Distribution of Coins in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages in Southern Italy (AD 325–725). A Comparison Between Border and Inland Areas

This paper will focus on monetary distribution in southern Italy in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Thanks to the information about discoveries of coins collected in FLAME, it was possible to amass a large series of data deriving from excavations and single finds. In addition to the quantitative analysis of individual emissions and their areas of origin, a distributional analysis was added to identify interpretative frameworks of the presence of economic activity in the border areas and places of contact with other regions, to be compared with similar data from inland areas. We will also try to understand whether the decrease or increase in the volume of coins issued by a specific mint and their circulation in a given area is related to commercial upheavals in the Mediterranean after the fall of the Roman Empire.