Early Islamic Copper Coins from Excavations in the Central Levant: An Indicator for Ancient Economy

Legible copper coins from excavations of Early Islamic sites are scarcer than in other periods. They contain, however, valuable information for understanding economic operations. The focus of this paper is the mint-toponyms inscribed on coins that point to their production place. This identification enables network inquiries and economic interpretations on a level that is rarely possible with archaeological finds. The following study utilizes coins of the 7th–9th centuries from excavations in one area in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan. It looks at mint names and the exact location of the coin’s discovery, maps these data with GIS, cross-references characteristics in the data, and detects possible correlations. The paper emphasizes two results. The first is a calculation of the distance that copper coins traveled—locally, regionally, or farther. This result challenges the view that copper coins were only circulated locally. The second result is the identification of sites with coins from four or more mints as marketplaces. Some of these sites are located at the center of large sites, such as Ramla or Beth Shean, but others are their neighboring small sites that acted in parallel. This result disputes Central Place Theory and similar paradigms.SCOPUS: ar.j