Graffiti on Roman gold coins: spectrum of meaning and communication strategies

Project Description

The subproject focuses on the analysis of graffiti (engravings) on Roman gold coins. The CRC 933 is entering new territory with this: not only are numismatic testimonies observed as written artefacts for the first time, but also the reception practices carried out on them. While graffiti on other materials have already been examined on many occasions, this has not yet been done in regard to coins.

The project focuses on – reconstructible – forms of the perception of writing on Roman coins and their secondary marking by graffiti, which are partly directed at private and partly at public addressees. This includes the analysis of the specific materiality of gold coins as moveable written artefacts independent of a topological context, and the text-image interactions that can be recognized on them.

Numismatic holdings with a clear provenance will be used for a praxeologically oriented artefact analysis, which includes the autopsy, description and deciphering of graffiti as well as their systematic recording. In order to develop a meaningful corpus for the project, a central database will be implemented in cooperation with the TP INF. This database will serve to make numismatic artefacts with graffiti available to the public and the scientific community even after the end of the CRC.