Roman Denarii 2013:2
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Hoards and Stray Finds in Sweden Hoards Gotland, Hogrän par., Djupbrunns Stockholm Numismatic Institute www.archaeology.su.se/numismatiska Lennart Lind Other publications by Stockholm Numismatic Institute - NFG On our website you will find various publications. Most of them are available as PDF for down- loading. Read more on our website: Editorial note Table of Contents www.archaeology.su.se/english/stockholm-numismatic-institute/publications-nfg Hoards and Stray Finds in Sweden ........1 Roman Denarii, Hoards and Stray Finds in Sweden is published by Stockholm Synopsis ..............................................3 Numismatic Institute (Gunnar Ekström chair CNS - Coins from the Viking-Age found Myntstudier is a numismatic periodical in in numismatics and monetary history) at Gotland, Hogrän par., Djupbrunns ........4 in Sweden is a project under The Royal Swedish published on the Internet since 2003 Stockholm University. Hoards are defined as Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities. by NFG. two or more coins or one coin found together List of Coins .........................................5 The acronym of the project is CNS based A total of more than 80 seminar papers with other objects. on the title of the publication. (CORPUS have been written. They cover the period Each issue will cover one or more finds. In Barbarous Imitations of Denarii ...........11 NUMMORUM SAECULORUM IX-XI QUI c. 800-1800. The files (mainly in Swedish) are the PDF-version the photos can be magnified IN SUECIA REPERTI SUNT, CATALOGUE available for downloading at: Plates ................................................12 c. ten times. OF COINS FROM THE VIKING AGE www.archaeology.su.se/numismatiska- The series is edited by Kenneth Jonsson FOUND IN SWEDEN). So far c. 259,000 forskningsgruppen/nfg-s-publikationer/ Fig. 2. Mints in the Roman Empire uppsatser and the layout is made by Ylva Holmberg represented on denarii in the Swedish coins have been found. Nine printed volumes Jansson. finds. .................................................23 were published 1975-2010. They list finds On our website you will also find informa- It is only distributed in PDF-format on the with more than 57,000 coins. The aim now is tion about our research as well as maps show- Internet which enables everybody to print it Roman Emperors and Empresses to publish all remaining finds on the Internet. ing mints and coin finds in Sweden. themselves. represented on Denarii .......................24 After downloading the file it can be printed using Adobe Reader which is available for free Fig. 3. Swedish provinces. ..................25 at: www.adobe.com Fig. 4. Parishes on Gotland. ................26 Old numbers in the series can be down- www.archaeology. loaded at the website: Fig. 5. Finds with Roman denarii in su.se/english/stockholm-numismatic-institute/ Sweden. ............................................28 publications-nfg. The rate of publication depends on when a Fig. 6. Finds with Roman denarii on new manuscript is ready. Gotland. ............................................29 © Stockholm Numismatic Institute & the Literature ...........................................31 author. Other Abbreviations ...........................31 Text: Lennart Lind ISSN 2001-6743 Photos: Kenneth Jonsson unless otherwise noted Covers: No. 18, Trajan. RIC 173f. See also p. 6. Maps: Ylva Holmberg Jansson & Kenneth Jonsson GF C – Gotlands Fornsal, inventory series C. Roman Denarii Inv. – Inventory. Hoards and Stray Finds in Sweden KMK – Kungliga Myntkabinettet/Royal Coin Cabinet, Stockholm SHM – Historiska museet/Swedish History Museum, Stockholm. Background All denarii found in Sweden are worn, those Roman Imperial denarii of the fi rst two or on Gotland, however, to a larger degree than three centuries of our era may be regarded as those from the rest of the country, sometimes the fi rst coins in Sweden. On the territory of making the attribution diffi cult or impossible. present-day Sweden some 8,000 pieces have Th is is as true of extant coins found in the nine- been unearthed in modern times, most of teenth century as of those found more recently. Roman Denarii, Hoards and Stray Finds in Sweden them, c. 7,000, on Gotland, the island in the Th e diff erences in the degree of wear be- Baltic. Apart from one or two stray fi nds with tween the denarii found on Gotland and those 2013:1, Gotland, Fröjel par., Mulde Republican coins, the earliest coins belong to from the rest of Sweden have long been known the reign of Nero (54-68). Denarii later than to and discussed by scholars. Sture Bolin in 2013:2, Gotland, Hogrän par., Djupbrunns AD 200 are rare, and no such coin later than 1926 suggested that the coins on Gotland had Severus Alexander (222-235) or, perhaps, been worn through circulation on the island Gordian III (238-244) can be connected with (Bolin 1926, pp. 274-278), but the composition other denarii, i.e. of an earlier date. With the of the large hoards, of which Bolin had insuf- exception of late Roman and early Byzantine fi cient knowledge, makes such a hypothesis solidi of the fi fth and sixth centuries, ancient unlikely (see Lind 1988 pp. 65-85 and 1993). coins of other origins or denominations are Most probably the Gotlandic denarii were rare or non-existent. heavily worn already when they arrived at the island. Th e diff erence may be chronological, i.e. COMMENTATIONES DE NUMMIS SAECULORUM IX - XI Find context the coins which ended up on Gotland may have IN SUECIA REPERTIS. NOVA SERIES. Denarii have sometimes been found in the done so at a later date than those ending up in 1. K. Jonsson: The New Era. The Reformation of the Late course of archaeological excavations of pre- the rest of Sweden, and/or geographical, i.e. the Anglo-Saxon Coinage. 1987. historic settlements and graves, and, more coins found on Gotland may have had another 2. I. Hammarberg, B. Malmer, T. Zachrisson: Byzantine Coins Found recently, with the help of metal detectors. In origin on the European continent than those in Sweden. 1989. 4. B. Malmer, The Sigtuna Coinage c. 995-1005. 1989. contrast to what is the case in some other coun- from the rest of the country. 6. K. Jonsson, B. Malmer (ed.), Sigtuna Papers. Proceedings of the tries, however, the metal detector revolution To the genuine coins can be added a number Sigtuna Symposium on Viking-Age Coinage 1-4 June 1989. 1990. has not dramatically increased the number of of barbarous imitations, usually found together 7. G. Hatz, V. Hatz, U. Zwicker, N. Gale, Z. Gale: Otto-Adelheid- Pfennige. Untersuchungen zu Münzen des 10./11. Jahrhunderts. known coins in Sweden. Th e bulk of the coins with offi cial denarii. Th ey almost exclusively 1991. known and extant has been brought to light belong to Gotland, and constitute about one 9. B. Malmer: The Anglo-Scandinavian coinage c. 995-1020. 1997. casually, most often in the course of agricultural per cent of the total number of coins found 15. Kilger, Pfennigmärkte und Währungslandschaften. Monetarisierungen im sächsisch-slawischen Grenzland ca. 965- activities. Most of the coins available for study there. Th e largest hoard of Roman denarii 1120. 2000. today came to light before 1940. found in Sweden (and Scandinavia), Sindarve 16. G. Hatz unter Mitarbeit von V. Hatz, Die deutschen Münzen des on Gotland, originally 1,500 coins (1,488 ex- Fundes von Burge I, Ksp. Lummelunda, Gotland (tpq 1143). Ein Bericht zur ostfälischen Münzgeschichte. 2001. Degree of wear tant), has four or fi ve barbarous imitations. Denarii are rarely found with contemporary Die-links between barbarous imitations found Distributed by eddy.se ab; Order: [email protected] coins of other denominations but sometimes in Sweden and on the European continent have with late Roman and early Byzantine solidi. been demonstrated. 32 2013: 2 2013: 2 1 Collections Th e Roman Denarii in Europe Literature Most of the denarii available for study are Roman denarii in Sweden are found in the most today kept in the collections of the Kung- northerly region of Europe, but they are not, as Almgren, O. & Nerman, B. (1923): Die ältere Eisenzeit Gotlands. 2. Stockholm. Kungl. liga Mynt kabinettet in Stockholm and the is well known, the only such coins discovered Vitterhets Historie och Antivitets Akademien. Monografier, 4. Gotlands Muse um in Visby on Gotland. Th e to the north of the Roman Imperial frontiers. large number of coins still extant from early Denarii have been found outside the old Ro- Bolin, S. 1926: Fynden av romerska mynt i det fria Germanien. Studier i romersk och äldre germansk fi nds is due to conditions special to Sweden. man Limes in a broad, west-to-east belt, from historia. Lund. On the one hand the country has been spared the North Sea and the Rhine to the Donets Hauberg, P. (1894): “Skandinaviens Fund af Romersk Guld- og Sølvmynt før Aar 550”, Aarbøger for from wars for a very long time, since 1815, in Basin (and occasionally even further to the east nordisk oldkyndighet og historie 1894, pp. 325-376. fact; on the other hand there has been a strict and north-east). In what is today Poland, for enforcement from an early date of laws con- instance, a compass of land never part of the IK – Axboe, M., Düwel, K., Hauck, K. & von Padberg, L.: Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungs- cerning fi nds in the earth. Th e earliest hoard Roman Empire, the number of denarii found zeit: Ikonographischer Katalog (Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 24, 1-2) München 1985-1986. of denarii from which coins are still extant was may amount to 100,000 or more. Any expla- found in 1834, and denarius hoards unearthed nation as to the presence of denarii in Sweden Lind, L. 1981: Roman Denarii Found in Sweden. 2. Catalogue. Text. Stockholm. Stockholm Studies in the 1860s and 1870s are completely or almost must take those found on the European conti- in Classical Archaeology, 11:2.