Novensia: Studia i Materiały (21.2010)

Renata Ciołek
Tomasz Kowal

CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY
OF RESEARCH ON RISAN (MONTENEGRO):
THE CASE OF HEINRICH RICHLY

Abstract: The article highlights the person and accomplishments of Heinrich Richly (1839-1907).
The Czech archaeologist visited Risan (Greek Rhizon, Roman Risinium) in the end of the 19th
century and wrote extensively about what he had seen. Of greatest interest are his observations
conceming the topography of the town and a fragmentary Greek inscription with the name of the
god Medauros, which he described and of which he madę a cast. Richly also collected and iden-
tified about 300 ancient coins and described a few of them, thus contributing to the current knowl-
edge of numismatic finds from Risan.
Key words: Rhizon/Risinium, Richly, Ballaios, Carine, coins
In 2001 archaeologists from the Center for Research on the Antiąuity of Southeastern Eu-
ropę of the University of Warsaw started excavations in ancient Rhizon (Latin Risinium),
modem Risan in Montenegro. Almost ten years of research have fruited in an abundant
assemblage of finds, including many amphorae and clay plugs for these vessels, vessels
of the Gnathia type and primarily large ąuantities of ancient coins. In 2010 the finds were
especially rich in this last respect, producing a hoard of 4656 coins beside many interesting
and uniąue piece found singularly or in groups.1 The hoard came from the Carine VII sec-
tor located in the low-lying area of Risan on the western bank of the Spiła river. This “great
hoard”,2 as it has come to be referred to, had been hidden under the floor of a room which
was part of a bigger architectural complex from the Hellenistic period.
The new Risan hoard justifies a closer look at other sets of coins coming from the
neighborhood of Kotor Bay or otherwise associated with the mint operating in Rhizon.
The mint struck huge ąuantities of coins, mainly for King Ballaios of the Rhizonites, but
also autonomous coins issued on behalf of the city and its inhabitants. The latter group is
defmitely less numerous than the royal coinage. Currently, there are about 1800 royal
coins recorded beside the “great hoard”, which calculated together with the coins from
the hoard raises the total of known coins of this king to morę than 6270 pieces. Considering
1 On the circumstances of the discovery, see Kowal
2010, pp. 46-48.
2 Ciołek 2010 (in this volume, pp. 7-12); Dyczek
2011, pp. 5-10.