Iconografía sagrada fenicio-púnica en las monedas de Hispania siglos III al I a. C.

Abstract

Religion was a main component of the Phoenician colonizing process, since temples exercised great influence in commercial transactions, an important aspect within this society. As a corollary, coinage, although maintaining a clear economic basis, also maintained a religious basis, which reinforced its legality. In Hispania, the underlying religious basis is well reflected in the diversecoinage issues of Hispanic mints, during the Phoenician-punic and republican Roman periods. Coinage mintage in this period, due to the great number of mints present, developed an extensive sacred iconography, both in relation to indigenous divinities, as well as the presence, after the Roman conquest, of Roman divinities and/or symbols, developed through a cultural syncretism of existing cults.