63076_kaupang_bd2.qxd 29/07/08 9:53 Side 1 Means of Exchange Dealing with Silver in the Viking Age 63076_kaupang_r01.qxd 06/08/08 10:50 Side 199 Kaupang from Afar: 7 Aspects of the Interpretation of Dirham Finds in Northern and Eastern Europe between the Late 8th and Early 10th Centuries christoph kilger The settlement at Kaupang has proved to be uniquely rich in dirhams, quite on its own on the North Sea coast of Scandinavia. From stratigraphical evidence and comparative numismatic studies it has already been shown that dirhams were circulating in Kaupang in great quantity by the second half of the 9th centu- ry. These finds of individual coins differ from the evidence of hoards from Southern and Western Scan- dinavia, which on the whole appear only from the beginning of the 10th century. The coins found at Kaup- ang are in fact consistent with the dirhams found in Eastern Europe and around the Baltic of the 9th centu- ry. This chapter seeks to analyse and to explain the individual finds of dirhams at Kaupang within a wider geographical and chronological perspective, taking account of the hoard finds from Northern and Eastern Europe. This study shows that the use of dirhams as silver bullion differed as it developed regionally, specif- ically in respect of the conventions and procedures established within the networks that were responsible for the distribution of silver. Thus the evidence of the dirham hoards not only provides evidence of con- tacts, but testifies above all to the acceptance of dirham silver in the particular region. A regional analysis of finds, in which the inflow of dirhams is phased, is used to argue that the use of dirhams in Kaupang forms part of a longer-term sequence that began in the Southern Caucasus and East- ern Europe towards the end of the 8th century. The use of dirham silver gained a foothold in the Baltic area in the second quarter of the 9th century. In the course of the second half of the 9th century the use of dir- ham silver expanded to the West, to appear in a few coin hoards on the Continent and in Britain. It is fur- ther proposed that the significant upswing in the hoarding of dirhams after c. AD 860 – according to the termini post quos [t.p.q.’s] – reflects an increase in the inflow of silver from the East not hitherto recognized. The common notion that there was a silver crisis is challenged on methodological grounds. Interestingly, this increased supply does not appear in the form of dirham hoards in Southern and Western Scandinavia in this period in the same way as it does in the Baltic zone and Eastern Europe. Rather, it appears at sites such as Kaupang. As a result, Kaupang may be regarded as a local entrepôt at which dirham silver was used in a way that probably increased in tempo during the second half of the 9th century and then lasted to the 920s or early 930s at the latest. At Kaupang, dirham silver was handled in various ways, as weighed silver bullion in rela- tively small units or in the production of larger units such as ingots. In this way, Kaupang played a crucial role in the distribution of silver in such larger unit-forms beyond the settlement during this period. With the arrival of Samanid silver in Southern Scandinavia in the course of the second quarter of the 10th centu- ry, the role of Kaupang was undermined and the use of dirham silver as weighed silver bullion came to be practised outside of the trading site. At this juncture, we find the first hacksilver and dirham hoards appear- ing in Southern and Western Scandinavia. 7. kilger: kaupang from afar 199 63076_kaupang_r01.qxd 06/08/08 10:51 Side 200 N Figure 7.1 Archaeological sites in South-Western Scandi- Herten navia with a high number of dirham finds (yellow). Distrib- ution of dirham hoards in Southern Scandinavia (> 50 dirhams) and Western Scandinavia (> 5 dirhams), t.p.q. between c. 850 and 950 (red) (see notes 4–6). Map, Julie K. Øhre Askjem, Elise Naumann. Figure 7.2 Distribution of hoards containing Islamic coins in Europe and Eurasia. Map, Elise Naumann, based on Jansson 1988:570, fig. 2. Holtan Torgård which can be attributed to Viking-period hoards, graves or settlements (Khazaei 2001:63–5, tab. X). If Teisen we start from the find-situation we are faced with at Vela present, Kaupang accounts for about 15% of the total. Grimestad Kaupang As coins from a settlement context, the Kaupang dirhams have no parallel in Norway. In a wider geo- graphical perspective too, the settlement finds from Kaupang stand out as being of great significance. Hitherto, there is no other known find place along the North Sea coasts of Scandinavia that can be compared with this dirham-rich settlement on the outer edge of the Oslofjord. It is first the so-called central places further south such as Uppåkra in Skåne and Tissø on Hammelev Bräcke Sjælland that show any comparable concentration of Ramløse 1 Over Randlev I Sigerslevøster finds. At Hedeby too, the most important trading site Uppåkra Tissø of Southern Scandinavia, there is a larger number of Terslev Grisebjerggård Neble dirhams (Fig. 7.1).2 A comparison with the dirham hoards of West- Sønder Kirkeby ern and Southern Scandinavia provides another way Hedeby 050100 km of grasping the significance of Kaupang as a site where dirhams are found.3 Two of the three largest hoards in Norway of the Early Viking Period are 7.1 Introduction from the Oslofjord area, with Grimestad, Vestfold, The two campaigns of archaeological excavation in lying in the immediate vicinity of Kaupang.4 In all of the settlement area at Kaupang that were carried out the hoards, however, the number of coins is lower from 1956–74 and 1998–2003 produced 92 Islamic sil- than in the find-assemblages from settlement con- ver coins of the type known as dirhams. The dirham texts. Thus Kaupang also stands as the largest single was used as the official coin of payment in the mus- collection of dirhams yet known in Norway. Again, lim-governed Caliphate which in the Viking Period we have to look further south to find hoards that can extended from Spain in the west to what is now be compared with or even exceed the number of Afghanistan in the east. In addition to the dirhams, coins from Kaupang. Here, a number of massive there are two Roman bronze coins of the 4th century, hoards around the Kattegat come into view, most of a Merovingian gold tremissis struck at Dorestad in all on the island of Sjælland (Fig. 7.1).5 Some dirham the 7th century, two Byzantine bronze coins, five sil- hoards have also been found in Western Scandinavia, ver deniers/denars from Western Europe, and one but these are, as a rule, small compared with the Scandinavian coin struck in the 9th century. The dir- Southern Scandinavian hoards in the Oslofjord area, hams are thus the predominant group of coins at Skåne, and elsewhere in Denmark.6 Kaupang (Blackburn, this vol. Ch. 3.1, Tab. 3.1). We can be confident from the outset that the re- There is evidence of about 630 dirhams in Norway gional distribution of dirham finds we can see today 200 means of exchange · part ii 63076_kaupang_bd2.qxd 29/07/08 11:13 Side 201 0 200 400 km N Kaupang shows that Kaupang was an important site for the 1 Uppåkra, 224 ex. (von Heijne 2004:253 and 289); Tissø, 101 ex. exchange and use of dirham silver in the North Sea (pers. comm. Gert Rispling). zone during the Early Viking Period. This makes 2 A total of 75 dirhams has now been recorded. To the year 2002, Kaupang a unique object of analysis for the investiga- 38 specimens had been found (Wiechmann, in prep.). These tion of the use of dirhams in this period. The aim of probably include a small hoard from the Viking-age harbour this contribution is to use Kaupang as a basis for a area of nine cast dirham forgeries made of pewter (Steuer study of the significance of dirham silver in the ex- 2002:155–9). A recent metal-detector search conducted on the change relationships during the 9th century and the site has produced 37 further specimens (pers. comm. Volker early 10th in Northern and Eastern Europe. The goal Hillberg). is to place the distinctive features of the dirham evi- 3 The geographical terminology used in this chapter is explained dence we have at Kaupang and elsewhere in Southern in section 7.2. and Western Scandinavia within a larger geographi- 4 Grimestad, Vestfold, 77 ex. (t.p.q. 921/2); Teisen, Østre Aker, 63 cal and chronological framework. In order to pro- ex. (t.p.q. 932) (Khazaei 2001:102). The t.p.q. of Teisen has been duce answers, the regional development of the use of revised from 923 on the basis of a dirham issued in the name of dirham silver has to be examined. The work thus has Caliph al-Qahir billah (932–4) (pers. comm. H. Khazaei). to address a number of fundamental methodological 5 Dirham hoards with more than 50 coins, and t.p.q. c. 850–950 – questions relating to the analysis of dirham hoards. Swedish and Danish hoards listed by von Heijne (2004:215–6): Mark Blackburn discusses the individual finds of Sønder Kirkeby, Falster, 97 ex. (t.p.q. 846/7); Over Randlev I, coins from the settlement area of Kaupang in this Jutland, 242 ex.