Imagines Maiestatis: Barbarian Coins, Elite identities and the Birth of Europe

罗马与生活在帝国北部的蛮族之间的互动塑造了西方罗马帝国灭亡后欧洲社会的面貌。这两个世界之间的接触是形成新精英的一个重要因素，这些精英随后在旧帝国的领土上定居，并形成中世纪欧洲的王国。为了充分理解这种转变，我们需要了解新精英是如何以及为什么形成的，这可以通过他们使用的符号和代表这些符号的物体来最好地实现。因此，IMAGMA将研究这一基本的、决定性的转变的一个具体的、示范性的方面。它将接触到一组以前被忽视的材料：罗马边境以北的巴巴利库姆（Barbaricum）地区发展中的精英们生产的罗马硬币的仿制品，这些硬币被他们用来展示自己的地位。这些都是这次文化交汇的缩影，是罗马和土著文化的独特结合。此外，硬币提供了特别丰富的潜力，反映了更广泛的功能和意图，从官方生产到私人使用，比几乎任何其他类别的物质文化。IMAGMA分析了这种具象艺术作为一种新的社会身份的表达媒介，产生于罗马和野蛮人之间的接触。它考虑了知识、思想和技术的转移、图像学的作用、精英的自我表现和作为权力象征的硬币。科学的金属和材料分析将发挥重要作用。因此，IMAGMA将为理解欧洲是如何在古代世界崩溃后形成的提供重要贡献，将其置于长期的历史视角中。它将作为一个跨学科的研究方案进行，涉及（艺术和经济）历史学家、考古学家、钱币学家和材料科学家，利用历史人类学领域关于铸币起源和功能的新理论方法。IMAGMA将为德国-波兰联合团队提供创新的，有意义的丰富，该团队在该领域拥有悠久的成功研究历史。

Interaction between Rome and the barbarians who lived to the north of the Empire was to shape the face of European society after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. The contacts between the two worlds were a significant contributory factor in the formation of the new elites who were subsequently to settle in the territory of the old Empire and form the kingdoms of medieval Europe. In order to appreciate fully this transformation, we need to understand how and why the new elites were formed, and this can best be achieved through the symbols that they employed and the objects on which these were represented.IMAGMA will therefore investigate a specific, exemplary aspect of this fundamental, defining transition. It will access a previously neglected group of material: imitations of Roman coins produced by the developing elites right across the Barbaricum north of the Roman frontier, and used by them to demonstrate their status. These provide an unparalleled microcosm of this cultural meeting, a unique synthesis of Roman and indigenous. Furthermore, coins offer particularly rich potential, reflecting a wider range of functions and intentions, from official production to private usage, than almost any other class of material culture.IMAGMA analyses this representational art as a medium of expression of new social identities that resulted from the contacts between Rome and the barbarians. It considers transfer of know-how, ideas and technology, the role of iconography, self-representation of elites and coins as symbol of power. A major role will be played by scientific metal and material analysis. IMAGMA will thus provide a significant contribution to understanding how Europe came into being after the collapse of the world of Antiquity, placing it in a long-term historical perspective. It will be conducted as an interdisciplinary research programme involving the participation of (art and economic) historians, archaeologists, numismatists and material scientists drawing on new theoretical approaches on the origins and function of coinage from the field of historical anthropology. IMAGMA will provide innovative, meaningful enrichment to a joint German-Polish team that has a long-standing history of successful research in the field.