Trajan\'s Column V Adamklissi

[Crispvs]

"She said that nothing is more spurious than coin dates."

Certainly, dating a context exactly on the basis of coins is tricky, due to the possibility that coins might remain in circulation for a considerable time, meaning that sites dated by coin evidence can only really be assigned a terminus post quem date. However, the coins themselves are much easier to date as they served as visual news of great events as well as currency. Consequently, different issues tend to have different images on them, meaning that the minting dates of the coins can be identified fairly securely. Thus, the appearance of Trajan's column on a coin provides a date by which the column had been erected.
I am not a numismatist (although my Roman history lecturer at university, Dr C.T.H.R. Ehrhardt, to whom I owe much of my knowledge and zeal, definately was) so I am not the best person to talk about coin evidence. Flavius Crispus (aka Dave Michaels) is a coin dealer and knows the subject inside out. This is really the moment for him to jump in and comment.
Flavius Crispe, if you are there, give us your opinion.

Crispvs

[Tarbicus]

There is a more recent example of labourers being able to amply and proficiently sculpt, which demonstrates that soldiers could well have been responsible for the sculptures we're discussing. If anyone ever finds themselves near Krakow in Poland you must get to Katowice and see the Wieliczka salt mine.



It's full of sculptures made by the miners in their spare time underground, and the full sized cathedral they carved, complete with frescoes, etc, is awe-inspiring.

[url:3w26wox8]http://www.webshots.com/search?query=Wieliczka+mine&start=40[/url]
[url:3w26wox8]http://community.webshots.com/album/79126418ZRwWdm[/url]
[url:3w26wox8]http://community.webshots.com/album/84144377LpzbTF[/url]

My point being that miners, although highly skilled, are not usually associated with being highly skilled artists. Therefore, why not soldiers who often did similar hard labour tasks and would also have been untrained in 'art'?

But, I think the reliefs and sculptures being discussed are being looked at too much in isolation, probably because the subjects are military. As pointed out, someone must also have created the grave stelae, etc, for civilians. The point I'm trying to make about the salt miners and Roman soldiers could just as easily be applied to the provincial locals.