Valued relations: coin dies as actants

Summary

In present-day Scandinavia a coinage was introduced c. AD 995 which imitated contemporary Anglo-Saxon coins. For more than thirty years the English and Scandinavian coinages were closely connected. Humans (commissioners, moneyers, artisans) and objects (e.g. coin-dies) moved between the mints. Coinage is often seen as articulating sovereign rights in a certain area, but the Anglo-Scandinavian coinage network instead cut across kingdoms from west to east. Despite ongoing state-formation processes, key valuables like artisans and dies were shared in the network, causing change in power relations and conceptions of value. By use of different ‘international’ iconographical models, they also created relations with cognitive nodes through association. Imitations are often depreciated out from present notions of authenticity. Here, the material’s creative and hybrid character is instead underlined, shifting focus to object agency and opening up for a deeper understanding of their wider connotations and meanings.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Actor-Network Theory and other Relational Approaches in Historical Archaeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 295