The Byzantine Mint in Carthage and the Islamic Mint in North Africa. New Metallurgical Findings

Abstract

Cet article rassemble les résultats antérieurs d’analyses des monnaies d’or byzantines et arabo-byzantines émises à Carthage et en Ifrikiya. On y ajoute les nouvelles mesures pratiquées par LA-ICP-MS sur 25 solidi de la BnF et 92 données de poids spécifique obtenues par T. Jonson sur les monnaies de nombreuses collections publiques. Les différentes méthodes utilisées sont comparées et les changements dans la composition métallique du monnayage africain avant et après la conquête arabe sont définis et commentés. On propose enfin une interprétation possible du processus de dévaluation qui affecta les premières séries de monnaies d’or émises en Afrique du Nord de ca. 79-84/ 698-703.

Islamic Glass in the Making

“…The tesserae from Damascus and Khirbat al-Minya have gold contents of between 77% and 97% (Fig. 29a), which is considerably lower than those of Byzantine gold coins of the sixth and seventh centuries and of early Umayyad coinage from Syria (Gondonneau and Guerra 2002;Jonson et al 2014). Late seventh-and early eighth-century coins from the Islamic mints in North Africa as well as a single, anomalous Byzantine coin from the reign of Constantine IV labelled as Arab/Byzantine by the Barber Institute have comparably low gold contents (Jonson et al 2014).…”

On gold recycling. A physicochemical point of view

“…As coins issued by the Visigoths have also undergone a sequence of debasement reforms by lack of gold (Bartlett et al, 2017), Visigothic gold jewellery and coins from Spain and Portugal (Guerra, 2000; Guerra et al, 2007; Guerra & Roux, 2002) were plotted in Figure 4, showing that emerges a chemical pattern identical to the Merovingian one. Byzantine (Jonson et al, 2014; Morrisson et al, 1985) and Roman (Poirier, 1983) gold coins added to the diagram (all contained in the rectangle) do not follow the same type of chemical pattern.…”

“…As coins issued by the Visigoths have also undergone a sequence of debasement reforms by lack of gold (Bartlett et al 2017), Visigothic gold jewellery and coins from Spain and Portugal (Guerra 2000;Guerra and Roux 2002;Guerra et al 2007) were plotted in Figure 4, showing that emerges a chemical pattern identical to the Merovingian one. Byzantine (Morrisson et al 1985;Jonson et al 2014) and Roman (Poirier 1983) gold coins added to the diagram (all contained in the rectangle) do not follow the same type of chemical pattern. While it is difficult to approach recycling in periods of gold scarcity, the analysis of certain trace elements or isotope ratios can provide reliable data on gold used either in the earliest periods (used as found and with low levels of recycling) or in times of gold influx.…”

Trans-Saharan Gold Trade and Byzantine Coinage

“… 73 Grierson 1982, 122; Jonson et al 2014, 657. Both denominations were occasionally struck at Carthage in very small numbers under both Heraclius and Constans ii .…”

“… 105 Garrard 1982; Messier 1974; Morrisson et al 1982, 1983; Guerra et al 1999; Morrisson 2002; Wilson 2012; Jonson et al 2014. …”