Monday, 16th January 2006
Prof. Martin D. Goodman (Oxford University)
ANCIENT COINS AND JEWISH IDENTITY
This lecture will examine the iconography of the coins produced by Jewish states in the Hellenistic and Roman periods and will propose explanations of their significance. In particular, the lecture will seek an explanation of the coin types produced by the independent Jewish states in Judaea during the revolts of 66-70 CE and 132-135 CE, questioning the reasons for the abundance of coinage minted, the great variety of types, the exceptionally pure metallic content of the silver shekels, the use of an archaic palaeo-Hebrew script for the coin legends and the choice of specific legends and images.
In order to illustrate the impact of the coins on users at the time, they will be contrasted to the coin types in circulation in the region of Jerusalem before 66 CE, between 70 and 132 CE and after 135 CE. The main issue to be tackled will be whether the difference between the names selected to represent the Jewish state during the revolts ('Zion', 'Jerusalem', and especially 'Israel') and the names used to refer to the region both by the Romans and by the Hasmonaeans and Herodians ('Yehudah', 'Judaea', and similar terms) is significant in establishing who and what the leaders of the rebel states believed that they represented and how this may relate to the new name, 'Palaestina', chosen for the region by the Romans after 135 CE.
Martin Goodman is Professor of Jewish Studies at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, and Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. He has written on Roman history and on the history and literature of the Jews in the Roman period and is currently working on the wider religious history of late antiquity.
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