Exploring localities: a die study of Alexanders from Damascus

One of the great advantages of portals such as PELLA is the ease with which they make it possible to access large numbers of images of coins in a short period of time. While die studies have long been considered one of the most fruitful approaches to studying ancient Greek coins, the requirement to gather as large a corpus with images as possible has often been a barrier to the undertaking of large scale studies. Thanks to PELLA, not only are images compiled quickly, but the nature of linked open data allows many other pieces of information recorded by the institutions in which the coins are held to be gathered at the same time. In particular, as we shall see later, the inclusion of find spots, or hoards as listed in the Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards and digitised at coinhoards.org, adds further opportunities for research. As part of the Oxford-Paris Alexander (OPAL) project the author undertook a die study of the Alexander tetradrachms issued at Damascus, many of which were made available online for the first time thanks to PELLA