Dr. Ruth Pliego
April 2020
Research Project: Patria et rex: Visigoth Territorial Organization Through its Coins
As an official document issued by the authority, coinage was one of the most concise symbolic manifestations of the Visigothic monarchy. Since the times of Leovigild, the Visigothic coinage can be described as an eminently royal production. In absolutely all the Visigothic tremissis the name of the reigning monarch and his title, Rex, appear on the obverses. Almost parallel to the typological normalization in which these elements were fixed, another component was included in the monetary message on the reverse side of the coins: the mint. The inclusion of the mint on coinage was not constant throughout the period. While up until the middle of the 7th century up to almost a hundred towns included their name on the coins, after the reign of Chindaswinth these were drastically reduced, in what has been interpreted as a total reorganization of the Visigoth administration. The introduction of the name of the towns in the Visigothic coins could be related to the territorial adhesions that the monarchy was acquiring as it extended its power over the Iberian Peninsula. The main objective of this project is to contribute to a better understanding of the changing territorial organization of the Visigoths through the study of its monetary productions. It will be intend to put the basis of a new line of research in which we rethink about the territorial administration of the Visigothic kingdom, its organization and evolution using the information provided by the coins in conjunction with archaeological and literary sources, taking the peculiarity of the mints of the province of Gallaecia as a case study.
Profile
Dr. Ruth Pliego holds a doctorate in History from the University of Seville (Spain) and she is member of a research group belonging to the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology. As a specialist in Visigoth Numismatics she has published an extensive and comprehensive corpus entitled La moneda visigoda (2 vols., Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 2009). Her principal interest is the transitional period between late antiquity and the early medieval period in the broadest sense, including its economic, cultural, and political aspects. Projects of the University of Seville, University of Malaga and Casa de Velázquez, has been the framework in which her investigation has been developed and she has benefited from research stays at centres such as Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Princeton University and Università degli Studi di Padova, being research fellow of the Paris Institut d’Études Avancées during 2017-2018. Currently Ruth participates in the Tomares Hoard Project, a collaborative project developed by the University of Seville and the Archaeological Museum of Seville and will soon incorporate to the Archaeology Centre of the University of Lisbon (UNIARQ).
CV
Selected Publications
Pliego, Ruth (2020a), “The Visigothic Currency: Novelties and Data for its Examination”, in: Eleonora Dell’Elicine, Céline Martin, eds., Framing Power in the Visigothic Society: Discourses, Devices and Artifacts, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 181-214.
Ibrahim, Tawfiq / Pliego, Ruth (2020b), “The Coins of Al-Andalus: Evolution and Historical Context”, in: Maribel Fierro, ed., The Routledge Handbook of Muslim Iberia (The Routledge Companion to Iberian Studies), London: Routledge.
Pliego, Ruth (2020c), “Rethinking the Minimi of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands in Late Antiquity”, Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 13.
Pliego, Ruth (2018a), “A Visigothic Hoard from the Reign of Tulga (639-42)”, The Numismatic Chronicle 178, 315-321, pl. 32-33.
Pliego, Ruth (2018b), “Kings’ Names on Visigothic Bronze Coins: A New Minimus from Ispali in the Name of Leovigild”, American Journal of Numismatics 30, 245-258.
Pliego, Ruth (2018c), “La moneda de época sueva: Un destello fugaz en la historia monetaria de Gallaecia”, in: Jorge López Quiroga, Artemio Martínez Tejera, eds., Tempore Sueborum. El tiempo de los Suevos en la Gallaecia (411-585). El primer reino medieval de Occidente, Ourense: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Diputación Provincial de Ourense, 145-156.
Pliego, Ruth / Ibrahim, Tawfiq (2018d), “La Ciudad a través de las emisiones monetarias y sigilográficas de la Peninsula Iberica: de la Antigüedad Tardía a la conquista omeya”, in: Sabine Panzram, Laurent Callegarin, eds., Entre civitas y madīna. El mundo de las ciudades en la Península Ibérica y en el norte de África (siglos IV‑IX), Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 135-151.
Pliego, Ruth (2009), La Moneda Visigoda (2 vols.), Sevilla: Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla.
