For archaeologists and museum professionals, the last decade will probably be known as the “cultural property period,” a time in which the ethics of buying, selling, and even owning antiquities has been called into question.
For many institutions, including those who have scrupulously followed international law in the acquisition of antiquities, heightened awareness about cultural property protocol has led to a greater transparency – some museums and universities, the best solution to such problems is to provide the general public with access to their rich collection. Here at the eCool Compound, we consider this to be a very good thing indeed.
And so, we were both excited and impressed when we discovered Macquarie University’s Coins of Julius Caesar website. Artfully crafted by the Australian Centre for Ancient Numismatic Studies, the site showcases part of an impressive collection of ancient coins acquired by Dr W. L. and Mrs J. Gale and bequeathed to the university.
This is not just your everyday catalog, however, with lists of facts in such a manner so as to be only accessible to classics geeks. Instead, the scholars at Macquarie have gotten a bit creative and designed a beautiful website that will teach almost anyone about the life of Julius Caesar.
Because coins were political tools in the late Roman Republic, and because Caesar and those around him artfully made use of the Empire’s loose change as a way of promoting their ambitions and interests, much of Caesar’s biography can be traced through a study of coins.
We leave it to you to click on over and take a look at this interesting site. The images of the coins are beautiful (if you’ve never looked closely at Roman coins, this is the place to do it) and the site’s clear design makes it easy to follow Caesar’s life from his early career to his assassination and beyond.
