A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EARLY AND LATE SASSANIAN COINAGE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/1013-8471/2532Abstract
Sassanian coinage is one the best sources for information on the individual kings from this Persian dynasty. This is because the coins are primary sources that are unaltered. The way in which the Sassanian coins changed is not a topic that has been dealt with extensively.1 A stylistic analysis and comparison of the coins from the different Sassanian ages will be done. In this study the coins from the Sassanian rulers of the early period (224–302 C.E.) and the late period (628–652 C.E.) will be analysed for stylistic characteristics that differentiated them from other Sassanian coins. Trends that were common to coins from each period will be identified as well so that the continuity and breaks in coin design from each period can be illustrated and compared. The factors behind some rulers following the standards set by predecessors and others reinventing it will be exposed by the study.Metrics
References
Alram, M 1999. The Beginning of the Sasanian coinage, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 13:67–76.
_______ 2010. Early Sasanian coinage, in Curtis & Stewart 2010:17–29.
Bacharach, J L & Gordus, A A 1972. The purity of Sasanian silver coins: an introduction, Journal of the American Oriental Society 92/2:280–283. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/600656
Bosworth, C E (trans.) 1999. The history of al-Ṭabari Volume V: The SÄsÄnids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Canepa, M 2009. The two eyes of the earth: art and ritual kingship between Rome and Sasanian Iran. Berkeley and Los Angeles (USA): University of California Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520257276.001.0001
Canepa, M 2010. Technologies of memory in early Sasanian Iran: Achaemenid sites and Sasanian identity, American Journal of Archaeology 114/4:563–596. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3764/aja.114.4.563
Chegini, N N 1996. Political history, economy, and society, in Litvinsky, Guang-Da & Shabani Samghabadi 1996:40–57.
Compareti, M 2010. The spread wings motif on Armenian steles: its meaning and parallels in Sasanian art, Iran & The Caucasus 14:201–232. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/157338410X12743419190106
Curtis, V S 2011. Kingship and religion: the coins of Sasanian Iran, Part 4. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fzcw31S7jBo [Accessed 2015/02/18].
Curtis, V S & Stewart, S (eds) 2010. The Sasanian era. London: I.B. Tauris.
Daryaee, T 1998. SÄsÄnian Persia (224–651 A.D.), The Journal of Society for Iranian Studies 31/3/4:431–461. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00210869808701923
_______ 2009. Sasanian Persia: the rise and fall of an empire. London: I.B. Tauris.
_______ 2010. Kingship in early Sasanian Iran, in Curtis, & Stewart 2010:60–68.
Dignas, B & Winter, E 2007. Rome and Persia in late antiquity: neighbours and rivals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511619182
Emrani, H 2009. Like father, like daughter: late Sasanian imperial ideology & the rise of BÅrÄn to power, e-Sasanika 5:1–16.
Litvinsky, B A, Guang-Da, Z & Shabani Samghabadi, R (eds) 1996. History of civilisations of Central Asia – the crossroads of civilisation: A.D. 250–750. Paris: UNESCO.
Markowitz, M n.d. Late Roman and Byzantine silver coinage, c.330–1200. Available: http://www.academia.edu/3455580/Late_Roman_and_Byzantine_Silver_Coinage_c._330–1200 [Accessed: 2015/10/02].
Nikitin, A V 1996. Custom, arts and crafts, in Litvinsky, Guang-Da & Shabani Samghabadi 1996:59–77.
Potts, D T (ed.) 2013. The Oxford handbook of ancient Iran. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199733309.001.0001
Pourshariati, P 2008. Decline and fall of the Sasanian Empire: the Sasanian-Parthian confederacy and the Arab conquest of Iran. London: I.B. Tauris. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9780755695270
Schindel, N 2013. Sasanian coinage, in Potts 2013:814–840. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199733309.013.0013
Soudavar, A 2009. The vocabulary and syntax of iconography in Sasanian Iran, Iranica Antiqua 44:417–460. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2143/IA.44.0.2034385
_______ 2012. Looking through the two eyes of the earth: a reassessment of Sassanian rock reliefs, Iranian Studies 45/1:29–58. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2011.595976
Wiesehöfer, J 2001. Ancient Persia. London: I.B. Tauris Publishers.