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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;medoraman, post: 1361758, member: 26302&quot;]Hmmm, not very accepted from my point of view. Ancient usually cuts off around 500 and the fall of Western Rome. It fell in 473, but Anastasius&#039; reformation of coinage around 490 is a good as many to delineate between &quot;Roman&quot; and &quot;Byzantine&quot;. Problem with cutoffs is they do not work across all cultures. </p><p><br /></p><p>For Europe, since it was so dominated by Roman Empire, 490 is a good date. For the middle east, I consider Sassanids to be ancient, so I consider ancient to end around 650, and Islamic dynasties to usher in the middle ages. For central Asia, I simply consider the same, Islamic conquests ushered in the middle ages. For China, somewhere around the Tang I consider middle ages until about the Ming.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the problem with these dates, they only work within a given culture, and were not universal. Compounding the problem is the fact many &quot;ancient&quot; collectors still collect medieval coins in their &quot;ancient&quot; collection. Byzantine coins being the prime examples. Byzantines might be a tougher case, but I have never heard of a Merovingian, Carolingian, Islamic, Ostrogothic, or similar coin being referred to as &quot;ancient&quot;. They are always medieval from what I have read.</p><p><br /></p><p>As an easier to remember idea, just think of antiquity as ending under German pressure in the west, and Islamic rise in the middle east, and at the end of the disharmony of multiple states put to an end by the Sui dynasty in China. All of these things happened within 150 years or so, and all three had profound, lasting consequences lasting 1000 year or more. Yeah, ok, maybe that is just easier for ME to remember. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Chris[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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