THE ITALIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION  IN AFGHANISTAN.  THE COINS FROM TAPA SARDAR AND GHAZNI

Michael Alram; Arturo Annucci

doi:10.6093/978-88-6719-361-5

THE ITALIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION IN AFGHANISTAN. THE COINS FROM TAPA SARDAR AND GHAZNI

Authors

Michael Alram

Austrian Academy of Sciences

Arturo Annucci

National Board of Historical Studies / Italian Institute of Numismatics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6093/978-88-6719-361-5

Keywords:

Afghanistan, Coins, Archaeology, Numismatics, Central Asia, Indo-Iranian borderlands, Kushans, Turk Shahis, Huns, Hindu Shahis, Ghaznavids, Ghurids, India, Timurids

Synopsis

Publisher: UniorPress

Series: Series Maior

Pages: 398

Language: English

Abstract: The volume focuses on the study of the coins discovered in the region of Ghazni during the excavations carried out by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Afghanistan between 1956 and 1978 in the areas of the Buddhist complex of Tapa Sardar and the Islamic sites.It is an as yet unpublished corpus of excavated coins that have unfortunately been lost. However, thanks to archival documentation and the plaster casts made after the coins were found, it has been possible to resume and deepen the investigation in recent years.

Arranged and described in a catalogue, the 227 coins cover a wide chronological range and testify to the long history of the Ghazni region—from antiquity to the present day—which greatly enhances our understanding of the political and economic history of the region. The coins are presented in two sections: The first contains coins from the 2nd to 8th centuries, the second from the 9th to 20th centuries. Each section is accompanied by a detailed numismatic analysis and enriched by updated archaeological contributions on Tapa Sardar, the Ghaznavid Palace and the House of Lustreswares.

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Author Biographies

Michael Alram, Austrian Academy of Sciences

Michael Alram is Director Emeritus of the Coin Cabinet at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna and an associate member of the Numismatics Research Group of the Department of Classical Studies at the Austrian Archaeological Institute (Austrian Academy of Sciences). His research interests focus primarily on the monetary history of the Iranian world in pre-Islamic times.

Arturo Annucci, National Board of Historical Studies / Italian Institute of Numismatics

Arturo Annucci is a postdoctoral fellow at the National Board of Historical Studies and the Italian Institute of Numismatics. His research focuses especially on numismatics and the monetary history of the eastern Iranian world and the Indo-Iranian borderlands. He has collaborated or worked with institutions such as the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. He is active in international archaeological projects and missions, especially in Asia.