TAG2019-UCL

Money is a commonplace of complex societies, and evidence for its production and use appears in the archaeological record at multiple scales: from individual coins, dies, and weights, to mint buildings, metallurgical workshops, and mining complexes. The character, scope, and volume of this evidence means that archaeology can offer significant and unique contributions to wider anthropological and sociological debates concerning the socio-cultural processes by which money comes into being: how are objects transformed into money, how are different forms of money rendered legitimate or illegitimate, and how are the social conventions behind money maintained or challenged by its producers and (non)users? This session explores the social production of money and moneys in past societies, with a focus on five key themes:

•The assignation of value to monetary media
•Legitimation and validation of moneys
•Fungibility and commensuration of moneys
•Money and institutions
•Hierarchies of money

Organisers: Murray Andrews; UCL • Olav Gundersen; Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo

14:00 | Session organisers | Introduction

14:10 | Piotr Jacobsson, Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre | Beyond earlier Holocene commodification in south-west Asia

14:30 | Charlotte Mann, University of Warwick | Spent or Saved? The Circulation of Festival Coins Struck for the Eleusinian Mysteries

14:50 | Tais Pagoto Bélo, Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, University of São Paulo | Coins and Roman Women’s Power

15:10 | Dagfinn Skre, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo | A social approach to money. Scandinavia in the 5th-10th centuries

15:30 | Murray Andrews, UCL | Discussion

15:40 | - | BREAK

16:10 | Martin Allen, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge | Rendlesham: the use of coins at a high status early medieval site

16:30 | Svein H Gullbekk, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo | Legitimizing money

16:50 | Laura Burnett, University of Exeter | "For the benefit of the poor"?

17:10 | Olav Gundersen, Museum of Cultural History, University of Oslo | Discussion

17:30 | - | END