Leaving open the possibility that the Romans had a mint in the Ryukyu Islands?
Finding earlier coins than expected being found in a site doesn’t mean much. They might have been left there centuries after they were minted.
Japaneze Reverse Engineering
“Researchers were left scratching their heads about how the coins ended up at the castle in faraway Okinawa,”
Silk remnants were found in Roman graves in Britian.
It isnt like the two places are on different planets.
Cool find. I don’t know how many travellers are recorded between the Far East and Rome; there was one well known Chinese visitor in, iirc, the first century, but I don’t think I’ve heard of others. Most would presumably have been merchants and would not have left a trace. And then there’s the likelihood that the coins were simply in a bag of mixed currency that made its way across Asia. They may have ended up misplaced and ultimately buried in the castle precisely because they were not easily spent locally,
join the army.....see the world
I spent two years in Okinawa at Kadena AFB and I never knew there was a Castle there.I was also drunk for two years,so maybe that was the problem
...so, when someone says that the Yakuza is the Mafia, BELIEVE THEM. When they make you an offer you can’t refuse...take it!
A tourist just back from visiting Italy accidentally drops coins on ground. Mystery solved.
Possible that they were buried there during the war by some collector?
Constantine the Great died in 337 A.D. They were only off by 35 years.
The Romans traded ambassadors with China so its not a stretch that their coins made it to Japan.
The Roman coins were minted in the 4th century and the Japanese castle was built in the 14th century. The Roman coins were already 1,000 years old when they were deposited at the site.