Numismatics: Lessons From the Past
Dr. Sophia Kremydi describes the history of her discipline, Numismatics, the study or collection of coins, paper currency, and medals. She tells us all about its origin and its evolution from the private to the public collections we admire today; and explains that the reason we collect ancient coins is not only, out of curiosity, but because they’re an important primary source of historical information that we can’t find from other sources. She also compares the ancient economies to the modern ones (simpler and more complex, at the same time) and tells us about her own research on ancient Macedonian coins; her two books to be published soon; as well as the creation of online databases on the subject, which will be shared and updated by researchers all over the world. Interviewed by Yannis Rizopoulos for Tech Talks Central.
Sophia Kremydi
Senior Researcher at National Hellenic Research Foundation
Dr Sophia Kremydi is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Historical Studies of the National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF). She has studied ancient History and Archaeology at the Philosophical Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and has obtained her PhD from the same institution. She has specialised in Greek and Roman Numismatics and most of her work is related to the region of Northern Greece. Her research has focused on the study of coinage and institutions in ancient Macedonia as well on the publication of primary numismatic evidence, such as site finds and coin hoards. She is actually directing the collaborative Research Project “Inscriptions and coins: New documents from ancient Macedonia” which aims at the study of unpublished primary material.
Specialties:
Researchers’ Night is held for one night in several hundred cities all over Europe and beyond. The purpose of is to convey to the general public the key ideas that Research is a necessary ingredient for progress, the Researchers are an integral part of the community and their profession is both fun, challenging, interesting and worth pursuing. On September 25th 2015 Researcher's Night will be held at the Hellenic Cosmos venue, in Athens. Tech Talks Central interviewed 20 Scientists & Researchers from 5 research centres that are presenting their work during Researchers' Night.