Money and Power in Hellenistic Bactria

Money and Power in Hellenistic Bactria PDF Author: Simon Glenn
Publisher: Numismatic Studies
ISBN: 9780897223614
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Royal Coinage in Hellenistic Bactria presents the results of a die study including the coins of six kings (Euthydemus I, Demetrius I, Euthydemus II, Pantaleon, Agathocles, Antimachus I). Using a reconstruction of the production of these coins, this book proposes a new, soundly-based history of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom under these kings.

Money and Power in Hellenistic Bactria

Money and Power in Hellenistic Bactria PDF Author: Simon Glenn
Publisher: Numismatic Studies
ISBN: 9780897223614
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Get Book Here

Book Description
Royal Coinage in Hellenistic Bactria presents the results of a die study including the coins of six kings (Euthydemus I, Demetrius I, Euthydemus II, Pantaleon, Agathocles, Antimachus I). Using a reconstruction of the production of these coins, this book proposes a new, soundly-based history of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom under these kings.

Demetrius I of Bactria

Demetrius I of Bactria PDF Author: Frances Ann Marcinkiewicz Joseph
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Coins
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Literary and archaeological evidence for the Hellenistic Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms is extremely sparse, and scholarship relies heavily on extant royal coins. Innovative methodologies are required to extract information from these coins and better understand the mysterious monarchs who ruled a series of small kingdoms in Central and South Asia. In general, the political strategy of Hellenistic monarchs was directed toward the maintenance and expansion of one’s power. Therefore, political power is a valuable factor through which to assess the Bactrian kings. I developed a methodology that I term “power policy numismatics” for using ancient coins to measure political power. This involves treating and analyzing coins as pieces of government policy. Coins can function as policy in two ways. Firstly, they are physical pieces of policy, as they establish, legalize, and standardize a money economy. Secondly, coins contain “assertion policies,” or deliberately designed packages of information with which a monarch could assert his or her rule. Viewing royal coins in this way reveals a monarch’s administrative sophistication, military investment, and legitimization efforts. Combined, these policy aspects illuminate the power of their issuing monarchs. I apply this methodology to King Demetrius I of Bactria. Demetrius is crucial to the history of Hellenistic Central and South Asia. From the seat of power in ancient Afghanistan, Demetrius conquered and expanded south, across the Hindu Kush mountains, and established rule in ancient northwest India. He shifted the center of power to the Indian territories, and laid the groundwork for a significant Greek presence there for almost two centuries. His coins indicate a strong centralized government, a complex bureaucracy, and direct rule. They suggest a level of military investment greater than that of his predecessors and competitive with his large Seleucid neighbors. They also assert a governmental ideology that serves the interests of imperial hegemony. Evaluating coin policy helps to explain Demetrius’ role as a power-player in the international system of the eastern Hellenistic world.

The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World

The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World PDF Author: Rachel Mairs
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351610287
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description
This volume provides a thorough conspectus of the field of Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek studies, mixing theoretical and historical surveys with critical and thought-provoking case studies in archaeology, history, literature and art. The chapters from this international group of experts showcase innovative methodologies, such as archaeological GIS, as well as providing accessible explanations of specialist techniques such as die studies of coins, and important theoretical perspectives, including postcolonial approaches to the Greeks in India. Chapters cover the region’s archaeology, written and numismatic sources, and a history of scholarship of the subject, as well as culture, identity and interactions with neighbouring empires, including India and China. The Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek World is the go-to reference work on the field, and fulfils a serious need for an accessible, but also thorough and critically-informed, volume on the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms. It provides an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the Hellenistic East.

Look at the Coins! Papers in Honour of Joe Cribb on his 75th Birthday

Look at the Coins! Papers in Honour of Joe Cribb on his 75th Birthday PDF Author: Helen Wang
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1803276118
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
24 contributions reflect the vast scope of Joe Cribb’s interests including Asian numismatics, museology, poetry and art. Papers are arranged geographically, then chronologically/thematically including studies on coins, charms and silver currencies in or from China; finds from ancient Central Asia and Afghanistan: coins of South Soghd, and far more.

The Rediscovery and Reception of Gandhāran Art

The Rediscovery and Reception of Gandhāran Art PDF Author: Wannaporn Rienjang
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1803272341
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
From the archaeologists and smugglers of the Raj to the museums of post-partition Pakistan and India, from coin-forgers and contraband to modern Buddhism and contemporary art, this fourth volume of the Gandhāra Connections project presents the most recent research on the factors that mediate our encounter with Gandhāran art.

Empires to be remembered

Empires to be remembered PDF Author: Michael Gehler
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3658340037
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 571

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Book Description
By applying a comparative approach the volume focuses on a select group of „empires“ which are generally not in the focus of empires studies. They are studied in detail and analyzed due to a strict concept that takes into account real history and reception history as well. Reception history becomes more and more an important element in empire studies although this topic is still often more or less underdeveloped. The volume singles out a series of such “forgotten empires”. It aims to provide a methodologically clearly structured as well as a uniform and consistent approach. It develops a general set of questions that help to compare and distinguish these entities. This way the volume intends to examine and to illuminate empires that are generally ignored by modern scholarship.

Lost World of the Golden King

Lost World of the Golden King PDF Author: Frank L. Holt
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520953746
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
Drawing on ancient historical writings, the vast array of information gleaned in recent years from the study of Hellenistic coins, and startling archaeological evidence newly unearthed in Afghanistan, Frank L. Holt sets out to rediscover the ancient civilization of Bactria. In a gripping narrative informed by the author’s deep knowledge of his subject, this book covers two centuries of Bactria’s history, from its colonization by remnants of Alexander the Great’s army to the kingdom’s collapse at the time of a devastating series of nomadic invasions. Beginning with the few tantalizing traces left behind when the ‘empire of a thousand cities’ vanished, Holt takes up that trail and follows the remarkable and sometimes perilous journey of rediscovery. Lost World of the Ancient King describes how a single bit of evidence—a Greek coin—launched a search that drew explorers to the region occupied by the tumultuous warring tribes of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Afghanistan. Coin by coin, king by king, the history of Bactria was reconstructed using the emerging methodologies of numismatics. In the twentieth century, extraordinary ancient texts added to the evidence. Finally, one of the ‘thousand cities’ was discovered and excavated, revealing an opulent palace, treasury, temple, and other buildings. Though these great discoveries soon fell victim to the Afghan political crisis that continues today, this book provides a thrilling chronicle of the search for one of the world’s most enigmatic empires.

The Hellenistic Far East

The Hellenistic Far East PDF Author: Rachel Mairs
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520292464
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description
In the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s conquests in the late fourth century B.C., Greek garrisons and settlements were established across Central Asia, through Bactria (modern-day Afghanistan) and into India. Over the next three hundred years, these settlements evolved into multiethnic, multilingual communities as much Greek as they were indigenous. To explore the lives and identities of the inhabitants of the Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms, Rachel Mairs marshals a variety of evidence, from archaeology, to coins, to documentary and historical texts. Looking particularly at the great city of Ai Khanoum, the only extensively excavated Hellenistic period urban site in Central Asia, Mairs explores how these ancient people lived, communicated, and understood themselves. Significant and original, The Hellenistic Far East will highlight Bactrian studies as an important part of our understanding of the ancient world.

Thundering Zeus

Thundering Zeus PDF Author: Frank L. Holt
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520920090
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Thundering Zeus uses an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to resolve one of the greatest puzzles in all of Hellenistic history. This book explores the remarkable rise of a Greek-ruled kingdom in ancient Bactria (modern Afghanistan) during the third century B.C. Diodotus I and II, whose dynasty emblazoned its coins with the dynamic image of Thundering Zeus, led this historic movement by breaking free of the Seleucid Empire and building a strong independent state in Central Asia. The chronology and crises that defined their reigns have been established here for the first time, and Frank Holt sets this new history into the larger context of Hellenistic studies. The best sources for understanding Hellenistic Bactria are archaeological, and they include a magnificent trove of coins. In addition to giving a history of Bactria, Thundering Zeus provides a catalog of these coins, as well as an introduction to the study of numismatics itself. Holt presents this fascinating material with the precision and acuity of a specialist and with the delight of an admirer, providing an up-to-date full catalog of known Diodotid coinage, and illustrating twenty-three coins. This succinct, energetic narrative thunders across the history of Hellenistic Bactria, exhuming coins, kingdoms, and customs as it goes. The result is a book that is both a history and a history of discovery, with much to offer those interested in ancient texts, archaeology, and coins.

Historical Geography, GIScience and Textual Analysis

Historical Geography, GIScience and Textual Analysis PDF Author: Charles Travis
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030375692
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 281

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Book Description
This book illustrates how literature, history and geographical analysis complement and enrich each other’s disciplinary endeavors. The Hun-Lenox Globe, constructed in 1510, contains the Latin phrase 'Hic sunt dracones' ('Here be dragons'), warning sailors of the dangers of drifting into uncharted waters. Nearly half a millennium earlier, the practice of ‘earth-writing’ (geographia) emerged from the cloisters of the great library of Alexandria, as a discipline blending the twin pursuits of Strabo’s poetic impression of places, and Herodotus’ chronicles of events and cultures. Eratosthenes, a librarian at Alexandria, and the mathematician Ptolemy employed geometry as another language with which to pursue ‘earth-writing’. From this ancient, East Mediterranean fount, the streams of literary perception, historical record and geographical analysis (phenomenological and Euclidean) found confluence. The aim of this collection is to recover such means and seek the fount of such rich waters, by exploring relations between historical geography, geographic information science (GIS) / geoscience, and textual analysis. The book discusses and illustrates current case studies, trends and discourses in European, American and Asian spheres, where historical geography is practiced in concert with human and physical applications of GIS (and the broader geosciences) and the analysis of text - broadly conceived as archival, literary, historical, cultural, climatic, scientific, digital, cinematic and media. Time as a multi-scaled concept (again, broadly conceived) is the pivot around which the interdisciplinary contributions to this volume revolve. In The Landscape of Time (2002) the historian John Lewis Gaddis posits: “What if we were to think of history as a kind of mapping?” He links the ancient practice of mapmaking with the three-part conception of time (past, present, and future). Gaddis presents the practices of cartography and historical narrative as attempts to manage infinitely complex subjects by imposing abstract grids to frame the phenomena being examined— longitude and latitude to frame landscapes and, occidental and oriental temporal scales to frame timescapes. Gaddis contends that if the past is a landscape and history is the way we represent it, then it follows that pattern recognition constitutes a primary form of human perception, one that can be parsed empirically, statistically and phenomenologically. In turn, this volume reasons that literary, historical, cartographical, scientific, mathematical, and counterfactual narratives create their own spatio-temporal frames of reference. Confluences between the poetic and the positivistic; the empirical and the impressionistic; the epic and the episodic; and the chronologic and the chorologic, can be identified and studied by integrating practices in historical geography, GIScience / geoscience and textual analysis. As a result, new perceptions and insights, facilitating further avenues of scholarship into uncharted waters emerge. The various ways in which geographical, historical and textual perspectives are hermeneutically woven together in this volume illuminates the different methods with which to explore terrae incognitaes of knowledge beyond the shores of their own separate disciplinary islands.