June 8, 2017 – The Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations (IHAC) at Northeast Normal University, Changchun (China) will hold an international symposium “Byzantine Gold Coins in the World of Late Antiquity” from 23-25 June 2017.
In the so-called Late Antiquity, the ancient world covering the Mediterranean and Asia changed rapidly. New empires and realms, e.g. the Late Roman / Byzantine Empire, the Sassanian Empire or the rules in the following of the Arab expansion, had a huge impact on the shaping and characteristics of the aforesaid region. It built on the Hellenistic tradition with its spread of Greek language and culture but also settlement up to central and East Asia, and the exchange-enhancing pax Romana during the Roman Empire, what one can study particularly in respect of coin production, its iconography, imitation and spread. The transformation processes during Late Antiquity influenced then the production, circulation and use of coinage, too.
The symposium, bringing together researchers from East and West, aims at examining these changes, by studying the wider spread of Byzantine as well as Sassanian coins from Constantinople to China with a comparative and connective approach. The dimension, historical backgrounds and motifs as well as motivations of the spread of these coins to regions outside the specific rules will be particularly analyzed. Therefore, the conference participants will especially deal with questions of economy and trade as well as of the socio-political, -economic and -cultural contexts to test the usefulness and, if applicable, degree of the framework “globalization” for describing this transformation period between ancient and medieval times.
Conference conveners are Dr. LI Qiang, IHAC (email) and Prof. Dr. LIN Ying, Sun Yat-sen University (email).
The event is organized by the Northeast Normal University, co-organized by the University of Cologne and the Sun Yat-sen University. If you want to contact the organizers please write an email.
Details and the preliminary conference program are available on the IHAC website.