Program on the kick-off meeting of ERC SILVER held on January 21-24, 2018 in Lyon.

Attending : Francis Albarède (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France; PI of SILVER), Mariano Ayarzaguena Sanz (University of Castilla-La Mancha in Ciudad Real, Spain), Sandrine Baron (CNRS, University of Toulouse, France), Janne Blichert-Toft (CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France), Gil Davis (Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia) Pier Luigi Debernardi (Physicist, CNR in Torino, Italy), François De Callatay (Université Libre and Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels, Belgium, and the Ecole Pratiques des Hautes Etudes in Paris, France), Haim Gitler (Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel), Sabine Klein (Deutsches Bergbau Museum, Bochum, Germany), Nima Nezafati (Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran), Philippe Telouk (CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France), Xingyu Pan (University of Lyon, France).

The group got together the evening before the start of the meeting (Sunday evening January 21) for ice-breaker dinner in downtown Lyon. The first day of the meeting was dedicated to individual presentations so that the participants could reach a mutual understanding on their interests in SILVER, their individual expertise, and their expectations in such a way that the scientific program of the proposal can be achieved with maximum success during its five-year duration. The participants appreciated the range and complementary of skills represented by the group as a whole and the diversity of countries of origin of the group’s members, which, spanning Iberia to Persia, will allow for the most important silver-producing regions of the Mediterranean Antiquity to be accessed and understood by experts.

Program of individual oral presentations (Monday 22 January, 2018)

• 9:30 AM: The introduction by Francis Albarède reviewed the goals of the proposal and the different work packages.

• 9:45 AM: Francis Albarède: Introducing SILVER: How silver became money.
• 10:15 AM: Mariano Ayarzaguena Sanz: The silver ore in Hispania.
• 10:45 AM: Sandrine Baron: The significance of ore mining districts and associated metallurgical sites.
• 11:15 AM: Coffee break.
• 11:45 AM: Janne Blichert-Toft: Applying the hard-rock, high-temperature isotope geochemist’s toolkit to SILVER.
• 12:15 PM: Gil Davis: The transformational power of money.
• 12:45 PM: Break for lunch at the “Salle de Direction”, ENS de Lyon.
• 2:30 PM: Salle des Commissions. Individual presentations continue.
• 2:30 PM: Pier Luigi Debernardi: Searching for the Roman mints in the II Punic War theaters.
• 3:00 PM: François de Callataÿ: Key historical issues about silver flows in the Greek world and beyond; an attempt of general frame.
• 3:30 PM: Haim Gitler: The transition to a monetary economy in Palestine during the Late Persian Period: Silver bullion sources and/or remelting of Athenian Owls.
• 4:00 PM: Sabine Klein: Tracking silver from ores: Galena versus polymetallic or paragenetic ore minerals.
• 4:30 PM: Nima Nezafati: Investigation of the role of Iranian argentiferous ore deposits in ancient silver production.
• 5:00 PM: Xingyu (Remi) Pan: Coin image analysis for professional coin grading.
• 5:30-6:00 PM: Wrap up by Francis Albarède.

Round table discussions (Tuesday 23 January, 2018)