Trinity 2021

(Week 2) Tuesday 4th May
'Icenian and Durotrigan Coinage – Using A Study of Coinage to Learn about Late Iron Age Society' - Dr John Talbot (University of Oxford)
Abstract In the talk I will discuss briefly the minting of these Late Iron Age coinages and some of the techniques used in the die-study. I will show how these have been used to build definitive chronological sequences and to 'interrogate' hoards. I will briefly examine some of the more interesting aspects of the imagery on the Icenian coins. I will then discuss some of my findings from both the Icenian and the Durotrigan studies which provide information about society more generally in pre-Roman Britain. The Durotrigan data has not yet been published and using the die-study in conjunction with ArcGIS has started to reveal some interesting and unexpected findings.
(Week 4) Tuesday 18th May 
"Making Money in Republican Rome: A Numismatic Perspective on Rome's Expansion" - Prof. Fleur Kemmers (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt)
Abstract Roman society was thoroughly monetized in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, using weighed out bronze bullion in all classic monetary functions. From the late 4th c. BCE onwards Rome started to mint its own coinage, haphazard and small scale at first. By the turn to the 3rd c. BCE coin production was massive, and largely based on silver. What was the impetus to start producing coins? Why did things accelerate in the late 3rd and early 2nd centuries BCE? What triggered a change-over from a system of value based on bronze to one largely based on silver? In this paper I will argue that the changed economic opportunities and state obligations, brought about by Rome´s expansion into Southern Italy, and subsequently the entire Mediterranean, led to new requirements and possibilities for monetary instruments.
(Week 6) Tuesday 1st June 
"'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Mezezios?' – Understanding and Unpicking the Imagery of the Emperors Mezezios (668-669) and Constantine IV (668-685)" - Dr Maria Vrij (The Barber Institute of Fine Arts / University of Birmingham) 
Abstract Coins bearing the name ‘Mizizios’ have only been known since the 1970s, and in that time have been considered forgeries, genuine coins of the usurper Mezezios/Mzhezh (668-669), and finally reconsidered again as coins of Mezezios’s son, John. In this paper, I will argue both that the coins are genuine products of Mezezios’s rule, and that Mezezios should not be considered as a rebel against the emperor Constantine IV, but as an emperor in his own right. I will also contextualise the apparent ‘imitation’ between the coins of Mezeziosand Constantine IV in the now maligned argument of Constantine’s imitatio Iustiniani.
(Week 8) Tuesday 15th June 
"Provenances and Hoards in the Ptolemaic Coin Collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. A Paper Archaeology" - Dr Julien Olivier (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Abstract In this talk, Dr. Olivier will discuss the very important collections of Ptolemaic coins housed at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Dr. Olivier is responsible for Greek and Roman provincial coinage at the BnF, and his work includes important contributions on all aspects of Ptolemaic coinage as well as on various aspects of the library's numismatic collections.