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www.GetPedia.com *More than 150,000 articles in the search database *Learn how almost everything works Excavations of the Athenian Agora Picture Book No. 1s Prepared by Fred S. Kleiner Photographs by Eugene Vanderpool, Jr. Produced by The Meriden Gravure Company, Meriden, Connecticut Cover design: Coins of Gela, L. Farsuleius Mensor, and Probus Title page: Athena on a coin of Roman Athens Greek and Roman Coins in the Athenian Agora AMERICAN SCHOOL O F CLASSICAL S T U D I E S AT A T H E N S PRINCETON, N E W JERSEY 1975 u= - The Agora in the 5th century B.C. 1. HAMMER - PUNCH ~ FLAN - ANVIL - REVERSE DIE - OBVERSE DIE 2. Ancient method of minting coins. Designs were cut into two dies and hammered into a flan to produce a coin. THE ATHENIAN A G O R Ahas been more or less continuously inhabited from prehistoric times until the present day. During the American excavations over 75,000 coins have been found, dating from the 6th century B.c., when coins were first used in Attica, to the 20th century after Christ. These coins provide a record of the kind of money used in the Athenian market place throughout the ages. Much of this money is Athenian, but the far-flung commercial and political contacts of Athens brought all kinds of foreign currency into the area. Other Greek cities as well as the Romans, Byzantines, Franks, Venetians, and Turks have left their coins behind for the modern excavators to discover. Most of the coins found in the excavations were lost and never recovered-stamped into the earth floor of the Agora, or dropped in wells, drains, or cisterns. Consequently, almost all the Agora coins are small change bronze or copper pieces. When silver or gold coins were dropped they were searched for until found. In addition to coins, the American excavators have had the good fortune to locate a building which very likely served as the Athenian mint from the late 5th century B.C. until at least the time of the Roman emperor Augustus (27 B.c.-A.D. 14). The building is situated at the southeast corner of the Agora, next to the Southeast Fountain House (I). Very little of the structure remains today because of later rebuilding in the area. Part of the building lies beneath the Church of the Holy Apostles. The mint was provided with strong poros walls, befitting a structure in which large quantities of bullion and coins must have been stored. Inside there were at least two furnaces, two cement-lined water basins, and a large drain, all of which were necessary for the production of ancient coins. GREEK A N D R O M A N M I N T I N G T E C H N I Q U E A L L T H E C O I N S illustrated in this book were handmade. The ancient method of striking coins was quite simple and required only a few basic tools. The first step was the preparation of the flan, or metal blank, upon which the coin designs would be stamped. Flans could be produced in a number of different ways. Often the metal was heated to a molten state and then poured into disc-shaped molds, assuring a uniform weight for the coins. This was 3 . Bronze flans and a rod from the Athenian mint. especially important for gold and silver coins, which were accepted in commerce because of their bullion value. An alternate method, useful for bronze coins which passed by size rather than by exact weight, is documented by finds in the Athenian mint. Bronze rods were forged by hammering and individual flans were cut from them, either by repeated chisel strokes, as was the case with the late 1st-century B.C. flans illustrated (3), or by sawing, as was true of the Athenian bronze coins of the late Roman period (4). T o stamp images on the prepared flans, it was necessary to cut diesnegative designs-either in iron or in a very har