Archaeology and Art History

Η παρούσα ανακοίνωση αποτελεί μια άλλη προσέγγιση του «εθνικού», κυρίως με την έννοια του συνόλου των ενδυμασιών που αποτελούν αυτό που θα ονομάζαμε ελληνικές ενδυμασίες, τόσο στον τομέα των εκδόσεων όσο και των μουσειακών συλλογών με ικανό αριθμό ενδυματολογικών συνόλων (Μουσείο Μπενάκη, Συλλογή Ενδυμασιών Β. Καρέλια). Θα προσπαθήσουμε, επομένως, να απαντήσουμε στο ερώτημα ποιες είναι εκείνες οι ενδυμασίες που εντάσσονται στις λεγόμενες «εθνικές».

Το ερευνητικό ζητούμενο τίθεται με βάση την παρουσία στις παραπάνω συλλογές των ενδυμασιών από τη Β. Ήπειρο, την Κύπρο και την ευρύτερη περιοχή της Μ. Ασίας, οι οποίες συνυπολογίζονται ως «εθνικές». Η επιλογή αυτή, αναμφίβολα, δεν είναι άφιλτρη, αλλά προέρχεται από κομβικές συγκυρίες ήδη από τον 19οαιώνα έως και σήμερα: ιστορικές καταστάσεις, συλλεκτική επιλογή, γεωγραφικές μεταβολές, η κοινή ομιλούσα γλώσσα. Επομένως, με βάση το δημοσιευμένο υλικό όσον αφορά τις λεγόμενες «εθνικές» ενδυμασίες, όπως αρχικά τις χαρακτήρισε η Αγγελική Χατζημιχάλη, όσο και τα σύνολα στις προθήκες των μουσείων σήμερα, θα γίνει διερεύνηση των κριτηρίων και των παραγόντων ένταξης ενός ενδυματολογικού συνόλου στη γενικότερη ιστορία της ελληνικής ενδυμασίας.

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The basis and starting point for this paper is the presentation of a hoard of Late Roman Republic and Augustus denarii deriving from the ongoing excavations at Ancient Messene in the Peloponnese.
Its stratigraphic association with a hidden group of parts of marble acrolith statues from the same period is indicative of a common interested party instrumental in the double concealment.
The rarity of contemporary numismatic assemblages from southern Greece in general and Messene in particular, and indeed of coins hoarded during a well-consolidated pax romana, lends the find even greater significance. In this paper it offers an opportunity for collation and co-examination of all contemporary numismatic data from the city, mainly on the basis of single stratified finds, but also from key epigraphical testimony.

Reliable, well-corroborated excavation evidence for the architectural history of public and private buildings in Messene offers solid ground for dating, as well as for additional observations on numismatics and the economy in a wider sense.

As a test case for the much-discussed osmosis between late Hellenistic numismatic production by Greek cities and Roman issues, Messene may contribute to an understanding of numismatic circulation in the Early Roman Empire and its historical context.

A B S T R A C T
The article intends to trace the numismatic history of Axos, placing it within the historical and numismatic context peculiar to Crete in each period.
The primary objective is to place Axos issues in a rational chronological outline; from the first staters (4th c. BC) to the flood of Hellenistic bronze coins and rarer issues from early Roman times.
Choices regarding iconography and dimensions are investigated briefly, together with stylistic developments in comparison to other Cretan parallels.
Approximate observations on the city’s power can be made on the basis of the frequency and volume of issues, as emerging from analysis of the dies in each case, when taken together with economic data and the historical context in each period. The countermarks systematically made on late 2nd century BC bronze coins from Axos call for detailed comment, with their interesting iconographical variations, which diverge significantly from those of other Cretan cities. The barbarian characteristics of some issues are likewise noteworthy, as is the mapping of how Axos coinage circulated in Crete and abroad.
Although we possess very few individual finds of Axian issues in verified excavation strata on Crete, questions of dating are to a great extent resolved by the fact that such coins are present in hoards found both in the city itself and in groups located elsewhere - on Crete, and most notably on Sifnos.
The circulation of foreign coins in within the bounds of Hellenistic Axos replicates the introverted tendency of those Cretan cities that have been sufficiently documented to date.

The paper is included in a volume on the cultural past of the area now forming the Prefecture of Heraklion. It aims to provide an overview of the numismatic history of Knossos and its environs, presented diachronically from the fifth century BC up to the Evans excavations in the early 20th century AD. The city was chosen in the belief that it offers the fullest and thus most telling example in the field of numismatics within the geographical area in question, on account both of its significance and its long history of numismatic production. This is augmented by the fact that Knossos has benefited from years of excavation research. As a historical synthesis, the study contributes to the further understanding of the successive phases in the settlement, while at the same time confirming the phases when the city thrived (from Classical to early Byzantine times), declined and then shrank in favour of Chandax / Kastro / Heraklion, which competed with Knossos on account of its proximity (from Arab rule to late Ottoman rule). All of the above are achieved by considering a number of factors together, including: the sequence of emissions which lasted up until the early Roman period; the impact of Knossos coin design / illustration / iconography on medieval and modern times; numismatic finds from the surrounding area, whether in isolation or in hoards; the geographical distribution of issues on Crete and beyond the island; key written accounts attesting to savings accumulated from Crete and transactions regarding land there. Furthermore, the study could prove to be a useful tool when investigating the history of Eastern Central Crete in its entirety.

A B S T R A C T
This paper presents preliminary conclusions from the study of a group of hoards concealed on the island in Roman times (between 69 BC and 294 AD), as part of a larger investigation that aspires to include the greater part of individual finds from excavations found on Crete.
The primary goal is to investigate numismatic circulation on the island in three separate phases: 1) 69 - 27BC; 2) 27BC - middle 2nd c. AD; 3) middle 2nd - 3rd c. AD, and to investigate how these phases reflect local coinage production in the cities and later Koinon of Crete in comparison to the situation prevailing on the Greek mainland.
Cretan issues and Athenian tetradrachms, Cistophoric coinage from Asia Minor and Roman denars (phase 1) give way to local silver issues in Julio-Claudian times, as well as to bronze coins which continue up until the Antoninus Pius era, alongside the limited presence of official issues from Rome (phase 2).
Roman issues dominate in phase 3, despite the situation in the rest of the empire as regards non-precious metals. The displacement of debased Antoninians (so common elsewhere) by older bronze coins mostly from Rome, which dominate hoards, seems to represent a Cretan numismatic peculiarity.
Provincial issues from the rest of the Roman-occupied Greek world are somewhat poorly represented in percentage terms. Nevertheless, they derive from a wide area, thus revealing the geographical extent of transactions between Crete and the rest of the Roman world.
On another level, links between both the concealment and numismatic circulation and the historical conditions at that time are investigated: Crete as part of the Roman Imperium from the turbulent Roman democracy during the civil wars, to the pax romana and the time of the rapid decadence in the late 3rd c. AD.

A B S T R A C T
This paper aims at the fullest possible presentation of the numismatic history of Venetian occupied Crete in the opening three decades of the 17th century. To date, this period has preoccupied researchers mainly with regard to socio-political aspects and cultural activity.
The above goal was attained by recourse both to written testimony and to numismatic remains from the period. The detailed cataloguing of Venetian state archives (reports by the general provveditori of Crete, provveditori in the Venetian Zecca, senate decisions) offers a wealth of unknown or unused evidence on existing numismatic conditions on the island, endemic and chronic problems, as well as desperate attempts by the central administration to control monetary circulation and overcome obstacles of various kinds.
Record is made of established or unusual administrative measures aimed at dealing with lack of coinage; tackling forgery in Cretan markets; rectifying anomalies in currency exchange rates; limiting dependency on foreign numismatic issues from political and commercial rivals (mainly Spain and the Ottoman Empire) etc.
Strictly numismatic concerns seriously affected financial life in the Regno di Candia: they hampered large-scale commercial transactions and day-to-day dealings, limited trade liquidity and had a knock-on effect on tax income, forcing local public treasuries and citizens to jump through all manner of fiscal and numismatic hoops.
In turn, this led to the proliferation of problems in society: problems paying employees and soldiers created social tensions, upsetting social harmony and contributing to the degradation of the lower classes.
Day to day financial reality is also reflected by individual finds, and still better by hoards located in Cretan museums, which are virtually unrecorded in the international bibliography. These vividly portray the means used in small transactions and savings on Crete, when taken together with the mass issues from the Venetian mint destined for exclusive use on the island, which were often ideologically loaded by the choice of Greek-language inscriptions.
So as to examine market practice in medium or large scale transactions over the widest possible financial and geographical range, statistical analysis was carried out on all the legal dealings recorded in the surviving ledgers of two notaries: M. Varouchas (Amari, 1579-1613, published) and J. Da Scitia (Chandax, 1613-1625, unpublished).
These quantitative data permit us to make observations that both support and add substantially to other testimony. Matters addressed include: the liquid assets of townsfolk and country dwellers; the extent and intensity of barter; currency used in transactions on the island, in contrast to those carried out in the mother city; the frequency of bills of exchange; the abundance of bronze and rarity of gold and silver; measures taken to protect transactions against rampant forgery; language used on coinage and related issues etc.

A B S T R A C T
This text aims at a chronological presentation of all aspects of Cretan numismatic history during the period on which the congress focuses.
The paper begins with a brief review of numismatic production on the island in Roman times (issues of the cities and the Koinon), with reference to duration, intensity, volume, iconography and the ideological basis of issues.
Based upon a concentrated presentation of quantitative data (originating both from hoards and single finds) relating to numismatic circulation on the island between 69/67 BC and 827/829 AD, the following particular questions are examined: the diffusion of Roman coinage on the island before the conquest and immediately thereafter; the coexistence in the market of local and official issues; the range of provincial coinage both within and beyond Crete; the diachronic presence of each mint; customary uses of coins (inauguration, Charon’s fee), regularity of issues; occasional over-circulation or lack of transactional means; and the historical dimensions of these phenomena.
The further goal, of course, is to reconstruct the fundamental aspects of each numismatic policy and practice, as documented from Cretan finds.
Finally, an attempt is made to correlate local numismatic production and circulation with the historical context in each particular period, as emerging from other archaeological and historical sources.
Within this framework, probable targets for future studies and possible strategies are suggested, extending beyond numismatics to a wider financial or even historical perspective, given that the above areas are interconnected. An attempt is thus made to shed light on Roman and Early Byzantine Cretan history.