DOI issue:
Artikuły / Articles
DOI article:Zapolska, Anna: The solidus of Heraclius from Wargen in Sambia – reconsidered
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43282#0169
THE SOLIDUS OF HERACLIUS FROM WARGEN IN SAMBIA...
The coin’s reverse reads “VICTORIAAVG [...] B” and shows a cross Standing
upon a four-step pedestal.
The coin is of the type MIB 21. There is a hole pierced through the coin from
the obverse side, above the emperors’ heads. The observe is readable, and the imagery
on the reverse is visible, but the legend on the reverse is partly obliterated.
Almost thirty years later, the coin has once again come into the Spotlight. In
the years 2014 and 2015, it was published by K. Skvorzov as an Avar imitation of
a solidus in the name of Heraclius,3 even though it had already been featured in
the numismatic literaturę as a regulär issue of this ruler.4
THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND THE CONTEXT OF THE FIND
It was already in the mid-18th Century that the first archaeological sites were
identified - and various finds of artefacts reported in the former town of Wargen,
Kr. Fischhausen. E. Hollack referred to a hoard dating to the Bronze Age and
mentioned two burial mounds from the earlier phase of this period.5 In the same
publication, Hollack madę notę of a so-called Totenkrone, an artefact that would attest
to the existence of an early-medieval burial ground there. Nearly thirty years after
the publication of Hollack’s book, another burial ground dating back to the Roman
period was discovered there, as recorded in Rudolf Grenz’s personal archive.
The entry for the date 7 April 1937 makes reference to the accidental discovery,
during the extraction of sand, of a necropolis dating to the early and late stage/phase
of the Roman period; the artefact itself, however, was dated to the early phase of
the Roman period.6 According to K. Skvorzov, it cannot be ruled out that this burial
site was used during the Migration Period as well, just as many other burial grounds
of the Roman period located in the Sambian Peninsula were used for this purpose.7
No archaeological context can be attributed to the solidus, and it is not certain
that the coin can be associated with the site under consideration. In the following
sections of the article, I shall discuss possible interpretations of this find as well as
alternative causes for the emergence of the solidus in the Southern Baltic Coastal area.
THE SOLIDI OF HERACLIUS-THEIR DIS SEMINATION AND FUNCTION
The solidi of Heraclius issued in the years 616-629 appear in large amounts in
the territories along the Middle Danube and the Lower Tisa, i.e. the area settled by
3 SKVORZOV 2014: 547-558; SKVORZOV 2015: 601-621.
4 BERGAand KULAKOV 1993: 15.I would like to thank Prof. W. Hahn from the Institute ofNumismatics,
University of Vienna, for his help in the identification of this coin.
5 HOLLACK 1908: 172.
6 GRENZ Legacy, SKVORZOV 2014: 549; IDEM 2015.
7 Ibidem.
The coin’s reverse reads “VICTORIAAVG [...] B” and shows a cross Standing
upon a four-step pedestal.
The coin is of the type MIB 21. There is a hole pierced through the coin from
the obverse side, above the emperors’ heads. The observe is readable, and the imagery
on the reverse is visible, but the legend on the reverse is partly obliterated.
Almost thirty years later, the coin has once again come into the Spotlight. In
the years 2014 and 2015, it was published by K. Skvorzov as an Avar imitation of
a solidus in the name of Heraclius,3 even though it had already been featured in
the numismatic literaturę as a regulär issue of this ruler.4
THE CIRCUMSTANCES AND THE CONTEXT OF THE FIND
It was already in the mid-18th Century that the first archaeological sites were
identified - and various finds of artefacts reported in the former town of Wargen,
Kr. Fischhausen. E. Hollack referred to a hoard dating to the Bronze Age and
mentioned two burial mounds from the earlier phase of this period.5 In the same
publication, Hollack madę notę of a so-called Totenkrone, an artefact that would attest
to the existence of an early-medieval burial ground there. Nearly thirty years after
the publication of Hollack’s book, another burial ground dating back to the Roman
period was discovered there, as recorded in Rudolf Grenz’s personal archive.
The entry for the date 7 April 1937 makes reference to the accidental discovery,
during the extraction of sand, of a necropolis dating to the early and late stage/phase
of the Roman period; the artefact itself, however, was dated to the early phase of
the Roman period.6 According to K. Skvorzov, it cannot be ruled out that this burial
site was used during the Migration Period as well, just as many other burial grounds
of the Roman period located in the Sambian Peninsula were used for this purpose.7
No archaeological context can be attributed to the solidus, and it is not certain
that the coin can be associated with the site under consideration. In the following
sections of the article, I shall discuss possible interpretations of this find as well as
alternative causes for the emergence of the solidus in the Southern Baltic Coastal area.
THE SOLIDI OF HERACLIUS-THEIR DIS SEMINATION AND FUNCTION
The solidi of Heraclius issued in the years 616-629 appear in large amounts in
the territories along the Middle Danube and the Lower Tisa, i.e. the area settled by
3 SKVORZOV 2014: 547-558; SKVORZOV 2015: 601-621.
4 BERGAand KULAKOV 1993: 15.I would like to thank Prof. W. Hahn from the Institute ofNumismatics,
University of Vienna, for his help in the identification of this coin.
5 HOLLACK 1908: 172.
6 GRENZ Legacy, SKVORZOV 2014: 549; IDEM 2015.
7 Ibidem.