Negative muons reveal the economic chaos of Rome's AD 68/9 Civil Wars

Bibliographic Data

ID5416138
AuthorsG A Green, George Green (0000-0001-8181-8012, Museum of the History of Science), K Ishida (0000-0002-3458-8506, RIKEN Nishina Center), Kelly Domoney (0000-0002-4803-9436, Museum of the History of Science), Toluwalase Agoro (0000-0002-9817-4361, Aberystwyth University), A D Hillier (0000-0002-2391-8581, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)
Year2022
Volume14
Issue9
Publication date2022-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueArchaeological and Anthropological Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1866-9557 • E-ISSN: 1866-9565
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s12520-022-01631-1
OpenAlexW4289939895
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited26

During the AD 68/9 Civil Wars, Galba, Otho, Vitellius and then Vespasian fought for - and gained - control of the Roman Empire. Our textual sources suggest that this was a period of serious and sustained disruption. However, existing analyses of gold coinages produced in AD 68/9 show only a minor reduction in the purity of the gold coinage. Using X-ray fluorescence, we identify a number of heavily debased gold coins issued during the AD 68/9 Civil Wars, and many slightly debased coins issued in their immediate aftermath. We then confirm the interior composition of these coins totally non-destructively using muonic X-ray emission spectroscopy, thus eliminating hypothetical problems of 'surface enrichment' or compositional differences between 'surface' and 'core'. Here we show that heavily debased Civil War gold coinages were indeed produced; that copper was used to debase Roman gold coins during this time, c. 185 years earlier than first shown; and that slightly debased gold coins were regularly issued in the years immediately after the Civil Wars. The metallurgical evidence from the gold coinage now allows us to show that the AD 68/9 Civil Wars caused significant and sustained disruption to the Roman economic system. More broadly, we have shown that muonic X-ray emission spectroscopy is a powerful tool for generating important archaeological conclusions from high-value cultural heritage objects that simply cannot be destructively analysed, but need to have their interior compositions sampled

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Roman Empire · Spanish Civil War · Chemistry · Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis · History · Nuclear Physics and Applications · X-ray Spectroscopy and Fluorescence Analysis · Geology

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