S5006940 (2)

ncccptcd Ihut ils chronologicul confincs tire designntcd on the ono bund by ii HIATEC tctrudrnchm willi (lic hond of llonos and Virlus udoptcd from a Kcpublicun dcnnriuK from 70 B.C., on thc otlicr, by a didrachm willi tlić same inscription, in imilalionuf u prc-45 B.C denarius, uldiounh thc lattcr bas bccn duled even as lale aa Ihc end of (lic sanie decadeA' The workshop definitcly ca me lo an end, and willi it a bisiory of morę Ihan iwo ecnluries of Hoii niinting in tbe area snutli of tbc ('urputhiun rangę mul the Sudcly aflcr tbe Hoii were defealed in wara willi thc Dacians in 41-40 H.C’.^W' Bul (his certainly did not mean Ibe end of Hoii coin niaking mannraeinrc in tbc region of Kalisz, (onsidering tbe Iow weiglil and coniposition of tbe alloy ol' most coins in thc analysed group we may conclude t bat tbe tiinc of tlieir issuc came aflcr tbe fali of thc oppiduni in Hratislava. The foundering of tłiis ccntrc musi bave put a stop to thc iiiflun of gold and silver coins, which presuniably were a sourcc of raw materiał for the local niinting workshop. It sccnis tliat, at tbe sanie tinic, tbis could havc bccn tbc rcason for an intcnsification of ItKal coin production intended to supplcnicnt tbc sbortage ofeoin in circulation. Tliis must be tbe rcason for tbe i|uantitativc disproportion betwccn (hc group of finds wliicb can be correlatcd witli period D (specinicns no. I and 2), and thc evidently latcr ones (specinicns nos. .VII, 13-15). It is difficult lo determine at present for liow long coins continued to be struck in tbe region of Kalisz.. An obstacle in tliis is the lack of arcbacological contcxt and our limited knowlcdgc of tbe chronology of the site itself. On tbe basis of stray finds, including Southern imports, we can only j conclude in generał tliat tbe scttlcnicnt was in usc botb during an unspecified segment i of tbe Prc-Roman period as well as during tbc early Roman period. Anothcr obstuclc is tbe problem of liow to determine tbe ratę of tbc dcvaluation of tbc noniinnlly gold ! issues of tbc 'Kulisz Group'. We can only speeulate as to thc period which clapscd between tbc striking of the qualitutivcly best coin (specimcn no. I) witli a finenessof j 78^rr and striking of specimcn no. 9, which is a gold coin in minie only, eonsidering , that tbc fineness of its alloy is within thc margin of nieasurcnicnt error (0.3665%). A comparison of tbc fineness of individuul coins shows clcarly tliat tbc pmccss of j devaluution was graduul and probably rcflectcd tbe niounting problem of acccss to gold. Hut it is unclcur what were its individual stages. Pcrhaps it was similar to Ihc i partly parullel niinting production in western Lcsscr Polami.

Mint production in the region of Lcsscr Poland, documcntcd by finds of clay i nioulds for casting coin blanks (sec earlier discussion), is crcdited witli production of staters typc Kraków*'⁷ and otlicr typcs of the same denomination, as the alreudy nientioned find from Modlniczka, and also tbe onc-cighlh staters typc Pclczyska.^MI j Analysis of tbe metal truccs in a mould discovcred in Kraków-Mogila denionstrated • tliat tbe raw materiał uscd in niinting during un unspecified stage of a period spanning

^UE. K o I n i k o v :i, 'Kcltskć mincovnfctvo na Slovensku — vrchol peba^no-hisloriekćho vyvoju pred złomom IctopoCtu', lUulid, pcniazc, hanky. Yhomik z konferencic (Hratislava, 2003). pp. 38-39.

^N,0.*H. U r ba n, Keltische I lolwnsicdlunncn an der mittleren Domin \>om LinzerBecktu his zur l\mu Hannah ca I, Der Freinberg (Linz, 1994), p. 2I — witli further literaturo.

⁰⁷ K. C a • t o I i n, ‘KellciimOnzcn in Schlesien', Arhaits- utul horst'huiigsberii7ite zursflch- : sisclwn Hwlendenknialpfleite 20/21 (1976), pp. 262f.

^WM, Rudnicki. ‘Celtic coin finds from a scttlcnicnt of tbc Lu Tćne period >i i 1’elezyska', Wiadomości Numizmatyczne 47/1 (1’olish Numismatic News 7), p. 4f., fig. 3. J M. Byrsku, M. M. Przybył u, M. Rudnicki, o.c.

the Hccond hnlf of thc firnt ccntury B.Cmul a slighlly Inter iigc U. In thc lalcsl phasc of ilu- Tyniec Group (I.T Dlb - Hla of thc Roman period) consislod of 50% gold, 49% silvcr and a smali amount of coppcr and xlnc,^w The timc of tomie of locnl coins in l.csscr Poland has bccn rclcrrcd lo holh thc minting periods C and D.^7(> But thc only find of u Inter local issue which may be linkcd to a stratigraphic context is a Ntater from thc Ncltlcmcnt at Kryspinów wcighing 5.817 g, discovcrcd in a fcaturc dated approximatcly to thc onsci of phasc H2 of thc Roman period.⁷¹ Howcvcr the dating of fcaturc KIK at Kryspinów docs not set tle thc datę of issuc of the coin discovered in it, although tliis specimcn is not likcly to hc older than thc heginningof thc scttlcmcnt which bclongs in phuse A3 of thc l.nlc Prc*Roman period. The latcst coin which can hc linkcd with minting in Lcsscr Poland — most likcly alreudy from the onset of thc Roman period — is thc ulrcady mentioned stater from Modlniczka wcighing 4.44 g, We lutvc to uKsumc tliat it was struck be for e thc so-callcd horizon of disuster (Roman period phasc HI a), which is linkcd with thc end of phasc III of thc Tyniec Group and minting activity associatcd with it. But therc is no qucstion that tliis coin is thc lutcst cxamplc of u Boii stater known altogcthcr. At thc timc of its issuc coins which referred back to this eoinage tradition were produccd, most likcly, only from alloys in which the dominunt ingredient was silver. Givcn that thc end of thc Ccltic settlcmcnt in western Lcsscr Poland camc during thc Roman period phasc Bla⁷² and that sonie of thc coins of thc Kalisz Group appear to be cvidcntly later than thc curlicst coins from thc Crucow region, we can risk an assertion that thc mint at Janków continued to operate during an cvcn later period. This appears to be vulidalcd by thc nrchacologicai contcxt of thc typc 'Janków' coin discovcrcd in u ccmctcry of thc Wielbark culturc at Leśno. It occurrcd in an inventory of crcmation burial no. 29 in association with u pair of matching Almgrcn 52 fibulac which havc a sound datc bascd on finds from Roman military canips. According to thc most rcccnl findings⁷' they comc on rccord probably not carlicr than thc reign of (Taudius and were popular also during thc rcign of Nero. A smali number of thcsc fibula forms can be tied also to thc early Flavian emperors wlicn tlicir production was discontinucd. In terms of absolute chronology thc timc tlicy were in usc was in the period ca A.D. 40-74 (and later). Naturally it is also possiblc that thc coin had found its way into thc gravc with sonie dclay as comparcd to thc timc of its circulation as a chcrished item bclonging to the buried person kept by liirn or her for sonie ycars as a valuablc keepsakc. But it is equally probablc that

w Z. Woźniak, 'Celtycki warsztat menniczy z okolic Krakowa', Acta Archaeologica Carpathica XVIII (1978), pp. 107-108.

^7,1 Cf. Z. Woźniak, 'Działalność mennicza Celtów w Malopolsce'. Celtowie i ich mennictwo (Warszawa, 1986), pp. 74-75; M. Rudnicki, ‘Złota moneta celtycka z osady w biczyskach, woj. świętokrzyskie'. I*. Luczkiewicz et al. (etls.) Europo Burhorica. Ćwierć wieku archeologii m* Masiomęczu, Monumentu Studia Gothica IV (Lublin, 2005), pp. 402-403.

⁷¹ P. Kaczanowski, 'Zlotu moneta ccltycku z osady kulimy przeworskiej w Kryspinowie, woj. Kraków', Sprawozdania Archeologiczne XI.VIU (1996), p. 124.

⁷- /.. W o ź n i a k, Ncuc Forschungscrgebnisse Ober die jOngcrc 1 utćnczcit in SUdpoicn, AtheoloSki wstnik 47, (Ljubljana, 1996), pp. 168-170.

⁷¹J. Ku now, 'Die lluuptscric dci Augenfibcln: Gruppe III, Fig. 45-54', M. Auflcgcr,

P. Woidt, N. GoGlor (cds.) 100 Jahre Eibelfonnen nach Oscar Almgrcn. Internationale AtMlslagung 25,-28. Mai 1007, Kleimnachnow, l.and Brundenłntrg. Eorschungen sur Archeologie Im l.and Brandenhing 5 (WOnsdorl, 1998), pp. 105-106, lig, 4.

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