La circulación monetaria en el sur peninsular durante el periodo romano-republicano

Abstract

In recent years, studies about money currency have experienced a notable increase in Spain, and we have important publishing on this topic that referred to the period of Republican Hispania. Furthermore in Southern Spain several studies on the currency of money have been done, which, however, have been usually limited to very specific areas or mine sites or even limited to a specific type of finding, so that whatever information can provide, do not offer a whole overview of the authentic Ulterior monetary circulation as the political and administrative unit that it was during the republican period. In this thesis, based on numismatic findings that over time have been collected and compiled by many researchers, we intend to make a thorough study, as complete as possible, of the money supply in the Hispania Ulterior province. The purpose of this thesis is not merely a collection of numismatic material and its documentation, but rather to establish different patterns of behavior of the currency in circulation and trying to find solutions through numismatics to some present day historical problems. Although we have the presence of ancient coins before the arrival of the Romans to the Iberian peninsula, it will not be until the Republican period when the use of money was extended in this area. During this period a significant amount of coinage was going to move, specially Roman coins. The money supply was particularly intense in areas where Roman legions settled down and places that had important natural resources exploited by contingents of Italic people. At that time in Hispania a very important phenomenon did happen: the incorporation of Hispanic cities to the monetary economy. Previously we have only a limited release of coins by the mint of Gadir, but since the end of III and especially during the II century BC many cities decided to coin money. A feature of the coinage of the mints of Rome's Ulterior is that Rome allows these cities to make use of certain cultural elements such as writing, typology or metrology. Because of these elements we can distinguish the mints settled in this province depending on their either Phoenician-Punic, Libiophoenician, Southern Iberian or Latin origin. Most of the Ulterior mints issues its coinage in bronze, having some, like Castulo, with a number of series. On the other hand, most of these mints currency is limited to the nearest area, but we also have some cases, such as the mints in Gadir, Castulo or Carteia, which coins have a wide spread. Depending on the mint origin we can set different focus areas: therefore, for instance, coins of Phoenician origin are located mainly in the coastal area of Southern Spain; the Iberian origin one can be found in the Southeastern part of the peninsula and in mining areas, and Latin one have appeared in the Guadalquivir valley and mountain ranges. We have also found evidence of the presence of some coins from the Ulterior mints beyond the limits of this province, and, although in many cases it is more than merely testimonial findings, we can notice a very important monetary presence on the East coast and in North Africa.