ISAW Alumna Irene Soto Marin to Lead New Research Project at University of Basel

This article by Marc LeBlanc first appeared in ISAW Newsletter 24, Spring 2019.

The Department of Ancient History at the University of Basel, Switzerland, recently announced the launch of a new project, entitled “Nomisma: Measuring Monetary Integration in the Late Roman Empire,” which is being led by ISAW alumna Irene Soto Marín ’18 and funded by University of Basel’s Forschungsfonds Nachwuchsforschende. With Late Roman Egypt as its focus, the project will examine 4th and 5th century CE currency patterns in connection with coins found in archaeological contexts throughout the Empire in order to measure the level of monetary integration after the reforms of the emperor Diocletian, who abolished Egypt’s closed currency system in 297/298 CE. The project will culminate in a monograph analyzing the level of monetary unity and integration in the Late Roman Empire during the 4th and 5th century CE, as well as an open-source online database. In the near future. The project will hire four research assistants.