The project ‘Tokens and their Cultural biography in Athens from the Classical Age to the End of Antiquity’
provides the first in depth analysis of Athenian tokens and the roles they played in the world’s first democracy.
Symbolon (σύμβολον), the Greek word for token derives from the verb symballein (συμβάλλειν),
which means ‘to bring closer’ and signifies an object that has to be brought closer to its counterpart in order to acquire its full significance.
Symbola are first mentioned in ancient Greek texts concerning narratives of hospitality and transaction, where they enabled procedures for concluding contracts, facilitated practices of authorization/admission and made possible procedures of identification.
In the fifth century BCE equality in the participation of the citizen body and therefore democracy was enabled by the means of symbola. In the allotment of offices tokens were the safe valve which made sure that participation was based on equality and safeguarded the proportional admittance to offices of the 'geographic population segments'. Ultimately, tokens are the tangible expression of the regulation of competition between 'few' and the 'many', 'mass' and 'elite', the 'privileged' and the 'less privileged', which is universally agreed as a key-element for understanding the phenomenon of Democracy in Athens.
Tokens played active role within the Athenian democracy and society enabling different forms of community and social relations. For our modern society the knowledge that the Athenian Democracy was made possible by the means of tokens proves particularly valuable. Through the mechanism of tokens, participation and relations were regulated and hierarchies negotiated and by analogy this knowledge can be transferred to the challenges with which the modern democracies are faced.
Overall objectives:
to publish a selection of the unpublished Athenian Tokens.
to reach a universally accepted typology for tokens.
to highlight how tokens, as material manifestations of particular institutions, contributed to the formation of civic and political identity in the city state of Athens.
to explore the roles played by tokens in ensuring legal and political equality.
to demonstrate how tokens represent a city-wide master network of expertise.
