Missing from the discussion surrounding the use of coinage in select burials within southern Italian Greek necropoleis in the fourth and third centuries BCE is an attempt to reconstruct the ancient conception of the ritualistic function of coinage. It is through a chronological survey of epigraphical evidence for temple finances that we can trace the concurrent developments of the recognition of a fiduciary value to money, on one hand, and the acceptance of a ritualistic function to coinage on the other. Both occur simultaneously in Magna Graecia where the earliest coins in burial have been found. The case study of Metaponto, an archaeological site around the Lucanian Apennines, reveals a correspondence between an Oscan assemblage of funerary equipment and the presence of coinage. One tomb in particular contains an old coin’s ceramic impression, a clear representation of a value above that of its monetary model. Indigenous Italian agency ought therefore be considered when explaining, not just the ritualistic deposition of bronze coinage in Italy, but also a broader recognition of the sacred and fiduciary value to coinage which led to its deposition. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / When did humans start conceptualising the abstract notion of value which underpins modern paper money? The time of Socrates’ death was one of economic transition, when coins were first integrated into funerary rituals, used as religious dedicatory offerings, and minted in a new metal, bronze. These concurrent developments stemmed from the need for Greeks, using silver, to exchange with indigenous Italians who used bronze. This created a symbolic value for the bronze coins which was manifested in the contemporaneous acceptance of coinage in religious rituals. The case study of Metaponto, a Greek city founded in southern Italy, demonstrates the indigenous Italian impetus to include coinage in funerary assemblages, and by extension, their involvement in redefining the economic conception of money. A ceramic impression of an older coin found in one of these burials, is similar to paper money in that it represents a value abstracted from its silver model.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/29238 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Zuckerman, Marshall |
| Contributors | Pope, Spencer, Classics |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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