La monétarisation en Égypte et en Syrie-Palestine du IVe à la fin du VIIe siècle : le témoignage de l’archéologie

Abstract

This review article is based on H. C. Noeske’s monumental work on coin finds in the dioceses of Egypt and Oriens in the Late Antique and Early Byzantine period. The catalogue (vol. 2) publishes in the Francfort school format all hoards and site finds known to the author, either from his personal examination (notably the circa 12,000 coins from the Egyptian pilgrimage site of Abu Mina) or from publications. The corpus of some 100,000 specimens thus assembled and the (almost too numerous) figures and graphs derived therefrom (vol. 3) are commented upon in volume 1. In Egypt bronze coin finds (reflecting rather production than circulation) reach a maximum in the late 4th c. The great gap starting from the 430s to 498 is in fact observed also in the West (e.g. in Africa) and is compensated for (not only in Egypt or Palestine) by plentiful cast imitations. After the monetary reform of Anastasius I, the situation in the two dioceses largely differs : the new heavy bronze coin (follis) and its fractions penetrate in Oriens rather quickly if not dominantly but are very late and rare in Egypt which applies the reform along specific lines going back to Ptolemaic metrology. As regards bronze the diocese remains thus isolated down to the Arab conquest or even later ; the 12 nummi coin being imitated again in the late 7th c. In Syria and Palestine, Umayyad Arab-Byzantine imitations are much more plentiful, but this major phenomenon is hardly considered in the book. This article gives supplementary information on that topic and discusses some of the issues raised by the circulation of gold in the long run : the influence of military payments and the Valentinianic refining of gold on hoarding patterns, possible reasons for the lack of 5th c coins in hoards, longer hoarding periods in 6th c deposits, contrast between the contracted ones of the Persian war (610-616 ca) and the extended ones of the late 7th c which the Arab conquest did not influence, Byzantine solidi penetrating Umayyad territories down to the major break induced by Abd al-Malik’s reform. The present data on gold and bronze coin finds are clear evidence for the greater wealth of both dioceses as compared with Illyricum, Pontus and Asiana or even many parts of the West and their high degree of monetization, source of the later power and prosperity of the Umayyad Caliphate.