Coins and Coin Finds in Finland AD 800-1200

Description

Finds of Oriental and European silver coins form a conspicuous, yet elusive, element in the archaeological material of the ninth-twelfth centuries in the Northern lands. In Finland the contrast between the handful of coins from the pre-Viking period and the seven thousand coins from the Viking Age is striking, but compared with the finds from Sweden and Russia, the material is very modest. This, however, does not diminish its importance from Finland's point of view. The number of coins acquired by Finnish museums from finds made in the present area of Finland is now slightly more than 7000. There is also information on perhaps a thousand other coins that have been dispersed or melted down during the past two or three hundred years. Acknowledgements 7 PART I 1. lntroduction 8 The material 8 Methodological considerations 10 A note on collections, geography and dates 14 2. The coins in the finds 18 3. Previous studies 30 4. Hoards 37 The discovery of hoards 38 The eastern coins 41 The ninth century 42 The tenth century 45 The western coins 46 Geographical distribution 46 Chronology 49 Non-monetary silver in the hoards 58 Relation between coins and non-monetary silver 58 The origins of non-monetary silver 62 Problems of dating 64 Hoards with no coins 65 5. Grave finds 67 Coins in graves as ornaments and money 67 The finds 72 The coins 76 Summary 79 6. Single and cumulative finds 80 Single finds 80 Cumulative finds 83 7. Coin imports 84 The eastern coins 85 The earliest finds from Finland 85 Ninth-century hoards 88 Tenth-century Åland 91 The tenth-century on the mainland: the last phase of Islamic imports 98 The Byzantine coins 104 The western coins 106 The tenth and eleventh centuries 106 The twelfth century 109 Import routes 110 The end of western imports 116 8. Interpretation of the hoards 117 Recent studies 117 The Finnish hoards and the 'Satakunta problem' 119 9. Coins and money in late prehistoric Finland 124 PART II Catalogues Hoards 131 Grave finds 167 Single finds 195 Cumulative finds 205 Appendix: Coin finds from former Finnish Karelia and the Salla-Kuusamo area 209 Bibliography 218 Abbreviations 230 List of figures and maps 231 Index of finds 232