COZA/COSANO/COZANO: Socio-Economic Interactions among Middle Republican Cities in Central Italy

Thursday, February 12, 2026
5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Allendale Campus
Alumni, Faculty, Staff, Students

Join us for discussion of innovative new approaches to the study of ancient coins! Dr. Melissa Ludke will discuss her numismatic work at early Roman Cosa and beyond. Dr. Ludke serves as Numismatic Specialist at the the Cosa (Terme) Excavations. She has published several papers on numismatics and is working on a book about Cosa during the Middle Republic.

The Latin colony of Cosa has long experienced archaeological investigation and, more recently, re-analysis, but Cosa's earliest history remains elusive. However, new numismatic evidence from Cosa is raising interesting questions. Who was minting these coins, why do they appear at certain regional centers and nowhere else, and do these small objects represent larger processes of network connectivity? Dr. Ludke addresses these questions and more, using a geospatial network-based approach through QGIS, and a Least-Cost Path analysis to track potential socio-economic interactions between Cosa and contemporaneous regional centers.

Location Information

Kirkhof 2270

Download parking map for the Allendale Campus

Contact Information

Melissa Morison ([email protected])

Hosting Department, Organization, or Business

Archaeological Society of GVSU, Archaeological Institute of America

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This event was added to the calendar by Melissa Morison (morisonm@gvsu.edu) on Monday, February 9, 2026 and was last updated on Tuesday, February 10, 2026 at 9:28 a.m.