Odzwierciedlenie obiegu pieniężnego we wczesnym średniowieczu przez znaleziska drobne

• Authors: Jakub Łyszkowski

Title variants

EN

Monetary circulation in the early Middle Ages as reflected by small finds

Abstracts

EN

Under the conditions of Polish medieval times issues concerning metal money circulation to a large extent are connected with monetarisation of trade. The beginning of coins being used in market exchange may be possibly specified merely due to their finds. The use of extremely scanty written sources actually equals to next to nothing at it. Thus while analysing the phenomenon, the researchers' attention is focused on monetary finds. So far chiefly hoards have been made us of at it. Small finds have been the category of sources which have not been referred to in full. The oldest settlement coin finds occur on seaside sites in Pomerania; they date from the turn of the 8th and beginning of the 9th centuries. These are the remnants of the first wave of the inflow of Arab silver reaching Polish lands through Scandinavia. From that moment Pomerania was saturated with silver coins most to upkeep the leading position in that respect up till the middle of the 9th century. Monetarisation of further areas of today's Poland would gradually have occurred from the North down to southern lands. In Great Poland, later in Mazovia, coins would have occurred from the last quarter of the 10th century. In Silesia and Little Poland coins remarkably abound starting from the middle of the 11th century. However, the period between 975 and 1050 was not yet the time of common occurrence of coins on settlement sites. This would have continued from the middle of the 11th century. In this case small finds provide us with an image of the development of monetary economy different than that of hoards. The latter, also occurring first in Pomerania and in Great Poland, were hidden in large numbers starting from the middle of the 10th century. The phenomenon of their mass hiding having come to an end overlaps with the beginning of numerous occurrence of coins within archaeological strata on settlement sites. As it is, this seems to provide grounds to specify the moment of silver coins to have been widespread as money - for the entire country on the average - as the middle of the 11th century. The lands inhabited by ancient Prussians is the only exception. Throughout the entire Middle Ages – save for the exceptional discoveries in Janów Pomorski (former Truso) - those areas were very poor in coin finds. The single finds occurring in settlements might be accounted for by Scandinavians arriving in the areas in question, as they co-occur with other relics coming from the said region. The typological structure of coins occurring as single finds confirms on our knowledge acquired from hoards. There are, however, certain differences in details. In hoards there are no western European coins from the 9th century, the bulk of the 11th century English issues comprising more types than mere Aethelred II's coins. On the whole the set of single finds depicts three currency stages in the early Middle Ages. From the tum of the 8th century up to the middle of the 10th century Arab silver in the form of dirhams prevails. From the middle of the 10th up to the beginning of the 12th centuries it was chiefly German silver with a slight admixture of Bohemian, Hungarian and Byzantine issues that flowed into Polish lands. Local coins are found starting from the last quarter of the 11th century. The middle of the following century marks out their growing preponderance alongside increasing percentage among small finds. The first conclusion to take is that no category of monetary finds - both small or larger ones - reflects on its own or in full the structure of monetary mass occurring over the area it has been found. Hoards, due to the fact they comprise many relics, are most helpful at it. In order to acquire the possibly most complete knowledge on the whole of coins occurring over a given area, it is by all means necessary to analyse all the monetary finds. Single relics - by dint of obvious reasons -confirm merely on the presence ofjust one kind of them. As it is, a large part ofsmall finds occurs in seclusion. Much more meaningful are complexes of single finds, discovered on one or a numer of sites close to one another. Such a source basis is to be obtained merely through development of archaeological research conducted at great length on the possibly largest number of sites.

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Wiadomości Numizmatyczne
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 1 (181)
• Pages: 3-26

Dates

published

2006

Contributors

author

Jakub Łyszkowski

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

16507054