Coinage and identity in Roman Britain

This research project examines the relationship between coinage and identity within Roman Britain. Rather than using coinage distributions to consider identity, this thesis explores the complex relationship between coins and coin-users. Numismatics has been marginalised within archaeology, yet coinage is a complex embodiment of dualities (coins and money, object and idea, issuer and user) all linked with identity. A full understanding cannot be reached through economics, exchange and integration, but must also consider coins as texts (and coin-users as readers), the structures of coin-use, and the conscious phenomenological experience of the coin-user. By applying concepts from philosophy, literary theory, and linguistics, I develop user-focused perspectives, and assess the potential for new approaches by applying them to analysis of PAS data.