Odczytać obraz, interpretować świat, czyli rozszyfrować treści rzymskich numizmatów
Interpreting an Image, Interpreting the World i.e. Deciphering the Content of Ancient Roman Coins

Summary/Abstract: The article constitutes a brief commentary on the value of Roman coins and medallions as sources of historical cognition. Discussion about the question of the cognitive appeal of ancient Roman coins has a long history of its own. In a somehow a priori manner the author sides with the supporters of the considerable significance of Roman coins and medallions in historical research. In this context, she focuses on the message of numismatic sources contained in inscriptions, and especially in the iconography of the obverse and reverse sides of coins and medallions. These representations constitute an inexhaustible source of information for analyses of spheres of Roman history which are distinct from the traditional concept of the political history of the empire.Moreover, a number of ways and methods of interpretation of numismatic material are indicated. These include the following: descriptive analyses, numismatic studies sensu stricto, stylistic analyses, historical studies, ideological studies. The first three procedures remain to be the fundamental means of the cognition of the sense of a numismatic representation, and in many cases they constitute necessary conditions for the transition to in-depth historical or ideological studies in this subject.

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