Interpreting the Past S.
1 total work
Coins are one of the most important sources of information used by historians and archaeologists to interpret the past. Many thousands of coins have survived from societies of the classical, medieval and oriental worlds, and while some are objects of great beauty, all are potential historical documents. However, evaluating the evidence they provide is not always as simple as we might expect. In this book the study of coins is considered from three points of view: how can we established when and where a coin was made? How can we use its designs to throw light on the political, religious, and cultural life of the past? And what can the coin's fucntion as a piece of money tell us about the economic activities of the society which made and used it?