Dr Amelia Dowler

Profile

Dr Amelia Dowler became a Research Fellow of the ICS in 2023. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and in 2024-2025 she will be a Research Associate at the centre for the Study of Ancient Documents (CSAD), University of Oxford, completing work on the ERC funded project ‘CHANGE: the development of the monetary economy of ancient Anatolia circa 630 - 30 BC.’ Amelia’s work on the project started when she was Curator of Greek and Roman Provincial Coins at the British Museum (2007-2023), and she will complete a monograph on bronze coinage during her time as a Research Associate.

Amelia’s research centres on the coins of Hellenistic Asia Minor, especially the administration of mints and their output. Her doctoral thesis examined the production of the Hellenistic coins of Bithynia. She uses die studies, metrology, and metal analysis to assess production methods, volume, and circulation. She has also worked with and published papers on Aksumite coinage and excavation coins. For her exhibition work, Amelia has worked on wider subject areas, including as curator or co-curator of the British Museum exhibitions, The Cost of Living in Roman and Modern Britain, Coins and the Bible, and Playing with Money. She co-authored a book to accompany the exhibition Coins and the Bible, which won the Royal Numismatic Society Lhotka Memorial prize in 2013.

Amelia also works on the history of collections and historic collections management and was co-leader of the History of Collecting and Museums Research Group at the British Museum (2019-2023). She particularly focuses on collections of coins and small antiquities formed and/or dispersed during the 18th and 19th centuries. Amelia has published articles in The Numismatic Chronicle, Archaeometry, The Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society, and The Journal of the History of Collections.