Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period Coins from the Beirut Central District (5th Century B.C. - 5th Century A.D.)

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Lebanese Civil War, thousands of coins were collected from the excavations in the Beirut Central District (BCD). Professor Kevin Butcher (Warwick University, England; previously American University of Beirut) and Professor Ziad Sawaya (Lebanese University) were the first numismatists to study and publish a substantial number of coins from important sites in Beirut. However, other equally important sites remain unstudied and a significant number of coins still require processing and eventual publication. Dr. Jack Nurpetlian (American University of Beirut) is currently working on a good portion of the remaining material (approximately 4,000 coins), and an additional 2,000 coins of the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman periods are presented in this thesis.

The significance and impact of this thesis is twofold: a) to identify, classify and analyze new unpublished material and b) to add to, modify and possibly disprove some of the findings by the above mentioned numismatists. Consequently, this study will present an analysis of the new material to update the previously published material. Accordingly, a broader understanding of the economic history of ancient Beirut from the 5th c. B.C. to the 5th c. A.D. will be reached.