Ruth Pliego

The Early Middle Age is one of the least known and most interesting historical periods, being crucial in the formation of Europe. In addition to the scarce and fragmentary literary resources, the period may be studied through the examination of an important form of primary evidence: the coins. Apart from the high-quality emissions in precious metals, the numismatic repertoire also includes small and humble pieces that are still important sources of information about the economy of the less wealthy sections of society. This is the case of the bronze emissions, the circulation of which throughout the Mediterranean indicates that they played an essential role in the economic life of the period.

Our project aims to analyse bronze coins struck in the Iberian Peninsula during the 6th-7th centuries AD, in order to determine their function, identify the social groups that used them and establish their range of circulation, as well as to establish their relationship with the nummi issued by other nations along the Mediterranean shores, essentially Vandals, Ostrogoths and Byzantines. On the other hand, we hope that the material will shed some light on the problematic issue of the opposition between urban and rural society.

The project will result in the publication of a monograph and an online catalogue, which will be, and is conceived as the first step in a more ambitious project which includes all the groups that formed the cultural mosaic of the so-called Migration Period.