Was coinage in ancient India invented independently or acquired from the Persian Empire by diffusion?\u00a0 The Persians adopted the concept of coinage from the Lydians and Greeks in western Asia and it is argued that punch-marked silver bars were circulated in the satrapy of Gandhara after the Persian conquest for use as coins and were later copied and diffused into northern India. \u00a0The Gandharan punch-marked bars, however, differ from die-struck coins in the Persian Empire based on the Ionian model. \u00a0Why were different coins circulated in Gandhara?\u00a0 Is it possible that punch-marked silver coins already existed in the region and the Persian authorities issued their bars because their Indian subjects would find them familiar? \u00a0The paucity of archaeological evidence from controlled excavations and hoards makes it difficult to test this hypothesis and speculation based on visual similarities and unprovenienced finds can easily lead to circular reasoning.<\/p>\n
The concept of a coin as a small piece of metal marked by an authority guaranteeing its weight and purity is, properly speaking, a meme.\u00a0 Once invented, a meme spreads widely, especially if it is a simple one.\u00a0 Archaeologists call this spreading diffusion and there are two relevant types here, cultural and stimulus diffusion, both requiring the movement of concepts and techniques but not movements of people or direct contact between cultures.\u00a0 Diffusion is tricky to study archaeologically because it can be confused with independent invention.\u00a0 Memes may be invented independently and coins in different cultures may appear similar but the similarities may be superficial.\u00a0 The similar appearances of the coins may result from the operation of Alexander Goldenweisser\u2019s Principle of Limited Possibilities which holds that there are only so many ways that something can be made and thus similar outcomes will invariably result in convergent forms.\u00a0 The similarities are due to the materials used and the purpose of the artifact: a coin must be small, of standardized weight, made from a material that is both rare and resistant to decay, and marked in some way that is recognizable as authorized currency.\u00a0 These requirements will result in convergent solutions such as using copper, silver, gold, and stamping the metal pieces with marks of some kind.\u00a0 Throughout western Asia unmarked metal, particularly silver, circulated as currency as early as the fourth millennium BC if not long before. \u00a0The use of silver as a medium of exchange and store of value was part of interaction spheres that involved trade in lapis lazuli, turquoise, gems, shells, spices, wood, pottery, glass, slaves and much else by land and sea. Theoretically, the coin meme was independently invented more than once as the need for a currency was felt and convergence led to similar forms.<\/p>\n
We are familiar with simultaneous discoveries and independent inventions, for example the discovery by Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin of the principle of natural selection in biological evolution in the 1850s.\u00a0 In that case, however, both men lived in the same society and read the same literature and it is unsurprising that they reached similar conclusions.\u00a0 Bronze metallurgy based on a copper-tin alloy was invented at least twice on two continents and at different times: once by the Tiwanaku in Andean South America and again among the Early Bronze Age cultures of SW Asia.\u00a0 Bronze metallurgy was an independent solution to serve similar needs.\u00a0 Such examples suggest that the coin meme may have arisen independently in different parts of Asia.\u00a0 It is a relatively simple concept and cultural convergence is easy to imagine.\u00a0 This point can be illustrated with an artifact like a garden spade.\u00a0 Since the beginning of agriculture a tool with a long handle and an attached cutting edge has been needed for tilling fields and spades have been invented and diffused multiple times.\u00a0 The spade is found today in almost every culture in the world and if you look in garden-tool catalogues you will see that there are many different shapes, designs, and manufacturing techniques for spades.\u00a0 Independent invention is the most parsimonious explanation for this variety because the concept (meme) of the spade is simple and the sequences of manufacture leading to different forms are learned behaviors specific to each culture.<\/p>\n
Archaeologists have developed a method to distinguish between diffusion and independent invention. \u00a0The method involves the examination of artifacts for evidence of their manufacture to determine whether they were made in the same way as in another culture (implying diffusion) or made in a culturally specific manner (implying independent invention). \u00a0In my archaeological specialty of lithic analysis (the study of flaked stone tools) the specific form of this method is called cha\u00eene op\u00e9ratoire<\/em> and consists of the identification of the sequence of individual steps and mental concepts that can be deduced from the characteristics of the artifact being studied. \u00a0We compare different types of stone tools, for example, as they progressed from the extraction of raw materials to the acquisition of their final form necessary for use. An example might be the iconic Palaeolithic stone handaxe from Africa which is a large ovate core tool that has been flaked into a shape with two sharp cutting edges converging to a distal point.\u00a0 Handaxes were used for one and a half million years\u00a0 throughout Africa and some parts of Europe and Asia.\u00a0 Handaxes in Africa and India, however, may appear to be similar, but when analyzed by the cha\u00eene op\u00e9ratoire<\/em> we may find (this is a hypothetical example just to make the point) that they were made following completely different sequences of manufacturing steps that were presumably learned by toolmakers in each culture.<\/p>\n The cha\u00eene op\u00e9ratoire<\/em> works well for determining if similar stone tool technologies in different cultures are due to diffusion.\u00a0 Can it be applied to the question of the origins of Indian coinage?\u00a0 Below I propose 13 steps for the production of coins in the two cultures, Persia and India, based on my own observation of the coins as archaeological artifacts analogous to stone tools. \u00a0Based on the resulting sequences of manufacturing steps, the culturally-learned concepts behind these steps appear to be different.\u00a0 Viewed from the perspective of archaeological artifact analysis, I conclude that the Persian and Indian coinages were independently invented.\u00a0 Confirming evidence would require the discovery of Indian punch-marked coins in controlled archaeological excavations or in datable hoards that predate the Persian presence in Gandhara in 515 BC. \u00a0If coins are found in secure contexts dating to before ca. 600 BC, independent invention would become the preferred hypothesis.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Persian<\/strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Indian<\/strong><\/p>\n Metal purified\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Metal not purified<\/p>\n Metal refined (depletion etc.) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Metal unrefined<\/p>\n Hot dump or cut bar flans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sheets of cold-hammered metal flans<\/p>\n Obverse\/reverse images\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Imagery on one face only<\/p>\n Striking with two intaglio dies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Positive punches, usually 3 or more<\/p>\n Weight predetermined for flan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Flan clipped to adjust weight<\/p>\n Filed or polished flan edges\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Clipped edges of flans<\/p>\n Representational animal imagery\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Abstract imagery<\/p>\n Humans portrayed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No humans portrayed<\/p>\n Metal hot when struck\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Metal cold when punched<\/p>\n Irregular to discoidal flans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Irregular to square flans<\/p>\n Inscriptions\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No inscriptions<\/p>\n Monograms as control marks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No monograms or control marks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Was coinage in ancient India invented independently or acquired from the Persian Empire by diffusion?\u00a0 The Persians adopted the concept of coinage from the Lydians and Greeks in western Asia and it is argued that punch-marked silver bars were circulated in the satrapy of Gandhara after the Persian conquest for use as coins and were … Continue reading “Independent Invention of Coinage in India?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8088,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8088"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions\/138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/runnels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}