DOI issue:
Artikuły / Articles
DOI article:László, Simon: Numismatic data from the history of Northeastern Hungary during the Roman Imperial Age
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41338#0149
NUMISMATIC DATA FROM THE HIS I GRY...
artifacts prove that the site was occupied by a powerful local population, led
by Hasding Vandals. They spread the materiał legacy of the Przeworsk culture
in the last third of the 2nd and the first third of the 3rd century. In Ostrovany
(Osztrópataka), 12 km away from Preśov to the northeast, there is a royal Vandal
burial site dating to the period from 270 to 290.66 Ninety km away from Preśov
to the south, there is Inancs, where the above mentioned hoard was found. It only
contains 11 denarii; the closing issue was struck in 176 or a little later. Morę than
32 km to the south, there is Miskolc - the old military camp site. These hoards
are connected to each other by their geographical location and closing issues.
It would be tempting to theorize that the Hasding Vandal settlement moved slowly
from north to south. If we are to accept this theory, we would also have to accept
that the hoard was buried immediately following the issuing of the last coins.
In our opinion, nonę of these theories can be clearly proven, so we cannot accept
them without further research or morę information. While the slow movement of
the settlement is theoretically possible, we must also take into consideration the idea
that the group (and other ethnic groups) migrated rather ąuickly in the first decades
of the 4th century. They traveled thousands of kilometers from Eastem Europę
to Carthago, through the Rhineland, Gallia and Hispania.67 There is another unlikely
theory: the gathering of these coins may have been the work of the autochthon
population. This theory is hard for us to accept, but we do have ąuestions on this
subject. If we suppose that the Vandals owned these coin hoards and that the burial
happened later or much later than at the tum of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, then why
do they not contain easily obtainable issues from the 3rd and 4th centuries?68
We are certain that this picture should receive morę consideration if we take
a look at additional coin findings. Zsigmond Bubics, the bishop of Kosice, gave six
Roman coins to the local museum. We have no information about any connections
among them, but we assume that they were found on property owned by the bishop
in the area of the historical Abauj, Saros and Zemplen counties.69 Still another
case worth looking at is that of Karoly Frohlich, a goldsmith in Kosice, who
donated 128 Roman coins to the Hungarian National Museum. They were issued
in the period between Nero’s and Gratian’s’ reigns.70 They are certainly from
the district of Kosice. However, nonę of them can be identified as being from
the Abauj hoard, which was mentioned by Ferenc Redo. He dates these eleven
66 PROHASZKA 2004.
67 POHL 2002: 70-79.
68 For further studies on the period between the growing of treasures and their burial, see: VIDA 2012.
69 ArchErt 14 (1894): 88; http://mult-kor.hu/cikk.php?id=25068 (accessed: December 16, 2016); SZ1KLAY
and BOROVSZKY 1896: 138, 141.
70 HNM 56/1865.1-19.
artifacts prove that the site was occupied by a powerful local population, led
by Hasding Vandals. They spread the materiał legacy of the Przeworsk culture
in the last third of the 2nd and the first third of the 3rd century. In Ostrovany
(Osztrópataka), 12 km away from Preśov to the northeast, there is a royal Vandal
burial site dating to the period from 270 to 290.66 Ninety km away from Preśov
to the south, there is Inancs, where the above mentioned hoard was found. It only
contains 11 denarii; the closing issue was struck in 176 or a little later. Morę than
32 km to the south, there is Miskolc - the old military camp site. These hoards
are connected to each other by their geographical location and closing issues.
It would be tempting to theorize that the Hasding Vandal settlement moved slowly
from north to south. If we are to accept this theory, we would also have to accept
that the hoard was buried immediately following the issuing of the last coins.
In our opinion, nonę of these theories can be clearly proven, so we cannot accept
them without further research or morę information. While the slow movement of
the settlement is theoretically possible, we must also take into consideration the idea
that the group (and other ethnic groups) migrated rather ąuickly in the first decades
of the 4th century. They traveled thousands of kilometers from Eastem Europę
to Carthago, through the Rhineland, Gallia and Hispania.67 There is another unlikely
theory: the gathering of these coins may have been the work of the autochthon
population. This theory is hard for us to accept, but we do have ąuestions on this
subject. If we suppose that the Vandals owned these coin hoards and that the burial
happened later or much later than at the tum of the 2nd and 3rd centuries, then why
do they not contain easily obtainable issues from the 3rd and 4th centuries?68
We are certain that this picture should receive morę consideration if we take
a look at additional coin findings. Zsigmond Bubics, the bishop of Kosice, gave six
Roman coins to the local museum. We have no information about any connections
among them, but we assume that they were found on property owned by the bishop
in the area of the historical Abauj, Saros and Zemplen counties.69 Still another
case worth looking at is that of Karoly Frohlich, a goldsmith in Kosice, who
donated 128 Roman coins to the Hungarian National Museum. They were issued
in the period between Nero’s and Gratian’s’ reigns.70 They are certainly from
the district of Kosice. However, nonę of them can be identified as being from
the Abauj hoard, which was mentioned by Ferenc Redo. He dates these eleven
66 PROHASZKA 2004.
67 POHL 2002: 70-79.
68 For further studies on the period between the growing of treasures and their burial, see: VIDA 2012.
69 ArchErt 14 (1894): 88; http://mult-kor.hu/cikk.php?id=25068 (accessed: December 16, 2016); SZ1KLAY
and BOROVSZKY 1896: 138, 141.
70 HNM 56/1865.1-19.