A gold coin from Jastrzębniki, Kalisz district (PL). On the late Celtic coinage in north-central Europe
-
Michał Grygiel
and
Adam Kędzierski
Abstract
Attempts were made in several locations in Central Europe to continue minting in gold, following the Celtic Boii tradition which began to fade after the collapse of the Bohemian-Moravian oppida at the turn of the LTD1/D2 phases (ca. 60/50 BC). The main center for the continuation of this activity was in the lands of the Pannonian Boii, in the Bratislava area, and probably in the Bratislava oppidum itself. This paper focuses on three other minting centers which were established north of the Carpathians and Sudetes among the northern barbarians and which imitated late Boii gold coins: one in the Tyniec group near Kraków, and two in the main Przeworsk culture settlement zones on the middle Prosna River near Kalisz and in Kuyavia. These northern mints, undoubtedly operated by experienced Celtic minters, recycled extremely popular shell staters with solar and lunar motifs that were reintroduced into circulation with a renewed stamp or after having been legalized by adding small additional marks. They also issued various small coins made of electrum alloys, significantly varying in weight (mostly about 1/8 of a Boii stater), with an abstract knob-and-rib ornamentation reminiscent of the motifs featuring on the youngest coins minted at the oppidums in Staré Hradisko (Moravia) and Bratislava.
The nominally gold coins issued in the Oder and Vistula basins must have provided the equivalent in supra-regional prestige exchange, which is indicated by their extensive circulation zone. One of the reasons for the disappearance of the local minting traditions among the northern barbarian elites might have been the massive influx of Roman coinage into the Central European Barbaricum in the second century AD.
Zusammenfassung
An mehreren Orten in Mitteleuropa wurde versucht, die Goldprägung in Anlehnung an die keltische Boii-Tradition fortzusetzen, die nach dem Zusammenbruch der böhmisch-mährischen Oppida an der Wende der LTD1/D2-Phasen (ca. 60/50 v. Chr.) zu verblassen begann. Die vorliegende Arbeit konzentriert sich auf drei weitere Prägezentren, die nördlich der Karpaten und der Sudeten unter den nördlichen Barbaren entstanden und die späten Boii-Goldmünzen nachahmten: eines in der Tyniec-Gruppe bei Krakau und zwei in den Hauptzonen der Siedlung der Przeworsk-Kultur an der mittleren Prosna bei Kalisz und in Kujawien. Diese nördlichen Münzstätten, die zweifellos von erfahrenen keltischen Münzprägern betrieben wurden, recycelten äußerst beliebte Muschelstatere mit Sonnen- und Mondmotiven, die mit einem erneuerten Stempel oder nach einer Legalisierung durch Hinzufügen kleine Zusatzmarken wieder in Umlauf gebracht wurden. Außerdem wurden verschiedene kleine Münzen aus Elektrum-Legierungen ausgegeben. Diese haben ein variiertes Gewicht (meist etwa 1/8 eines Boii-Staters) und weisen ein abstraktes Knauf- und Rippenornament auf, das an die Motive der jüngsten Münzen erinnerte, die in den Oppida in Staré Hradisko (Mähren) und Bratislava geprägt wurden.
Die im Oder- und Weichselbecken ausgegebenen nominellen Goldmünzen müssen den Gegenwert im überregionalen Prestigetausch erbracht haben, worauf ihr großes Verbreitungsgebiet hindeutet. Einer der Gründe für das Verschwinden der lokalen Münztraditionen bei den nördlichen barbarischen Eliten könnte der massive Zustrom römischer Münzen in das mitteleuropäische Barbaricum im zweiten Jahrhundert nach Christus gewesen sein.
Abstrakt
W kilku miejscach w Europie Środkowej podjęto próby kontynuowania emisji złotego pieniądza wzorowanego na tradycji menniczej celtyckich Bojów, która zaczęła zanikać po upadku czesko-morawskich oppidów na przełomie faz LTD1/D2 (ok. 60/50 p.n.e.). Główny ośrodek kontynuujący bojskie tradycje znajdował się w rejonie Bratysławy, na terytorium tzw. Bojów panońskich i prawdopodobnie w samym oppidum bratysławskim. W niniejszym artykule zasadniczą uwagę poświęcono trzem innym ośrodkom powstałym na północ od Karpat i Sudetów w środowisku północnych barbarzyńców: jednym w grupie tynieckiej pod Krakowem oraz dwóch w strefach gęstego osadnictwa kultury przeworskiej nad środkową Prosną pod Kaliszem i na Kujawach. Te północne mennice, obsługiwane niewątpliwie przez doświadczonych mincerzy celtyckich, przetwarzały niezwykle popularne na oppidach statery muszlowe z motywami solarno-księżycowymi, które wprowadzano ponownie do obiegu z odnowionym stemplem lub po zalegalizowaniu poprzez dodanie dodatkowych małych oznaczeń. Emitowano w nich także drobne monety z niejednorodnych stopów srebra i złota, o zróżnicowanej wadze oscylującej przeważnie wokół wartości typowych dla 1/8 statera bojskiego, z abstrakcyjnym ornamentem guzkowo-żeberkowym przypominającym motywy występujące na najmłodszych monetach wybitych na oppidach w Starym Hradisku (Morawy) i w Bratysławie.
Nominalnie złote monety celtyckie emitowane w dorzeczu Odry i Wisły służyły zapewne jako ekwiwalent w ponadregionalnej wymianie prestiżowej, na co wskazuje rozległa strefa ich obiegu. Jedną z przyczyn zaniku lokalnych tradycji menniczych wśród elit barbarzyńskich mógł być masowy napływ monet rzymskich do środkowoeuropejskiego Barbaricum w II wieku po Chrystusie.
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Abhandlungen
- The Late Palaeolithic in Toruń Basin in the light of the latest research in Brzoza, Site 50
- Verifying the chronology of Ukrainian Neolithic
- Settlement layout and social organisation in the mid-6th Millennium BC at Uğurlu on the island of Gökçeada, North-eastern Aegean
- Early farming settlement of the marginal zone of loess uplands and its palaeoenvironmental context – a case study of the Iłża Piedmont (S Poland)
- Macrolithic flint products from inventories of adult male graves of the Lublin-Volhynian culture – prestige goods or everyday use items – by the example of grave No. 2/1987 from site 1C in Gródek, Hrubieszów District (Poland)
- Pit-houses of the Stone Age Belarus in the 4th millennium BC
- Technologies and standards in ceramic production of middle–late Trypillya culture
- Late Tripolye Culture Settlement Spatial Pattering: Case study from the Gordineşti II-Stînca goală site, Northern Moldova
- New Considerations on the Relationship between Predynastic Spiral-Patterned D-Ware Pottery and Breccia Vessels. The Contribution of an Unpublished Vessel from the Macquarie University History Museum (MU5038)
- Chronology of the Seima-Turbino bronzes, early Shang Dynasty and Santorini eruption
- Identifying the original function of vessels deposited in Lusatian Urnfield burials: the case of the Czernikowice cemetery (Poland)
- Traces of a “new” Metalcraft Specialisation: A unique Late Bronze Age Burial at Karzec Cemetery
- Five hoards in eighty years. Landscape perspectives on new Bronze Age hoard finds around Lake Mälaren in Sweden
- A Final Bronze Age hoard from Cierpice, Poland: new evidence for the use and deposition of a horse bridle in the region
- Kuyavian bronzes or Stanomin-style dress accessories – studies on the chronology of the early Iron Age in Central Europe
- Research methodology of the zolnik (ash hill) at the Scythian cultural circle hillfort in Chotyniec
- A gold coin from Jastrzębniki, Kalisz district (PL). On the late Celtic coinage in north-central Europe
- Pilipenkova Gora – eine Siedlung der Zarubincy-Kultur am Mittleren Dnjepr
- Opening graves and turtles. The pond turtle (Emys orbicularis L.) from the cemetery of the Wielbark Culture in Czarnówko and the question of post-funeral interferences in the past
- The marketplace landscape in Santok in the 8th–9th century, NW Poland
- Rezensionen
- Stepan Stepanenko (ed.), A Viking Century. Chernihiv Area from 900 to 1000 AD (Occasional Monographs, Hlib Ivakin Memorial Series 6). Paris, Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance (ACHCByz), 2022. 636 S., zahlreiche farbige und S/W-Abb., Tab. ISBN 978-2-916716-88-6.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Abhandlungen
- The Late Palaeolithic in Toruń Basin in the light of the latest research in Brzoza, Site 50
- Verifying the chronology of Ukrainian Neolithic
- Settlement layout and social organisation in the mid-6th Millennium BC at Uğurlu on the island of Gökçeada, North-eastern Aegean
- Early farming settlement of the marginal zone of loess uplands and its palaeoenvironmental context – a case study of the Iłża Piedmont (S Poland)
- Macrolithic flint products from inventories of adult male graves of the Lublin-Volhynian culture – prestige goods or everyday use items – by the example of grave No. 2/1987 from site 1C in Gródek, Hrubieszów District (Poland)
- Pit-houses of the Stone Age Belarus in the 4th millennium BC
- Technologies and standards in ceramic production of middle–late Trypillya culture
- Late Tripolye Culture Settlement Spatial Pattering: Case study from the Gordineşti II-Stînca goală site, Northern Moldova
- New Considerations on the Relationship between Predynastic Spiral-Patterned D-Ware Pottery and Breccia Vessels. The Contribution of an Unpublished Vessel from the Macquarie University History Museum (MU5038)
- Chronology of the Seima-Turbino bronzes, early Shang Dynasty and Santorini eruption
- Identifying the original function of vessels deposited in Lusatian Urnfield burials: the case of the Czernikowice cemetery (Poland)
- Traces of a “new” Metalcraft Specialisation: A unique Late Bronze Age Burial at Karzec Cemetery
- Five hoards in eighty years. Landscape perspectives on new Bronze Age hoard finds around Lake Mälaren in Sweden
- A Final Bronze Age hoard from Cierpice, Poland: new evidence for the use and deposition of a horse bridle in the region
- Kuyavian bronzes or Stanomin-style dress accessories – studies on the chronology of the early Iron Age in Central Europe
- Research methodology of the zolnik (ash hill) at the Scythian cultural circle hillfort in Chotyniec
- A gold coin from Jastrzębniki, Kalisz district (PL). On the late Celtic coinage in north-central Europe
- Pilipenkova Gora – eine Siedlung der Zarubincy-Kultur am Mittleren Dnjepr
- Opening graves and turtles. The pond turtle (Emys orbicularis L.) from the cemetery of the Wielbark Culture in Czarnówko and the question of post-funeral interferences in the past
- The marketplace landscape in Santok in the 8th–9th century, NW Poland
- Rezensionen
- Stepan Stepanenko (ed.), A Viking Century. Chernihiv Area from 900 to 1000 AD (Occasional Monographs, Hlib Ivakin Memorial Series 6). Paris, Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance (ACHCByz), 2022. 636 S., zahlreiche farbige und S/W-Abb., Tab. ISBN 978-2-916716-88-6.
