KOINON: Common currencies and shared identities. Understanding the structures and daily realities of Greek federal states through an analysis of coin production and coin circulation in the Aetolian and Peloponnesian Koina (5th- 1st c. BC)

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The aim of the project is to obtain a better understanding of the functioning of Greek federal states (koina), both at a structural and a day-to-day level, by a comprehensive and integrated analysis of their coinages. To this end the Achaean, Arcadian and Aetolian koina were selected (5th-1st c. BC). Three lines of research will be pursued: 1) How were competences and decision making divided between the authorities of the koinon on the one hand and the local authorities of the cities on the other? 2) How integrated were the cities within the federal state? 3) How was a federal identity created and communicated? In all three lines of enquiry, developments will be traced from the time of origin of the League until after its dissolution. Three complementary approaches to numismatic material will be used in these three research lines: metrological and iconographical analyses, coin hoard and single find studies, and archaeometallurgical analyses. The archaeometallurgical analysis of 400 coins will be performed, using complementary analytical methods, at the University of Frankfurt through lead isotope analysis by Multicollector mass spectrometry and at the IRAMAT Centre Ernest-Babelon at Orléans using FNAA (Fast Neutron Activation Analysis using a cyclotron) for bronze coins and LA-ICP-MS (Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) for silver. The historical-numismatic team in Tours/Orléans will work on the production, technical and iconographical features of the coins, both those produced by the koinon as an institute and those issued by the individual members of the koinon. The archaeological-numismatic team in Frankfurt will study the circulation, use and loss of these same coinages. Together the teams will study the historical and archaeological background to contextualize the numismatic data. Combined and integrated these results will lead to more insight into the functioning of coinage as an instrument and a witness of federal policy and power during the Classical and Hellenistic periods. An important tool for the project will be the creation of a weblinked project database, where all data obtained can be gathered and interlinked. After publication of the results this database will be made accessible online to the public, as a subproject of the Online Corpus of Greek Coinage (OCG), which digital project is about to start under the authority of A. Meadows (Oxford) and F. Duyrat (Paris, BnF) ; C. Grandjean is the regional editor for the mints of mainland Greece . The scholarly results will be published in a monograph jointly written by the French and German research teams. Dissemination of the outcomes to the larger public through lectures for lay audiences is foreseen.