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From Byrsa to the Tiber: Carthaginian Coins and History

Five Shekels (=Decadrachm) Mint of the Camp, from the Palermo Hoard, 1958, 270–260 BCE. Silver.
Loan from the Trustees of the Arthur Stone Dewing Greek Numismatic Foundation, 1.1965.984.

Lecture Ilse and Leo Mildenberg Memorial Lecture

Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

New evidence from hoards, overstrikings, and excavation finds across the western Mediterranean in the last 50 years has significantly increased our knowledge of Carthaginian coins and their circulation patterns in the core regions of the Punic world, from North Africa to Spain. As mediums of payment, stores of value, and social artifacts, Carthaginian coins were used in diverse contexts and by different ethnicities.

In this lecture, Paolo Visonà, associate professor at the University of Kentucky at Lexington, will discuss how these coins provide essential information on the history and the economy of Carthage, underscoring its connectivity with other Punic centers and its relations with its Mediterranean neighbors and rivals, particularly Cyrene, Syracuse, and Rome.

Following the lecture, select galleries related to the talk will remain open until 8pm.

The lecture will take place in Menschel Hall, Lower Level. Please enter the museums via the entrance on Broadway.

Free admission

Complimentary parking available in the Broadway Garage, 7 Felton Street, Cambridge.

To honor the memory of renowned numismatist and scholar Leo Mildenberg (1912–2001) and his years of friendship with Harvard University, a fund was established by his friends and colleagues and endowed in 2005 by his wife, Ilse Mildenberg-Seehausen.