Roman gold goes abroad - circulation of gold in Barbaricum at the end of Antiquity 2800-DFZLOTO
The influx of Roman gold into Barbaricum began as early as the mid-3rd century when the Goths came into possession of huge booty after the defeat of the Romans at Abritus in 251. Subsequent waves flowed into Barbaricum as early as the Migration Period, on the one hand as a result of the Goth invasions of the Danube provinces in 375, and on the other after the start of the Hun's invasions. The barbarians came into possession of Roman gold due to payments of tributes, ransoms, wages or other compensations. The gold is therefore found throughout Barbaricum in the form of hoards, in graves or as loose finds.
Another wave of gold that reached Barbaricum can be linked to the existence of an Ostrogoth and/or Burgundian state in Northern Italy, established in areas previously belonging to the Roman Empire, often with the support of Western emperors. The result of these events was the appearance of huge quantities of gold, including coins and Roman medallions, in Scandinavia and in areas of present-day Poland, especially in the northern and central parts. Roman gold is found in great numbers in the Carpathian Basin, as evidenced by the huge hoards of solidi. In addition, Roman medallions are found in the form of deposits, which probably came into the possession of the Barbarians as gifts of a political nature even before the Hun's invasions and were hidden several decades later, probably out of fear of an approaching threat from the east.
The course will address the issue of the influx of Roman gold to Barbaricum - the chronology, and circumstances of the influx, as well as the role of gold in Barbarian societies and in the process of the formation of Germanic elites.
1 The role of gold in the process of formation of Germanic elites
2. Gold objects in the tombs of princes, the baroque of the Vlachs
3. Abritus - Goths plunder the treasury of Trajan Decius
4. Circulation of gold in the 4th century as a result of Germanic contacts between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea
5. Medallions - genesis, symbolism and meaning among the barbarian elite
6. Gold and its role in Hussite communities
7. The first gold treasures and Late Roman solids in the Vistula basin - the circumstances of the influx
8. Solidi and gold in western Scandinavia (medallions and their imitations)
9. Solidi and gold in eastern Scandinavia - gold as payment for mercenaries
10. Germanic bracteates and Guldgubber - production, significance, spread
11. Imitations of solidi of Scandinavian provenance
12. The tomb of Childerik as an example of a "display of power"
13. Gold hoards from the southern Baltic coast - discussion of gold circulation
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Course coordinators
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Bibliography
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2. A. Bursche, Złote medaliony rzymskie w Barbaricum: symbolika prestiżu i władzy społeczeństw barbarzyńskich u schyłku starożytności, Warszawa 1998.
3. A. Bursche, Die Rolle römischer Goldmedaillone in der Spätantike, w: W. Seipel (red.), Barbarenschmuck und Römergold. Der Schatz von Szilágysomlyó, Wien 1999, s. 39-53.
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7. E. Kolnikova, K. Pieta, Spätrömische und völkerwanderungszeitliche Münzhorte und andere Münzfunde im nördlichen Karpatenbecken, w: M. Wołoszyn (red.), Byzantine Coins in Central Europe between the 5th and 10th Century, 2009, s. 117-132.
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9. V. Ivansevic, The circulation of Roman solidi in the 5th century in Moesia Prima and the Barbaricum, w: Z. Racz, G. Szenthe (red.), Attila's Europe? Structural transformation and strategies of succes in the European Hun period, 2021 Budapest, s. 519-536.
10. H. Horsnaes, Crossing boundaries. An Analysis of Roman Coins in Danish Contexts, 1: Finds from Sealand, Funen and Jutland. Publications of the National Museum, Copenhagen 2010.
11. H. Horsnaes, Crossing boundaries. An analysis of Roman coins in Danish contexts. 2: Finds from Bornholm, Copenhagen 2013.
12. A. Zapolska, The Hoard of Solidi from Karsibór in Western Pomerania, w: A. Bursche, J. Hines, A. Zapolska (red.), The Migration Period between the Oder and the Vistula, Leiden 2020, s. 542-565.
13. A. Bursche, A. Zapolska, Barbaric solidi and connections over the Baltic Sea in the Migration Period, Materiały Zachodniopomorskie, NS XVII, 2021, s. 345-375.
14. S. Fischer, Barbarous imitations in Scandinavian solidus hoards, Nordisk Numismatisk Årsskrift, NS 2, 2021, s. 9-41.
15. S. Fischer, From Italy to Scandinavia the Numismatic Record of the Fall of the West Roman Empire, w: E. Arslan, A. Carlie, Migrazioni nell’alto medioevo. Atti dell LXVI Settimana di studi, Spoletto 2019, s. 805-840.
16. S. Fischer, F. Lopez-Sanchez, Subsidies for the Roman West? The flow of Constantinopolitan solidi to the Western Empire and Barbaricum, Opuscula. Annual of the Swedish Institutes at Athens and Rome, vol. 9, 2016, s. 249-269.
17. A. Pesch, Shared Divine Imagery: Gold Bracteates, w: A. Bursche, J. Hines, A. Zapolska (red.), The Migration Period between the Oder and the Vistula, Leiden 2020, s. 411-433.
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