The involvement of the coins of Istros, Callatis and Tomis in the local Dobrudjan environement during the classic and hellenistic periods (in Chora and ex-Chora)
The involvement of the coins of Istros, Callatis and Tomis in the local Dobrudjan environement during the classic and hellenistic periods (in Chora and ex-Chora)

Summary/Abstract: Monetary discoveries can have a significant contribution to the study of the links between the Greek world and the barbarian populations. If we refer to their characteristics, significance and role. Starting from the numismatic evidence, the penetration routes of the Greek coins issued by the colonies on the western coast of the Black Sea (Istros, Callatis and Tomis) into the local environments are identified. Thus, the situations identified in the chora and in other spaces not far from the area of ​​economic influence are subjected to specialist analysis. In most cases found in the Dobrudja area (delimited to the north and west by the Danube and to the east by the Black Sea), the penetration routes of the Pontic coins are specific to the economic-commercial flow (for the early period), most often accompanying goods. They are brought by the merchants of the producing centers or who manifest themselves as intermediaries. They are also accompanied by coins minted in other centers of the Greek world (from the West-Pontic, Inner-Pontic areas, etc.). Another, but non-commercial, way is the random one, related to the presence of low-value pieces transported by people who under different conditions traveled to and from these polises. From the same non-commercial category, one can also list (for the late period) the way of gifts or payment of military services assumed by the military aristocracy specific to the local population. The functions that generally define currency in the Greek period are not fully fulfilled in the analyzed area. Very rarely, in the West-Pontic territory, the coins subject to analysis are also documented in the archaeological context of religious practices of the local population. Regardless of whether they are commercial or non-commercial, the ways of penetration, the significance and the role played in the local Dobrudja environment by the West-Pontic Greek coins attest to the presence of clear links between the Greek and non-Greek populations, within the daily realities specific to the society of the centuries analyzed.

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