Designing personalised itineraries for Europe's cultural routes

Abstract

Throughout history it has been necessary for mankind to travel: for a better life, for pilgrimage, for religious or political freedom, for trade, for communication between nations or for conquest. Each culture as it developed found in coinage the most powerful means to facilitate and control economic activities within and outside its territories. And as peoples from different cultures travelled and mixed with others, so did their coins. Byzantine, Islamic, and western medieval European coins circulated and changed hands along routes of migration, trade, war, pilgrimage and diplomacy; the routes set out from Constantinople/Istanbul to the Adriatic in the western Balkans; from the Black Sea to the eastern and western Mediterranean; from Britain, Scandinavia to Russia. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Birmingham houses one of the finest collections of medieval Christian and Islamic coins worldwide. This paper presents select case studies based on the numismatic resources of the Barber Institute to show the role of coins as a means to track and discuss inter-cultural dialogue that took place along Europe's cultural routes. The combination of storylines based on coins, related artefacts and sites, and the implementation of modern technologies can further social engagement and alert existing and new audiences of the potential of cultural heritage as a major connecting thread of Europe's diverse cultural communities. © 2014 Springer International Publishing.