Francis Albarède, ERC Advanced grant 2017

You can never be too old to benefit from a European Community grant: on the eve of his 70th birthday, Francis Albarède, Professor Emeritus at the ENS de Lyon, has just obtained an ERC Advanced grant for a research project that he is passionate about and has worked on for several years. A topic that will be of interest to many people as it includes geochemistry, history, economics and geography. The SILVER project will enable him to study the composition of silver coins from the Ancient times (Greek and Roman) until 250 A.D., thanks to the very latest technology used on a daily basis by geochemists. The study will research the origin of coinage and the link between economic development in addition to the circulation of money and cult objects. "The large statues in solid silver in temples had a religious purpose, for sure; but it was also a great way to store wealth" stresses the geochemist who continues: "The SILVER project is relevant to our modern economy as it reflects a situation that is now familiar to us. All the money extracted from the major producing provinces (Persia, then the Aegean Sea and the south of Spain) gradually went to Arabia, India and Africa, thus ensuring the successive ruin of empires built on this single precious metal ". At the time, money was the basis of the current economy: it allows us to pay salaries and make payments, as well as ordinary transactions.