Ancient ‘rising sun’ coins reveal far-reaching trade network
Archaeologists analyzing more than 200 pieces dating from the first millennium, they revealed that these silver pieces indicate extended economic ties in Southeast Asia at the time. A piece found in the current Bangladesh and one discovered around 1,000 miles in Vietnam was probably struck by the same person. The results are detailed in a study published on August 12 in the journal Antiquity.
From the second century AD, Chinese files indicate that government policies and commercial networks have facilitated extensive trade in the region. These roads have extended thousands of kilometers from the eastern Mediterranean and from northern Africa to China. Archaeological evidence supports these documents. The excavations throughout Southeast Asia have discovered Indian jewelry, Roman glassware and the ceramics of Persia, China and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.
Silver coins generally representing a rising sun on one side and an early symbol of Indian religious traditions called srivatsa on the other are often associated with these discoveries. Archaeologists have discovered these current southern Bangladesh pieces in Vietnam, an area that includes all of Southeast Asia in Indianized. Compared to Indian, Roman or Central Asian parts, these silver coins remain sub-studied.
“No other currency from the beginning-east of Southeast Asia presents a widespread distribution those which bear growing Sun / Srivatsa reasons,” said Andrew Harris, co-author and archaeologist of the study at the National University of Singapore, in a press release. “However, the parts have rarely been analyzed as a set of integrated artefactual data, researchers often associating them with specific cultural history groups aligned with the modern borders of the nation state.”
[ Related: Archeologists uncover hoard of gold coins linked to ancient mercenaries. ]
To fill this knowledge lake, the team collected 245 pieces of parts from all southeast Asia hosted in museums and studied the way they have linked within the framework of a wider economic and cultural network which is independent of modern borders. They found several links between coins throughout the region. This indicates that the savings in foreign currency and the political links that facilitated them have undergone enormous changes over time.
For example, the main side of a part of Bangladesh and another Vietnam would have been produced using the same die. The matrices are molds that use a blank metal disc to press the imprint of a design on both sides of a room. As they were probably produced with the same die, the parts may have been struck by the same individual or the same group despite their retirement at around 1,000 miles from each other.
“This offers convincing evidence of long distance circulation,” said Harris.
It also means that ancient currency as these silver coins played an instrumental role in the formation of trade and cultural connections in Southeast Asia. This reflects what happened in other ancient civilizations with currency savings, notably Rome, India, Central Asia and probably at the Viking era.
“The DIE study presented here has considerable implications to understand the trade networks of the start-East of Southeast Asia, providing an overview of ports and key establishments, evaluating more the role of weighted money in ancient trade and mapping the expansion and contraction of the Monnais de Currency in South-Rucus Asia, as well as the policies that struck them” and the National University of Singapore Statia Maria Deioo.
Studies like these could also prevent looting and preserve the important cultural heritage of the region in the face of conflicts such as the Civil War of Myanmar, which began in 2021. The pieces are often looted and marked in an illicit, ultimately melted or redemption in private collections. Research that uses matrices and other types of molds to identify the origin of original parts can help experts identify counterfeits and expose practices contrary to ethics.
“Die’s studies will help better trace the origin of Myanmar parts, making our understanding of the historical practices for the use of coins and strikes progress while helping to reduce the illegal facilitation of the antiquity collection in this region,” said Harris.
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