study group "Money as a Medium in the Ancient World" (until 2012)

The study group aims at gaining insight into the cultural historically significant interconnection of “money and the world” in Antiquity by reading theoretical texts and primary sources. Money can be a medium of both the staging of a world context and of the integration of differentiating societies because it provides a uniform code which, particularly in ancient societies, not only makes economic contexts readable,  but also interpersonal relations, religious phenomena, social structures. The study group’s topic is thus linked to areas B and C, above all. For example, we will look into an a priori meaning of money, into the consequences of monetising ancient societies for their cultural codes and patterns of perception, into the “encroaching” of the new medium on (primarily) non-economic fields such as religion, into literary perspectives on these contexts, and not least into the applicability of such models from cultural theory and cultural sociology for classical studies. The aim is to also generate own research on the topic as a result of the discussions.