COINS, CROESUS AND EMPIRE, WITH THE DIRECTOR OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF SARDIS, AT GOLDSMITH’S HALL

We are pleased to be invited again to the Sardis Biennial Lecture, with Professor Nicolas Cahill, Director of the Sardis Expedition. Located about 70km inland from the Aegean Sea, Sardis was the capital of the Lydian Empire, the seat of King Croesus, and the place where coinage was first invented and used. This lecture will share some of the exciting recent findings at the site regarding money, its enablement of the dominance of the region by the Lydians, and the story of coinage at Sardis – with some relevance to the present day. We have been invited by the expedition sponsors, along with the Harvard Club UK.

The venue, Goldsmiths Hall, is particularly fitting for a talk on the capital of King Croesus, famous for his vast wealth in gold: https://www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk/company/goldsmiths-hall/. The lecture will be held in the Drawing Room, and will be followed by a cocktail in the Exhibition Room.  

Further details of the Sardis Archaeological Excavation (www.sardisexpedition.org ):

During the 7th and 6th centuries BC, Lydian strength was based in large part on their control of the gold mines of western Anatolia, their mastery of accurately and predictably controlling the composition of gold, and the related invention of coinage. These skills enabled them to become the most powerful empire in the region. A thousand years later, the lower city of Sardis was all but abandoned and the city turned from a metropolis into a fortified citadel. The Roman coins of this era reveal important changes in circulation that accompanied the broad transformations of late antiquity. Excavations at Sardis have been carried out by Harvard and Cornell Universities since 1958. It is directed by Professor Cahill, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.