About

Professor Kevin Butcher graduated from the University of Bristol in 1983, and subsequently went on to study for a Ph.D at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, in the field of Roman numismatics. His first book, Roman Provincial Coins, was published in 1988; in the same year he joined the staff of the Department of Coins and Medals at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge. After a stint as a Leverhulme Research Fellow he moved to Beirut, Lebanon, to take up a position as Associate Professor in the Department of History and Archaeology at the American University of Beirut. Professor Kevin Butcher was closely involved in the international rescue excavations of the Beirut Central District. In 2002 he became a full Professor, and joined Warwick in 2007, after a term as a Getty Villa Visiting Scholar in Los Angeles, California.

Research interests

Prof. Butcher’s research interests include Greek and Roman coinage, particularly the civic and provincial coinages of the Roman empire; and the Hellenistic and Roman Near East, particularly coastal Syria and Lebanon. In 2019 he was awarded an AHRC Advanced Grant for the project Rome and the Coinages of the Mediterranean (RACOM), investigating the metallurgy of Roman imperial and provincial silver coinages from Septimius Severus to Valerian and Gallienus, which will run for five years from September 2019. He is also interested in the application of social theories in archaeology, particularly with regard to material culture and the ancient economy. He has worked on several excavation projects in the Mediterranean and published the coin finds from several major ancient sites, including Nicopolis ad Istrum in Bulgaria and Beirut in Lebanon.

Teaching and supervision

Undergraduate:

• Roman Near EastLink opens in a new window
• Roman Culture and SocietyLink opens in a new window
• Encounters with Material Culture
• Slaves, Gold and Fish Sauce: The Roman EconomyLink opens in a new window

Postgraduate:

• Taught MA in Ancient Visual and Material Culture (Numismatics)Link opens in a new window

Prof. Butcher is keen to supervise postgraduate students interested in undertaking research in the fields of Greek and Roman numismatics and on topics connected with the Hellenistic and Roman Near East.

He has produced a series of videos (vodcastsLink opens in a new window) on numismatics and history, which consider topics such as the portrait of Cleopatra, the identity of the so-called 'tribute penny' of the bible, and the date of the birth of Jesus.

Current administrative roles

• Exams
• Dissertations
• Academic Integrity

Selected publications

• 'Small change of the Edge of Empire: The coin finds from Kifrin', Mesopotamia 55 (2021): 51-70.
• 'Eastern imitations and the beginning of the Antiochene SC coinage', in R. Ciolek and R Chowaniec (eds.), Aleksanderia. Studies on Items, Ideas and History Dedicated to Professor Aleksander Bursche on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday, Wiesbaden, 2021: 45-49.
• 'An allegory of glass making or depiction of a water source? Notes on a coin type of Tyre', in F. Stroobants and C. Lauwers (eds.), Detur dignissimo. Studies in Honour of Johan van Heesch, Brussels, 2020: 349-356.
• Debasement. Manipulation of Coin Standards in Pre-Modern Monetary Systems (edited volume), Oxford, 2020.
• 'CRS Antioch 60 and the coinage of Parthian Mesopotamia', in C. Schinzel (ed.), Benedictum sit ... Festschrift für Benedikt Zäch zum 60. Geburtstag, Winterthur, 2019: 45-8.
• 'Heliopolis: Coins, Temples and Sight Lines', in J.A. Baird and Z. Kamash (eds.), Remembering Roman Syria, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 62.1 (2019): 106-115.
• 'The Grand Scheme of things: Modelling coin production and coin distribution in the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries AD', (with B. Woytek), in B. Woytek (ed.), Infrastructure and Distribution in Ancient Economies, Vienna, 2018: 253-281.
• 'Le monnayage des Assyriens', Bulletin de la Société Française de Numismatique 73.10 (2018): 456-461.
• ‘Monetary policy in the Roman Empire’, in R. J. van der Spek and B. van Leeuwen (eds.), Money, Currency and Crisis. In Search of Trust, 2000 BC to AD 2000, London, 2018: 165-185.
• ‘Arbitrary standards? On the so-called four-and-a-half assaria coins of Tomis, and value marks on coins of Moesia and Thrace’, in D. Boteva (ed.) Studies in Honour of Prof. Dimitar Draganov, Sofia, 2017: 273-290.
• ‘Some Flavian coins of Laodicea ad mare in Syria’ in L. Bricault et al. (eds.) Rome et les provinces. Monnayage et histoire. Mélanges offerts à Michel Amandry, Bordeaux, 2017: 189-193.
• Regional History and the Coin Finds from Assur (with S. Heidemann), Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 148, Wiesbaden, 2017.
• 'Architectural Process and the Emergent Temple', in R. Raja (ed.), Contextualizing the Sacred in the Hellenistic and Roman Near East. Religious Identities in Local, Regional and Imperial Settings, Turnhout, 2017, 73-81.
• 'The reforms of Trajan and the end of the pre-Neronian denarius' (with M. Ponting), Annali dell'Istituto Italiano di Numismatica 61 (2015): 21-42.
• 'Coins from Sippar', Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia 47 (2015): 182-189.
• 'The camel drachms of Trajan in context: old problems and a new overstrike' (with B. E. Woytek), Numismatic Chronicle 175 (2015): 117-136.
• ‘Debasement and the decline of Rome’, in R. Bland and D Calomino (eds), Studies in Ancient Coinage in Honour of Andrew Burnett, London, 2015: 181-205.
• The Metallurgy of Roman Silver Coinage. From the Reform of Nero to the Reform of Trajan, Cambridge, 2014.
• 'Continuity and change in Lebanese temples', in A. Gardner, E. Herring and K. Lomas (eds.), Creating Ethnicities and Identities in the Roman World, BICS Supplement 120 (2013): 195-211.
• 'Coins and Hoards’Link opens in a new window, in W. Aylward (ed.), Excavations at Zeugma Conducted by Oxford Archaeology, Volume III, Los Altos: Packard Humanities Institute, 2013: 1-92.
• 'The beginning of the end? The denarius in the second century'Link opens in a new window, Numismatic Chronicle 172 (2012): 63-83.
• 'Numerical letters on Syrian coins: officina or sequence marks?'Link opens in a new window, Revue Belge de Numismatique 158 (2012): 123-144.
• 'The silver coinage of Roman Arabia'Link opens in a new window, in D.M. Jacobson, N. Kokkinos (eds.), Judaea and Rome in Coins, 65 BCE - 135 CE, London 2012: 203-213.
• 'Syria in the Roman Period, 64 BC - AD 260'Link opens in a new window, in W.E. Metcalf (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage, Oxford / New York 2012: 468-484.
• 'Miscellaneous Provincials'Link opens in a new window, Numismatic Chronicle 171 (2011): 75-79.
• 'The denarius in the first century' Link opens in a new window(with M. Ponting), in N. Holmes (ed.), Proceedings of the XIV International Numismatic Congress, Glasgow 2009, Glasgow, 2011: 557-568.
• Coinage in Roman Syria. Northern Syria, 64 BC – AD 253, London, Royal Numismatic Society Special Publication 34, 2004.
• Roman Syria and the Near East, London, British Museum Press, and Los Angeles, Getty Museum Press, 2003.
• Small Change in Ancient Beirut. The Coin Finds from BEY 006 and BEY 045: Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Periods. Archaeology of the Beirut Souks, AUB and ACRE Excavations in Beirut, 1994-1996, 1 Berytus XLV-XLVI (2001-2002), Beirut, American University of Beirut, 2003.

Qualifications

• BA (University of Bristol)
• PhD (University College London)

Office hours:

Tuesdays, 13.00-14.00

Thursdays, 11.00-12.00