Wealth and Warfare

The Archaeology of Money in Ancient Syria

By (author) Frederique Duyrat

Book cover: Wealth and Warfare

Extent: 600 pages

Publisher: American Numismatic Society

Subjects: Ancient Near East, Numismatics

Series: Numismatic Studies

Series volume number: 34

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(November 2016)

ISBN: 9780897223461

8.46 x 10.94 inches

Price: $200.00

In stock

Wealth and Warfare assembles for the first time the evidence for coin finds in the region of ancient Syria from the 5th to the 1st century BCE. A full catalogue of all known coin hoards and published excavation finds serves as the basis for an explanation of monetary behavior in an area extending over parts of modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and Turkey. In seven chapters of analysis, Duyrat establishes the limits of what we can learn from coin circulation, to compare the data from commerce to the data from legal excavations, to try to understand the chronological evolution of coin circulation and how much political events or warfare affect it, and to evaluate what coin finds tell us of the wealth and poverty of the people who assembled them. One chapter is devoted to how the contemporary history of the countries within the scope of this study has influenced the documentation. This book determines more precisely than ever what circulated in the ancient Near East and can provide the patterns by which to evaluate the loss suffered by the cultural heritage of this region.

Frederique Duyrat is director of the Department of Coins, Medals, and Antiques of the Bibliotheque nationale de France and is associated with the research team Orient et Mediterranee-Mondes semitiques (University of Paris-Sorbonne) and the Ecole doctorale Archeologie of the University of Paris I-Pantheon Sorbonne. Prior to this she spent two years as a researcher at the Institut francais d’archeologie du Proche-Orient in Damascus, eight years as assistant professor of Greek history at the University of Orleans, and three years as Curator of Greek coins at the Bibliotheque nationale de France. She is editor of Tresors Monetaires, a director of the Revue Numismatique, and a member of the board of the Societe francaise de numismatique. She has written and edited more than 50 books and articles on the coinage, history, and archaeology of ancient Syria and Phoenicia.

  • By (author) Frederique Duyrat