Reviewed by: Agoranomia: Studies in Money and Exchange Presented to John H. Kroll Robert Weir Peter G. van Alfen, ed. Agoranomia: Studies in Money and Exchange Presented to John H. Kroll. New York: The American Numismatic Society, 2006. Pp. 259; 14 plates. US $125. ISBN 10: 0-89722-298-9; ISBN 13: 978-0-89722-298-3. This volume is a collection of twelve essays presented by friends, colleagues, and students of John H. (“Jack”) Kroll in honour of his 2006 retirement from the Classics Department of the University of Texas at Austin. His four-decade long academic career in numismatics has had a profound influence on the discipline, particularly in the areas of Athenian coinage and the origin of coinage, as is clear from the bibliography of serious writing on both of these topics. This is a handsome book. The paper stock is heavy and slightly glossy; the fonts are easy on the eye; the margins are comfortable; and the fourteen plates of black and white coin photographs at the back of the volume are of the highest technical quality in almost every instance. Each contribution is followed by its own bibliography. Three indices (locorum [247–251], hoard [253–254], and general [255–259]) provide access to all articles. Upon closer inspection, one finds that ten of the twelve contributions are arranged in chronological order by topic, with two wider-ranging articles placed at the end to round out the volume. Except for Hélène Nicolet-Pierre and Raymond Descat, all contributors submitted their articles in English, even if it was not their first language. All translations into English are fluent. Spot checks of the indices revealed no errors. Indeed, the standard of editorial overall is satisfactorily and consistently high: this reviewer noted only two obvious errors on the first read-through (110: 1,200 drachmai would be 120 mnai, not 200; and 117: 4,500 drachmai would be 0.75 talents, not 1.25). The form is clearly sound, but how about the substance of the book? Nicolet-Pierre (“Les talents d’Homère,” 1–20) reviews the use of the Homeric and Linear B term talanta, which she defines either as a unit of [End Page 174] weight for gold or as a pair of hand-held balance scales. She draws a connection between the latter meaning and two handheld balances of gold foil recovered from the third shaft grave of Mycenae’s Grave Circle A, and concludes that such talanta were Bronze Age status symbols that Homer (mis)remembered as an attribute of Zeus. Descat (“Argyrônetos: Les transformations de l’échange dans la Grèce archaïque,” 21–36) surveys the transition from multifarious transactions and notions of value (timê) determined by social considerations to a simpler and less socially embedded system where silver alone was what mattered. Homeric society did practice some exchanges outside the traditional and generally aristocratic host-guest relationships, i.e. exchanges between strangers that required more or less immediate reciprocity between “vendor” and “purchaser”, but these became the norm, thanks principally to foreign trade (the example of Archaic Chios is conspicuous). Robert W. Wallace (“KUKALIM, WALWET, and the Artemision Deposit: Problems in Early Anatolian Electrum Coinage,” 37–48) proposes, on the basis of reverse punch-links and stylistic factors, that some early Lydian fractions bearing the names of Kukalim and Walwet were struck simultaneously ca. 580 BC. Whereas the latter name likely identifies king Alyattes (ca. 610–560 BC), the former cannot denote king Gyges (circa 680–644 BC), though a homonymous descendant of the early sixth century is a possibility. In his publication of a recent hoard of early Abderan fractions, most of them previously unknown hemiobols, Jonathan H. Kagan (“Small Change and the Beginning of Coinage at Abdera,” 49–59) proposes that Abdera’s first coins included small change, an event which the hemiobols’ weight standard dates to ca. 530 BC. The significance of the hemiobols is two-fold. First, their appearance right at the outset of Abderan coin production challenges the view that cities minted only large denominations at first (52). Secondly, metrological analysis reveals that the hemiobols were clearly the product of a batch process...
Read full abstract
Apr 2, 2023
Raja H Basit + 3
Open Access
