Trade between Minturnae and Hispania in the Late Republic (Part 2). The Mines and Societates of Southern Hispania

In the 2019 Numismatic Chronicle, two of us published a comparative isotopic analysis of the struck lead from Minturnae and the grandes plomos monetiformes of Ulterior Baetica. We showed that the Italians exploited the coastal mines at Cartagena-Mazzarón before those of the Sierra Morena. We also used epigraphic evidence to identify gentes present in both Minturnae and Hispania, and to show that Minturnae was one of the first cities to exploit the Spanish Silver/lead mines soon after the Second Punic War. In our new paper, we expand our horizon to a number of aspects of the mines of the Baetican interior, and the organisation and areas of influence of the large-scale anonymous societates that exploited them. We first briefly review current ideas about the status and nature of the mining societates of the interior. We then consider further the identification of C·SAM, whom we had identified as one of the signatories of a group of lead pieces struck in Minturnae, which were in all probability made by a societas involved in the Spanish lead trade. This leads to a proposed new reading of a text from Pliny regarding what we now show to be a societas Samiarianensis, with a probable link to Minturnae. Our main focus, however, is on assembling and considering the physical evidence for the operations of the mining societates of the interior, which includes objects marked with the names of societates, two large groups of coins, and lead seals, including one in the name of the city of Corduba. We aim to provide as complete a picture as possible, as a contribution to future research. We also review the relationship of the Italo-Baetican grandes plomos monetiformes to the mines.