FLAME

Framing the Late Antique and Medieval Economy

FLAME (Framing the Late Antique and Medieval Economy) is a digital numismatics project based at Princeton University’s Firestone Library, in its Numismatics Collection. The goal is to visualize as many coin finds (hoards, single finds, and excavation finds) from Late Antiquity and the Medieval period (~325–750 CE) as possible, essentially from anywhere in the world. And that means a surprising range of places: we might expect to find Byzantine coins in Rome, but what about Afghanistan, India, China, or even Japan? All are represented in FLAME, meaning that ancient coins circulated widely—almost globally—implying remarkably distant connections.

The aim is to fill in some basic details about the “Antique-Medieval Transition”, which was a movement from one sort of economic and social order to another (usually framed through the “Fall of Rome”), a great shift in values, political structures, and labor relations that affected the region we term western Afro-Eurasia. This has been attempted by scholars in the past. The best known recent work on the topic, for example, are Michael McCormick’s Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce AD 300–900 (2001) and Chris Wickham’s Framing the Early Middle Ages (2014). Neither makes systematic use of coins, however. In fact, FLAME is a response to a footnote of Wickham’s, where he lays out his case for not doing so (Wickham 2014, 702 n.17). The biggest challenge, we think, is that the information has never sufficiently been brought together. FLAME was conceived to do just that.

Our main means of doing so is to provide a dynamic map to users, which is able to filter and visualize data on coin finds. The data is stored on a SQL database and visualized with ESRI’s ArcGIS. There are numerous mediating layers, including significant Python and Javascript code to facilitate the final product. Those interested can view our GitHub repository, which includes some but not all project code.

My Role

Between 2020 and 2023, I was the Database Coordinator for FLAME, a position that combined Product Manager and Project Manager, with significant responsibilities for technical writing, external communication, and fund raising. In all, it was a really successful tenure, with FLAME vastly expanding its data holdings, institutional partnerships, and scholarly contributions.