The Coin Evidence as a Source for the History of Classe (Ravenna): Excavations of the Harbour Area (2001-2005) and the Basilica of San Severo (2006-2010)

The research in this book is the result of work begun in the summer of 2003 when the author became involved with the research team investigating the harbour area of Classe, in a joint project of the Department of History, Culture, Civilisation (then Department of Archaeology), the Superintendence of Archaeological Heritage of Emilia Romagna with the Fondazione RavennAntica. The author carried out the cleaning and conservation of metal objects from the excavation, particularly the coins. Part of this work was realised in a postgraduate dissertation that discussed the evidence of the 2002-2003 excavation campaigns in the harbour area of Classe. The archaeological research of the harbour carried out between 2001 and 2005 brought to light a total of 2564 coins, most of which are illegible and in alloys of copper, documenting a chronological range between the 2nd century BC and the 8th century AD. The investigation of the Basilica of San Severo started in the summer of 2006 and is still ongoing (2014), however, the coins included in this work are those retrieved between 2006 and 2010 only. In this case, the excavations brought to light a total of 224 coins, in alloys of silver, copper and billon, with a large variety of emissions that witness the settlement of the site between the 1st century BC and the 14th century AD, with a few, sporadic modern and contemporary finds of the 20th century. The archaeological contexts studied represent a focal point for the reconstruction of the history of the territory and cover a wide chronological span that is useful for defining the characteristics of the settlement (housing, productive areas etc.) and its evolution.