ANCIENT COINAGE IN CENTRAL, EASTERN AND NORTHERN EUROPE PRIOR TO THE MIDDLE AGES - AN OVERVIEW / PIENIĄDZ ANTYCZNY NA TERENIE EUROPY ŚRODKOWEJ, WSCHODNIEJ I PÓŁNOCNEJ PRZED OKRESEM ŚREDNIOWIECZA - ZARYS PROBLEMU
ANCIENT COINAGE IN CENTRAL, EASTERN AND NORTHERN EUROPE PRIOR TO THE MIDDLE AGES - AN OVERVIEW

Author(s): Arkadiusz Dymowski
Subject(s): Anthropology, Archaeology, Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: ancient coins; coins finds; Roman period; Migration period; Barbaricum
Summary/Abstract: The chapter is focused on the subject of the pre-medieval influx and uses of ancient (i.e. Greek, Celtic and Roman) coins in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe an understanding of which is crucial for the study of their origin and uses in the Middle Ages and the modern period. The oldest coins found in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe, i.e. in the territory of European Barbaricum, are Greek coins, but definitely the largest category of ancient coins found there are Roman Imperial denarii of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Given the sheer number of denarii brought in, and the size of the territory across which they spread, this was a phenomenon on a scale never observed before and thus in our study area, too. The presence in the finds of issues of other denominations (in gold, silver, or in copper and its alloys) and of other dates (till the 6th century AD) is much lower, but one cannot exclude a possibility of discovery of almost any kind of ancient coins in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe.

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