denarius sunk to less than 1%. What were the reasons for this catastrophic development?This application is intended to secure the necessary funding for the laboratory work for a separately financed doctoral dissertation on the fineness and origin of the metal employed for Roman denarii from the 1st to the mid-3rd century AD. Following ground-breaking work by L. Cope and D. Walker in the 1970s on the metallurgy of the Roman Imperial silver coinage, recent and extensive work by K. Butcher and M. Ponting has confirmed the general phenomena previously observed, but provided a more detailed, and in some cases revised picture. However, many questions remain unaddressed and unanswered; there are significant gaps in the coverage of the coinage by Butcher and Ponting, in particular for the Julio-Claudian period prior to the reform of Nero; and since Butcher and Ponting concentrated on chemical fingerprinting of the coins, only a limited number of lead isotope analyses were carried out, which are important for provenancing the metal sources employed.These points are to be directly addressed in the doctoral dissertation. The data from the analyses will provide new information on the exploitation of natural resources by the Imperial administration, and the geographical, political and technological constraints to which it was subject. This information will be placed in a broader political and economic context in order to further our understanding of the aims and reasons behind the debasement of the denarius, in particular of episodes such as the short-lived reform of Domitian or the debasement of Septimius Severus; of the extent to which old coinage was recycled; as well as of Imperial financial and economic policy, its possibilities and limits in general.The project will also investigate whether existing analytical methods such as lead isotopes can be employed in the analysis of the silver coinage of the 3rd century in order to source the material used, when the level of silver in the coinage had sunk so significantly.The main method to be employed is lead isotope analysis, supplemented by chemical fingerprinting, but also by less frequently used isotopic analyses such as iron and copper. The coins for analysis will be carefully chosen to complement previous studies such as those of K. Butcher and M. Ponting, to verify their results and, above all, to fill individual gaps in their data series, and to address new questions their work pose.

奥古斯都硬币改革300年后，早期和中帝国的造币体系崩溃了。几乎暂停了青铜面额的生产，Denarius的银含量下降到不到1％。这种灾难性发展的原因是什么？该应用程序旨在为实验室工作提供必要的资金，以分别融资的博士学位论文，内容涉及从第3世纪至3世纪中期的罗马Denarii使用的金属的细腻和起源。 L. Cope和D. Walker在1970年代对罗马帝国银币的冶金学进行了开创性的工作之后，K. Butcher和M. Ponting的近期和广泛的工作证实了先前观察到的一般现象，但提供了更详细的现象，但在某些情况下进行了修订。但是，许多问题仍然没有解决，没有解决。屠夫和庞丁的造币覆盖范围有很大的差距，尤其是在尼禄改革之前的朱利奥·克劳迪安时期。而且，由于屠夫和庞大集中于硬币的化学指纹识别，因此仅进行了有限数量的铅同位素分析，这对于证明所使用的金属来源很重要。这些要点应直接解决博士学位论文中。来自分析的数据将提供有关帝国管理局对自然资源开发的新信息，以及对其主体的地理，政治和技术约束。这些信息将置于更广泛的政治和经济环境中，以进一步我们对Denarius贬低的目的和原因的理解，尤其是诸如Domitian短暂改革或Septimius Severus的贬低之类的情节；旧造币被回收的程度；除帝国财务和经济政策外，其一般的可能性和局限性。该项目还将调查现有的分析方法，例如铅同位素等现有的分析方法，用于分析3世纪的银币，以获取所使用的材料以获取所使用的材料，以便通过造币的水平如此重要。诸如铁和铜等分析。将仔细选择用于分析的硬币，以补充先前的研究，例如K. Butcher和M. Ponting的研究，以验证其结果，最重要的是填补数据系列中的单个空白，并解决其工作构成的新问题。