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from the search-for-roman-vending-machine-begins dept.
The eyes of a visiting archaeologist lit up when he was shown the 10 tiny, rusty discs that had sat unnoticed in storage for two and a half years at a dig on a southern Japan island.
He had been to archaeological sites in Italy and Egypt, and recognized the "little round things" as old coins, including a few likely dating to the Roman Empire.
"I was so excited I almost forgot what I was there for, and the coins were all we talked about," said Toshio Tsukamoto of the Gangoji Institute for Research of Cultural Property in Nara, an ancient Japanese capital near Kyoto.
The discovery, announced last month, is baffling. How did the coins, some dating to the third or fourth century, wind up half a world away in a medieval Japanese castle on the island of Okinawa? Experts suspect they may have arrived centuries later via China or Southeast Asia, not as currency but as decoration or treasure.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday October 19 2016, @09:07PM
Ancient Rome may have sent ambassadors to China as early as the first century,
There is no reason to postulate something so structured as an embassy.
People were free to wander in those days, and seeking trade goods, they would travel great distances without any official government tie sanctions at all. Some would be killed or captured, others would talk and trade their way across region after regions. Many might have had military training. And lots of slaves escaped roman control. None of these travelers would necessarily be documented in any way. Few would want to be documented.
There is no reason to expect these coins traveled all that distance in the same hands.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.