ASPECTE METODOLOGICE PRIVIND DESCOPERIRILE MONETARE DIN AŞEZĂRILE ROMANE
Methodological issues concerning the monetary finds in Roman settlements

Summary/Abstract: The paper's subject is the list of coins revealed by an archaeological site and only a small proportion of the questions and solutions that some experts have proposed to interpret it. I decided to focus my attention on two particular cases. It is about the methods used by J. P. Casey and R. Reece. The subject studied by both of them is one apparently common: the sites located in the province of Britannia. Also, the premise of the two specialists’ researches is similar: no list of coin finds on a site has any numismatic value per se. It should only be understood in relation to other similar lists and in a permanent rapport to a general background of the sites. But the processing and interpretation of the same data is done in a distinct manner starting from the fundamental forms of reasoning (induction/deduction) to the methods and instruments applied through which they materialize. A universal method that can be applied with maximum results to any site from the Roman period, in any area, remains a pium desiderium. Probably the latter technique, suggested by R. Reece – that of Cumulative percentage curves, shares the profile of ‘expected method’, but it must be validated by repeated testing. The fact that he managed the approximation of the average value of coin loss from the Roman world, however relative this figure would be, is an important step in this direction. The principles on which any methodological attempt in this regard will be based remain immutable: the list of coin finds of a site should be interpreted only by comparison with similar lists, and only against the general monetary background to which it belongs.

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