Posted on 09/28/2016 8:40:35 AM PDT by Theoria
Japanese archaeologists said Wednesday they have for the first time unearthed ancient Roman coins at the ruins of an old castle.
The discovery of 10 bronze and copper coins -- the oldest dating from about 300-400 AD -- in southern Okinawa caught researchers by surprise.
It was the first time Roman Empire coins have been discovered in Japan, thousands of kilometres from where they were likely minted.
"At first I thought they were one cent coins dropped by US soldiers," archaeologist Hiroki Miyagi told AFP.
"But after washing them in water I realised they were much older. I was really shocked."
The sub-tropical island chain hosts a cluster of US military bases and thousands of troops.
A team of researchers have been excavating Katsuren castle, which is a UNESCO world heritage site, since 2013.
An X-ray analysis of the dime-sized coins showed some were embossed with Roman letters and possibly the image of Emperor Constantine I and a soldier holding a spear.
Several others dated from a later period -- the 17th century Ottoman empire.
Researchers were left scratching their heads about how the coins ended up at the castle in faraway Okinawa, which was built sometime in late 13th or early 14th century and abandoned about 200 years later.
It was once the residence of a feudal lord, whose wealth was linked to regional trade but he was not known to have had business ties with Europe.
"East Asian merchants in the 14 and 15th centuries mainly used Chinese currency, a round coin with a square hole in the middle, so it is unlikely that the Western coins were used as a means of currency," said Miyagi, who also teaches at Okinawa International University.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Leaving open the possibility that the Romans had a mint in the Ryukyu Islands?
Finding earlier coins than expected being found in a site doesn’t mean much. They might have been left there centuries after they were minted.
Maybe the coins were used to buy Chinese silk and then got from China to Okinawa.
Japaneze Reverse Engineering
“Researchers were left scratching their heads about how the coins ended up at the castle in faraway Okinawa,”
Silk remnants were found in Roman graves in Britian.
It isnt like the two places are on different planets.
It’s likely that the coins were just used as payment along a chain of buyers and sellers until they reached there.
Being made from real precious metals, they still had value no matter where they were used even if they came from some weird place that the final holder had never heard of.
Cool find. I don’t know how many travellers are recorded between the Far East and Rome; there was one well known Chinese visitor in, iirc, the first century, but I don’t think I’ve heard of others. Most would presumably have been merchants and would not have left a trace. And then there’s the likelihood that the coins were simply in a bag of mixed currency that made its way across Asia. They may have ended up misplaced and ultimately buried in the castle precisely because they were not easily spent locally,
In those days you could assess the value of a coin by weighing it. That facilitated trade, because they were using genuine money.
join the army.....see the world
Yeah....right
Roman coins in a Japanese castle......
Most 4th century Roman coins weren’t made from precious metals (with the exception of the gold used to pay the army). The article says these were copper and bronze. Smaller and thiner than a dime. The Romans did “wash” them in silver to make them look more valuable than they really were. Kind of like when the silver disappeared from US coins in 1965.
I spent two years in Okinawa at Kadena AFB and I never knew there was a Castle there.I was also drunk for two years,so maybe that was the problem
...so, when someone says that the Yakuza is the Mafia, BELIEVE THEM. When they make you an offer you can’t refuse...take it!
That’s true! I remember reading that this was happening in the late western period.
I guess the more things change ...
No, but it's a long walk from London to Japan.
A tourist just back from visiting Italy accidentally drops coins on ground. Mystery solved.
Possible that they were buried there during the war by some collector?
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