Distance and Power in Early Medieval Coinage in Spain

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Compared to most other archaeological artifacts, coins contain a large amount of information relating directly to political administration. Spatial patterns in this information should provide a way to see how processes of political power operated in practice. Using information on early medieval coin finds in the Iberian Peninsula, it can be seen that widely varied spatial patterns can be found under different political and economic circumstances, even when the technology of travel, transport, and administration remained largely the same. During a period when ordinary monetary circulation might have a range of a few hundred kilometers, extraordinary political circumstances could cause significant numbers of coins from Persia or the Transcaucasus to end up in Spain, thousands of kilometers away. Both the long-term norm and the unusual events are important to understanding the structure and capabilities of political actors in this period.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41712.0