Money isn’t everything: The cultural life of coins in the medieval burgh of Perth,Scotland

Abstract

Drawing on a summary catalogue of all the excavated coin finds and hoards from medieval Perth, the article explores the range of non-monetary, primarily amuletic, uses for coins, in a European context. This is not to question the monetary purpose of coins but to demonstrate their wider social functions, arising out of their malleable use as material culture by people. Coins then have a cultural or material biography.

Keywords

amulet burial coin cross money Perth Rood cult

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Barnard

(1916) The Casting Counter and the Counting Board. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Belting

(1994) Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Besley

(2005) A host of shining angels: Money on board the Mary Rose. In: Gardiner

Allen

(eds) Before the Mast: Life and Death Aboard the Mary Rose. Portsmouth: Mary Rose Trust, 250–263.

Bowler

Cox

Smith

(1995) Four excavations in Perth, 1979–84. Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot 125: 917–999.

Caldwell

(forthcoming) Excavations at Finlaggan, Islay.

Cox

(1996) Backland activities in medieval Perth: Excavations at Meal Vennel and Scott Street. Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot 126: 733–821.

Cox

(1998) Grave consequences: A consideration of the artefact evidence from four post-medieval graveyard excavations. Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal 4: 289–299.

De Certeau

(1984) The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

De Montaigne

(1987[1580]) The Complete Essays. London: Penguin.

10.

Domijan

(1983) Treasury of the Parish Church of Nin, Zadar. Croatia: Parish Church of Nin Treasury Museum.

11.

Gannon

(2008) A chip off the Rood. In: Jolly

Karkov

Keefer

(eds) Cross and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England: Studies in Honour of George Hardin Brown. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 153–171.

12.

Gilchrist

(2008) Magic for the dead? The archaeology of magic in later medieval burials. Medieval Archaeology 52: 119–160.

13.

Gosden

Marshall

(1999) The cultural biography of objects. World Archaeology 31(2): 169–178.

14.

Gullbekk

Gaspar

Risvaag

(eds) (2011) Forming medieval identities: Saints and sinners and the ritual use of money. Session and paper abstracts from the European Association of Archaeologists Abstracts 17th Annual Meeting, 14–18 September, Oslo, pp.162–164.

15.

Hadley

(2009) Burial, belief and identity in later Anglo-Saxon England. In: Gilchrist

Reynolds

(eds) Reflections: 50 Years of Medieval Archaeology 1957–2007. Leeds: Society for Medieval Archaeology (Monograph 30), 464–588.

16.

Hall

Goodall

I and A

Hall

Morris

(forthcoming) Perth High Street Archaeological Excavation 1975-1977 Fascicule 2: Ceramics, Metalwork, Religious and Wooden Objects. Perth: TAFAC.

17.

Hall

(2005) Burgh mentalities: A town-in-the country case study of Perth, Scotland. In: Giles

Dyer

(eds) Town and Country in the Middle Ages – Contrasts and Interconnections 1100–1500. Leeds: Society for Medieval Archaeology (Monograph 22), 211–228.

18.

Hall

(2007) Crossing the pilgrimage landscape: Some thoughts on a Holy Rood reliquary from the River Tay at Carpow, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. In: Blick

(ed.) Beyond Pilgrim Souvenirs and Secular Badges: Essays in Honour of Brian Spencer. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 75–91.

19.

Hall

(2010) Wo/men only? Marian devotion in medieval Perth. In: Boardman

Williamson

(eds) The Cult of Saints and the Virgin Mary in Medieval Scotland. Woodbridge: Boydell, 105–124.

20.

Hall

(2011) The cult of saints in medieval Perth: Everyday ritual and the materiality of belief. Journal of Material Culture 16(1): 80–104.

21.

Hall

(forthcoming) Three stones, one landscape and many stories: Cultural biography of the early medieval sculptures of Inchyra and St Madoes, Carse of Gowrie, Perthshire, Scotland. In: Dudley

Barnes

Binnie

Petrov

Walklate

(eds) Narrating Objects, Collecting Stories. London: Routledge.

22.

Hall

Owen

DDR

(1998) A Tristram and Iseult mirror case from Perth: Reflections on the production and consumption of romance culture. Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal 4: 150–165.

23.

Hamling

Richardson

(2010) Everyday Objects: Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture and its Meanings. Farnham: Ashgate.

24.

Hinton

(2005) Gold and Gilt, Pots and Pins: Possessions and People in Medieval Britain. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

25.

Holmes N. The Scottish Crux pellet coinage: A typological analysis (2008) British Numismatic Journal 78: 138–176.

26.

Holmes

Franklin

(2009) Coins. In: Lowe (ed.) Clothing for the Soul Divine: Burials at the Tomb of St. Ninian: Excavations at Whithorn Priory 1957–1967. Edinburgh: Historic Scotland (HS Excavation Report 3), 82–82.

27.

Jones

(1992) The Holy Wells of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.

28.

Kelleher

(forthcoming) Patterns of Monetisation and Coin Loss in England during the Middle Ages (12–16th Centuries). New Interpretations Made Possible by the Portable Antiquities Scheme. PhD thesis, University of Durham, UK.

29.

Koldeweij

(2006) Foi et Bonne: Fortune, Parure et Dévotion en Flandre Médiévale. Aarnhem: Terra.

30.

Latour

(2005) Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

31.

Law

Hassard

(1999) Actor Network Theory and After. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

32.

Leahy

(2006) Anglo-Saxon coin brooches. In: Cook

Williams

Archibald

(eds) Coinage and History in the North Sea World c AD 500–1250. Leiden: Brill, 267–285.

33.

Le Goff

(1990) Your Money or Your Life: Economy and Religion in the Middle Ages. New York: MIT Press.

34.

Lowe

(ed.) (2009) ‘Clothing for the Soul Divine’: Burials at the Tomb of St. Ninian, Excavations at Whithorn Priory 1957–1967. Edinburgh: Historic Scotland (HS Excavation Report 3).

35.

McClean

(c.1984) The English at Play in the Middle Ages. Berkshire: Kensal Press.

36.

Mackintosh-Smith

(ed.) (2002) The Travels of Ibn Battutah. London: Picador.

37.

Merrifield

(1987) The Archaeology of Ritual and Magic. London: BCA.

38.

Meskell

(2004) Object Worlds in Ancient Egypt: Material Biographies Past and Present. Oxford: Berg.

39.

Morris

(1982) Scottish Healing Wells. Sanday: Alethea Press.

40.

Nees

(2002) Early Medieval Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

41.

NSA (1844) The Statistical Account of Perthshire by the Ministers of the Respective Parishes. Edinburgh: Blackwood and Sons.

42.

O’Keefe

(2007) Archaeology and the Pan-European Romanesque. London: Duckworth.

43.

Peregrinations (2005) French silver coin embedded in keel of Newport ship. Peregrinations 2(1): 4–5. Available at: http://peregrinations.kenyon.edu/vol2-1.pdf.

44.

Poulík

(1975) Mikulčice: Capital of the lords of Greater Moravia. In: Bruce-Mitford

(ed.) Recent Archaeological Excavations in Europe. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1–31.

45.

Rattue

(1995) The Living Stream, Holy Wells in Historical Context. Woodbridge: Boydell Press.

46.

Reid

Lye

(1988) Elcho Nunnery. In: Perry

Reid

Lye

(eds) Pitmiddle Village and Elcho Nunnery Research and Excavation in Tayside. Perth: PSNS Archaeology and History Section, 49–84. Available at: http://www.psns.tsohost.co.uk/archeological/Pitmiddle%20Village%20and%20Elcho%20Nunnery.pdf.

47.

Risvaag

(2011) Odin’s Law in a Christian grave? Questions concerning a 12th century coin hoard – Abstract. European Association of Archaeologists Abstracts 17th Annual Meeting, 14–18 September, Oslo, Norway.

48.

Roberts

(2007) The human remains. In: Cox

(ed.) Excavations at Horse Cross, Perth. Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal 13: 112–206.

49.

Schechner

(2006) Performance Studies: An Introduction. London: Routledge.

50.

Smart

(forthcoming) Mr. Duncan s treasure from the site of the old Parliament House in Perth. In: Hall

Goodall

I and A

Hall

Morris

Perth High Street Archaeological Excavation 1975-1977 Fascicule 2: Ceramics, Metalwork, Religious and Wooden Objects. Perth: TAFAC.

51.

Sternholm

AMH

(2006) Past memories. Spatial patterning as ritualized remembrance. In: Andrén

Jennbert

Raudvere

(eds) Old Norse Religion in Long Term Perspectives. Origins, Changes and Interactions. An International Conference, Lund, Sweden, 3–7 June. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 34–45.

52.

Stevens

(1991) Charon’s obol and other coins in ancient funerary practice. Phoenix 45(3): 215–229.

53.

Stewart

(1926) Dunkeld: An Ancient City. Dunkeld: Norman Burns.

54.

Stewart

(1966) Some Scottish ceremonial coins. Proc. Soc. Antiq. Scot 98(1964–66): 254–275.

55.

Travaini

(2004) Saints and sinners: Coins in medieval Italian graves. Numismatic Chronicle 164: 159–181. Available at: http://www.kunstpedia.com/PDFArticles/Saints%20and%20Sinners%20Coins%20in%20Medieval%20Italian%20Graves.pdf (accessed 4 July 2011).

56.

Veeckman

(1997) Post-medieval mortuary practice in Antwerp (Belgium). In: De Boe

Verhaeghe

(eds) Death and Burial in Medieval Europe – Papers of the Medieval Europe Brugge 1997 Conference, Vol. 2, 71–75.

57.

Wheeler

(2011) A Re-examination of Medieval Material Culture: Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Rural and Urban Sites Reconsidered. PhD dissertation, Dept. of Archaeology, University of Reading, UK.

58.

Williams

(1922) The Velveteen Rabbit or How Toys Become Real. New York: Doubleday.

59.

Wilson

(2000) The Magical Universe. Everyday Ritual and Magic in Pre-Modern Europe. London: Hambledon.