Carmen Alfaro Asins

Carmen Alfaro Asins (8 May 1952 – 9 June 2005) was a Spanish archaeologist, numismatist and curator. She was head curator of the Numismatics Department at the National Archaeological Museum in Spain, where her research focused on Phoenician-Punic coinage. She was awarded the President's Medal and the Javier Conde Garriga Prize by the Spanish Numismatic Association in 1994, and the Xavier Calicó Prize by the Spanish Association of Professional Numismatists in 2003. The proceedings of the XIII International Numismatic Congress were dedicated to her.

Biography Born in Madrid on 8 May 1952, Alfaro obtained her degree in Prehistory and Archaeology in 1977 from the Autonomous University of Madrid. She was awarded her PhD from the same institution in 1983 for a thesis entitled The Coins of Gadir/Gades. In 1984 she joined the Numismatics Section of the National Archaeological Museum as a curator.

When Alfaro took up the leadership of the Numismatics Department, it had been to some extent dormant since the Second World War. She focused on sharing the collections widely, both with academic researchers through publications and through exhibitions to showcase the collections to the public. A prime example of this is the XIII International Numismatic Congress, which was held in Madrid from 15 to 19 September 2003; she also prepared the Congress Proceedings, which she did not live to see published.

As a researcher, she focused her attention on numismatics in antiquity, especially on Phoenician-Punic coinage.

Alfaro's most significant contributions to numismatics involved resolving the longstanding question of the provenance of certain Punic coins.

The similarity of the different place-names over time also contributed to her finding. This allowed Alfaro to identify the mint of Tagilit Further, Alfaro demonstrated that coins from the mints of Tagilit and Baria featured iconography that could be interpreted as the goddess Isis. Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum España. Vol. I, Hispania: Ciudades Feno-púnicas. Parte 1: Gadir y Ebusus (1994)

Exhibitions Money, More Than Just Currency (Leganés, 1996) Treasures of the Numismatic Cabinet. The Hundred Best Pieces of the National Archaeological Museum's Monetary Collection (Madrid, 1999) Exotic Money. A New Collection of the National Archaeological Museum (Madrid, 2001) This Is Money: From the Drachma to the Euro (La Coruña, 2001)

Publications