Coin of Constantine VII c. 914 - 921

Curator: Looking at this coin, I'm struck by how immediate its sense of history is. It's so worn, almost fragile. Editor: Indeed. This is a Coin of Constantine VII, currently held at the Harvard Art Museums. What speaks to you through its symbols? Curator: The cross, of course, is visually dominant. Its stylized form anchors it to Byzantine artistic conventions, a powerful visual identifier of the era's dominant ideology. Editor: And the text, nearly illegible, but still resonant. What did daily life look like for those who held power? What systems of exploitation and control did these symbols represent? Curator: These symbols were also a way to wield soft power, creating a unified symbolic language. Editor: These objects offer a tangible connection to the past, even while those pasts may trouble us. Curator: Precisely. This coin invites us to grapple with a complex inheritance.