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

罗马和居住在帝国北部的野蛮人之间的互动塑造了罗马帝国在西方衰落后欧洲社会的面貌。两个世界之间的接触是新精英形成的重要因素，这些新精英随后定居在旧帝国的领土上，形成了中世纪欧洲的王国。为了充分理解这一转变，我们需要了解新精英是如何以及为什么形成的，而这一点最好通过他们使用的符号和代表这些符号的对象来实现。因此，IMAGMA将研究这一基本的、决定性的转变的一个具体的、典型的方面。它将访问一组以前被忽视的材料：由罗马边境以北Barbaricum的发展中精英生产的罗马硬币的仿制品，并被他们用来证明他们的地位。这些提供了一个无与伦比的缩影，这一文化会议，一个独特的合成罗马和土著。此外，硬币还具有特别丰富的潜力，它反映了从官方生产到私人使用的更广泛的功能和意图，几乎比任何其他种类的物质文化都要广泛。IMAGMA分析了这种具象艺术作为表达新社会身份的媒介，这种新社会身份是罗马与野蛮人之间的接触所产生的。它考虑了知识、思想和技术的转移，肖像画的作用，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将为理解欧洲在古代世界崩溃后如何形成做出重大贡献，并将其置于长期历史视角。它将作为一个跨学科的研究计划进行，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的参与，借鉴历史人类学领域关于古钱币起源和功能的新理论方法。IMAGMA将为一个在该领域拥有长期成功研究历史的德国-波兰联合团队提供创新的、有意义的丰富内容。

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.