Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eo
A thin gold disc embossed with the head of the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius and a garbled Latin legend, copied from an aureus of 152, was found in 1944 at Óc Eo, the port of Funan. Long cited as a Roman medallion, it is in fact a pendant imitating a Roman coin — evidence of the sea routes by which Roman coins, or at least their images, reached the Mekong Delta, most likely through southern India.
- Date
- between 152 and 600exact date unknown: an interval is given
- Place
- Óc Eotoday: Óc Eo, An Giang Province, Vietnam · Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Participants
- Funan
- Threads
- Southeast Asia and Oceania (1st–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Óc Eo medallion; Antoninus Pius medallion; Roman medallion from Oc Eo; Медальон Антонина Пия; Римский медальон из Ок Эо
The disc is 19 mm across, the size of a Roman gold aureus. A photograph of it was published in 1946, and George Coedès described it as a gold medallion of Antoninus Pius dated AD 152, the oldest of the objects from Óc Eo. As Brigitte Borell has argued (2008, 2014), it is not a coin: it is made of gold sheet only 0.3 mm thick, embossed so that the design stands out on the front and is sunk on the back, with a tab at the top, partly broken off, apparently for hanging it as a pendant. The laureate head and the words ANTONINVS AVG PIVS follow an aureus of 152, but, as Louis Malleret had already observed, the legend departs from that of the genuine coin: one N is mirror-inverted and the rest of it is garbled. The piece was kept in the Blanchard de la Brosse Museum in Saigon and has not been located since 1975.
When the pendant was made is unknown: the coin gives only the earliest possible date. In Borell’s view it was made no earlier than the second half of the 2nd century and probably somewhat later, perhaps in the 3rd century; in 2008 she had suggested the 4th–6th centuries. A second gold disc from Óc Eo, which Malleret attributed to Marcus Aurelius, copies, according to Borell, an aureus of Commodus of 192. Similar pendants have been found at U Thong and Khlong Thom in Thailand; a stone casting mould from Khlong Thom, made for a pendant copying a coin of Tiberius, shows that such pendants were also made locally. Borell sees them as an eastern extension of the southern Indian custom of wearing Roman coins and their imitations as pendants — a display of wealth and status, perhaps an amulet. The coins that served as models probably arrived through India, although direct visits by Roman traders cannot be ruled out: Chinese annals record “envoys” of Andun, king of Da Qin, who reached the Han court in 166 from beyond the frontier of Rinan, in central Vietnam.
Connections
Part of
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700 · Southeast Asia and Oceania
Related events
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250 · South Asiawearing Roman coins as pendants was a southern Indian custom; the model coins probably came through India
- Ptolemy’s Geographyc. 150 · Middle East and EgyptÓc Eo is one proposed site of Ptolemy’s Cattigara — a hypothesis
- Envoys from Da Qin (Rome) at the Han court166 · East Asiaboth reflect the sea route from the Roman world to China through Southeast Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Division of the Roman Empire17 January 395
- End of Roman rule in Britain383–410
- Crossing of the Rhine31 December 406
- Sack of Rome by the Visigoths24–27 August 410
- Edict of MilanFebruary 313
+ 20 events
Eastern Europe
- Vinitharius’ war with the Antes of Bozbetween 375 and 380
- The Huns conquer the Alans and the Greuthungic. 370 – 376
- Chernyakhov culturebetween 200 and 250 – between 400 and 430
- Kyiv culturec. 200 – between 400 and 430
- The Goths settle in Oiumc. 180 – c. 230
+ 7 events
Balkans and Anatolia
- Battle of Adrianople9 August 378
- Gothic War (376–382)376 – 3 October 382
- Edict of Thessalonica27 February 380
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330
- First Council of Nicaeabetween May and June 325 – between July and August 325
+ 8 events
Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Vologases IV147–191
- Roman–Parthian War of 161–166161–166
- Ptolemy’s Geographyc. 150
- Ptolemy’s Almagestc. 150
Africa
- Vandal conquest of Roman AfricaMay 429 – 442
- Vandalic WarJune 533 – March 534
- Tertullian’s Apologeticus197
- Scillitan Martyrs17 July 180
- Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass)150s … 180s
+ 1 event
Central and Northern Asia
- Tanshihuai’s Xianbei confederationc. 156 – 181
- The Rabatak inscription of Kanishkabetween 132 and 150
South Asia
- The Muziris papyrus: a loan for a cargo from Indiabetween 140 and 160
- Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman Ic. 150
- Reign of Kanishka, the height of the Kushan Empirec. 127 – c. 150
- Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir (tradition)between 127 and 150 (?)
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250
East Asia
- Yellow Turban RebellionMarch 184 – between December 184 and January 185
- Lokaksema translates the first Mahayana sutras into Chinese179
- Partisan Prohibitions: purges of scholar-officials166–184
- Envoys from Da Qin (Rome) at the Han court166
North America
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
Latin America
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
- Preclassic Maya collapse: El Mirador is abandonedc. 100 – c. 250
- La Mojarra Stela 1: an Epi-Olmec text dated 156156
- Rise of Teotihuacanc. 1 – c. 250
- Monte Albán II: the Zapotec state expandsc. 100 BC – c. 200
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Óc Eo
- Wikipedia (English): Funan
- Wikipedia (vi): Óc Eo
- Wikipedia (Russian): Бапном
- Borell B. The Power of Images – Coin Portraits of Roman Emperors on Jewellery Pendants in Early Southeast Asia // Zeitschrift für Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen. — 2014. — Bd. 6. — S. 7–43.
- Borell B. Some Western Imports Assigned to the Oc Eo Period Reconsidered // From Homo erectus to the Living Traditions: Choice of Papers from the 11th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Bougon, 2006 / Ed. J.-P. Pautreau et al. — Chiang Mai, 2008. — P. 167–174.
- Coedès G. The Indianized States of Southeast Asia / Ed. W. F. Vella; transl. S. B. Cowing. — Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1968. — P. 17.
- Malleret L. L’Archéologie du delta du Mékong. T. 3: La culture du Fou-nan. — Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1962. — P. 115–116.