coins | Notes on The Cultured Life

Gulbenkian: The Abukir Medals

Here are the eleven so-called Abukir medals now at the Gulbenkian Museum in Libson. They have many claims to extra-ordinarity: the story of their finding is a bit of an orientalist mystery (a la Conan-Doyle: dubiously colorful oriental gentlemen arrive in Paris with a crazy tale of a treasure dug up in the desert sand; on account of their being dubiously colorful and oriental, no one wants to buy their wares except… another Oriental gentleman), we have no clue as to their purpose, they are the only such set surviving (though others have once existed and we do have their fragments), they are technically incredibly attained, as any cursory comparison with the Renaissance medals in the same museum shows, despite the relatively low technological level of metallurgy in Roman times, their iconography is mysterious (it is not clear how all the images hang together), and some of the medals represent novel treatment (such as the fellow seen enface from somewhat below). Above all, they are very beautiful and (like everything else in this museum) very beautifully displayed.

The guides tell you blithely that they are ancient Olympic medals. Here lies a huge problem: there is no downside risk for bullshitting. Should there be a penalty for people in teaching positions spreading minsinformation? Nothing too severe: cutting off a pinky for something minor like this.