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Wolińskie Spotkania Mediewistyczne II

ECONOMIES, MONETISATION AND SOCIETY IN THE WEST SLAVIC LANDS

800–1200 AD

edited by Mateusz Bogucki and Marian Rębkowski

Szczecin 2013

Mateusz Bogucki, Marian Rębkowski

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Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences, Centre for Medieval

Archeology of the Baltic Region in Szczecin

Chair of Archaeology, Szczecin University

© All papers are copyright to their authors and the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology

Polish Academy of Sciences

Editors: Mateusz Bogucki, Marian Rębkowski

Rewievers: Prof. Dr. Sebastian Brather and Prof. dr hab. Borys PaszkiewiczBorys Paszkiewicz

This volume has been reviewed by the Editorial Board of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Scinces. Members of the Board: prof. Andrzej Janeczek, prof. Mirosława Drozd-Piasecka, prof. Dariusz Główka, Tomasz Herbich M.A., prof. Andrzej Klonder, prof. Jolanta Kowalska, dr Małgorzata Mogielnicka, prof. Piotr Taracha

Linguistic proof-reading: Leszek Gardeła (English), Andreas Kieseler (Deutsch)

Cover design: Wojciech FilipowiakFoto: coin of Jaxa of Köpenick, after Ryszard Kiersnowski

Printed by: MD-PRINT Dariusz Skalski

ISBN: 978-83-63760-16-8 (Wydawnictwo IAE PAN)ISBN: 978-83-64277-11-5 (Wydawnictwo WH US)

Szczecin 2013

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Contents

Mateusz Bogucki, Marian RębkowskiPreface .................................................................................................................... 7

THE MOUTH OF THE ODRA RIVER IN THE MIDDLE AGES .......................... 11

Przemysław KrajewskiNotes on the archaeology of Wolin Island in the light of changeable features of geographic environment .................................................................... 13

Hauke Jöns, Sebastian MessalNeue Forschungen zur Struktur mittelalterlicher Hafenanlagen an der südwestlichen Ostseeküste ........................................................................ 25

Andrzej JanowskiHarbours of early medieval Wolin in the light of recent researchof early medieval Wolin in the light of recent research ................... 45

Przemysław UrbańczykPolitical and economic status of the Odra estuary area at the turn of the 1st and the 2nd millennia AD ............................................................... 59

ECONOMIES, MONETISATION AND SOCIETY: GENERAL STUDIES .................................................................................................. 73

Dagfinn SkreMoney and trade in Viking-Age Scandinaviatrade in Viking-Age Scandinavia in Viking-Age Scandinavia ..................................................... 75

Stanisław SuchodolskiWarum hat man im frühen Mittelalter Schätze deponiert? ............................. 89

Leszek SłupeckiTemple fiscality of pagan Slavs and Scandinavians ........................................... 109

Dariusz AdamczykFernhandelsemporien, Herrschaftszentren, Regional- und Lokalmärkte: Die ökonomischen Funktionen von Silber oder: Wie lässt sich der Grad der Monetarisierung in den frühmittelalterlichen Gesellschaften des Ostseeraums „messen“? ................... 115

Marek JankowiakTwo systems of trade in the Western Slavic lands in the 10th century ...................................................................................................... 137


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Marcin PaukMoney makes this world go round. Some remarks on ducal power, coinage and society in Central Europe (1050–1200) .............................. 149

ECONOMIES, MONETISATION AND SOCIETY: COMMODITY MONEY .............................................................................................. 157

Jacek Adamczyk Fur money – a by-product of the inflow of the Arabic silver .................................................................................................... 159

Marcin Szydłowski The use of stone artifacts as commodity money in the light of the finds from early medieval Wolin ............................................................... 169

ECONOMIES, MONETISATION AND SOCIETY: REGIONAL STUDIES ................................................................................................ 175

Jiří Macháček, Jan VidemanMonetisation of early medieval Moravia in the light of new archaeological discoveries in the Lower Dyje region (Czech Republic) ................................................................................................... 177

Barbara Butent-StefaniakThe earliest Scandinavian coins in early medieval in Silesia hoards ................ 201

Piotr BorońWhere did the Piasts take silver from? The research on metallurgy and mining centre on the border of Silesia and Lesser Poland in the early Middle Ages .......................................................................... 209

Felix Biermann Neue völkerwanderungs- und slawenzeitliche Münzfunde aus Brandenburg und ihre wirtschaftsgeschichtliche Aussage ................................ 223

Jens SchneeweißMünz- und Gewichtsgeldwirtschaft an der westlichen Peripherie der slawischen Welt ............................................................................ 237

Ralf WiechmannKupfer und Messing statt Silber. Münzimitationen des 11.Münzimitationen des 11. und 12. Jahrhunderts aus Nordostdeutschland .................................................. 267

Oliver MeckingOberflächenbehandlungen und Legierungszusammensetzungen der Münzen aus Usadel, Parchim und FlessenowMünzen aus Usadel, Parchim und Flessenow, Parchim und FlessenowFlessenow .............................................. 313

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Jerzy PinińskiCoins in Pomerania between the 8th and 10th century ........................................ 323

Peter IlischHoards Berlin I and II (Pomorze VII and VIII) ................................................. 337

Mateusz BoguckiCoin finds from Wolin and its hinterland ........................................................... 345

Jerzy StrzelczykJaxa und seine Münzen ......................................................................................... 359

Stanisław RosikFünfzig Talente für die Lanze Cäsars und dreihundert für slawische „kontina“ – Zur symbolischen Valorisation der Preise im 12. Jh. in den Biografien Ottos von Bamberg .................................... 369

Authors ................................................................................................................... 377


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Preface


It has now become a tradition that the annual Festival of Slavs and Vikings in Wolin is accompanied by academic sessions devoted to the studies of the Middle Ages. The idea for the sessions was initially put forward by the authorities from the Wolin commune and in 2010, at the initiative of the Major of Wolin, a new bi-annual conference series entitled Wolin Medievalist Meetings (Pol. Wolińskie Spotkania Mediewistyczne) were inaugurated. The conference series is hosted by the Szczecin branch of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (currently, Centre for the Medieval Archaeology of the Baltic Region in Szczecin) and the Chair of Archaeology of the Szczecin University. The major goal of the organizers was to create a platform for meetings and exchange of ideas for representatives of various academic disciplines whose research focuses on the history and culture of the Baltic region in the Middle Ages. It has been decided that the subsequent sessions would be devoted to one main theme, but due to the conference location in Wolin there would also be room for other contributions discussing the results of the latest discoveries concerning the medieval past of the Odra estuary and Wolin in particular. The papers from the first conference, which focused on elite culture in the Middle Ages, were published two years ago1.

The second edition of Wolin Medievalist Meetings was organized between the 3rd – 5th August 2012 in the Municipal Office of Wolin and it was attended by over forty archaeologists, historians and numismatists from Poland, Germany, Great Britain and the Czech Republic. More than twenty papers were presented – five of them discussed the Odra estuary in the early Middle Ages, while the majority of other contributions concentrated on the main topic of the conference Economies, Monetisation and Society in the West Slavic Lands 800–1200 AD. The direct inspiration for focusing on the notion of medieval coinage was a conference organized in Aarhus in 2008, entitled Silver Economies, Monetisation and Society in Scandinavia, 800–1100. The publication including papers presented in Aarhus has demonstrated how rich, diverse and complicated was the notion of the functioning of coinage at the dawn of state formation in Europe2. Since the Aarhus volume concentrated on Scandinavia we felt inspired to further expand this research and gather the experiences of scholars who worked on similar notions, but in the West Slavic cultural milieu.

1 Ekskluzywne życie – dostojny pochówek. W kręgu kultury elitarnej wieków średnich, („Wolińskie Spotkania Mediewistyczne” 1), ed. M. Rębkowski, Wolin 2011.M. Rębkowski, Wolin 2011.

2 Silver Economies, Monetisation and Society in Scandinavia AD 800–1100, eds. J. Graham-Cambell,J. Graham-Cambell, S. Sindbæk, G. Williams, Aarhus 2011.


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In the introduction to a seminal publication entitled Pieniądz kruszcowy w Polsce wczesnośredniowiecznej Ryszard Kiersnowski emphasised that the notion of money circulation in the early Middle Ages is largely understudied, and that his work was only a humble attempt to highlight the major problems3. According to Kiersnowski the main reason for the absence of serious academic interest in these notions was a deficiency of well documented source material, the underdevelopment of research methods and theoretical approaches, but also insufficient collaboration between the various disciplines, which (usually to a very small extent) touch upon the problem of early medieval coinage. At that time historical and archaeological studies within the field of numismatics were usually undertaken separately and their results were rarely confronted and discussed. In his studies Professor Ryszard Kiersnowski skillfully combined the research traditions of history and numismatics, but only to a limited degree was he able to utilize the potential of archaeology. He should not be blamed, however, because archaeology at that time – apart from delivering material evidence – was unable to offer much information for the scholar of the history of money. In recent times this situation has changed significantly. Apart from the obvious fact that the number of source materials is constantly growing – and this includes not only coins – we have now gained extensive experience due to the serious developments within the field of archaeological methods and theory. The application of a plethora of methods stemming from history, cultural anthropology or exact sciences in the current research on early medieval coinage allows us to draw much more substantial information from our sources than it was deemed possible fifty years ago. Therefore, the goal of contemporary scholars of these notions is not to completely dismiss the achievements of past researchers, but to critically revaluate some of their claims, supplement them and first and foremost to set them within a new and broader context which archaeology itself has to offer.

The selection of topics and authors who accepted our invitation to participate in the Wolin conference was subjected to the conviction that in modern studies on medieval coins it is absolutely vital to incorporate interdisciplinary and supplementary methodologies of disciplines such as history, archaeology, numismatics and even anthropology. Nearly all of the papers presented at the conference have been included in the present volume. Its structure precisely reflects all the goals that we originally set as the organizers. The first part comprises several articles that discuss the latest research on the lands situated at the lower Odra, while the three further parts of the volume are devoted to various aspects of the functioning of money in the West Slavic area in the early Middle Ages. After a range of general papers that focus on the functioning of money in particular cultural contexts, the later contributions concern money media. The volume ends with articles devoted to particular regions of the West Slavic area. We are fully aware of the fact that this publication is not an exhaustive monograph of the matters studied, but at the same time we sincerely hope that it will allow for the wider acknowledgement of the complexity of the problems explored within its pages, the richness of the various phenomena and the great diversity of the West Slavic area.

3 R. Kiersnowski, Pieniądz kruszcowy w Polsce wczesnośredniowiecznej, Warszawa 1960.

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Finally we would like to cordially thank everyone who made the publication of this volume possible. We express our gratitude to the authorities of the Wolin commune and the director of the Wolin Museum for creating the perfect intellectual environment for organizing our conference in Wolin, at the Dziwna River. We also thank the authors for their contributions to this volume, including those scholars who could not come to Wolin, but who kindly summited their articles afterwards. Special thanks to the reviewers for recommending this volume for publication.

Two systems of trade in the Western Slavic lands in the 10th century

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Marek Jankowiak

The map of silver hoards buried in Central and Eastern Europe before 960 presents an unexpected feature (Fig. 1)1. Almost none of the hundreds of deposits scattered across the major part of the Baltic area was found south and west of a line running from Saxony, along the Sudetes and the Carpathians, to the Black Sea. No ninth- or tenth-century hoard with the terminus post quem (tpq) earlier than 960 is currently known from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Lesser Poland, and only one from Hungary – in stark contrast to the dozens of hoards found in Eastern Germany, Greater Poland, Mazovia and Ukrainian Galicia, not to speak of the Rus’

1 This study resulted from the Newton International Fellowship funded by the British Academy. I would like to thank Luke Treadwell and Adam Ziółkowski for their comments. Any mistakes areAny mistakes are mine.

Fig. 1. Hoards of dirhams with tpq before 960

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lands further east2. The frontier between the zone of silver hoarding and the area devoid of hoards is remarkably clearly cut.

This division of the Slavic lands into two distinct monetary zones is surprising3, given that written sources attest to active trade and to the use of coinage on both sides of the divide. They emphasize the outstanding position of the market of Prague, repeatedly refer to the trade route which connected it with Kraków and Kiev, and mention Hungarian and Jewish merchants active in the dirhamless zone. So why do the textual evidence for trade and monetary finds not coincide? I would like to argue that although the existence of two zones of monetary circulation reflects structural differences between two trade systems, it is ultimately due to different attitudes towards precious metals of the main actors engaged in trade.

With one exception, contemporary sources are not aware of the divide running across the Slavic lands. This is not unexpected, as most of them lack the necessary global perspective. Such a perspective was in the 10th century available only to geographers. It is precisely an Arabic geograp who, as far as I know, is the only contemporary writer conscious of the existence of two trade systems in the Slavic lands. Ibn Ḥawqal, in his description of al-Andalus, or Muslim Spain, has this to say on the Spanish exports:

“One of the famous items of their merchandise are slaves (raqīq), handsome girls and boys, captured in the land of the Franks and in Galicia, as well as Ṣaqāliba eunuchs (khadam). All the Ṣaqāliba eunuchs on the surface of the earth are imported from al-Andalus, because they are castrated near that country, and this is done by Jewish merchants. The Slavs are a tribe descending from Japhet, and their country is long and broad. Raiders from Khurasan get to them from the side of the Bulgars, and when they [sc. the Ṣaqāliba] are led into captivity there they are left unemasculated and their bodies remain unimpaired. (…) The sea-arm stretching from the Surrounding Sea in the area of Gog and Magog traverses their country and extends westwards to the area of Trebizond and then to Constantinople and cuts it into two halves. Thus half of their country, along its whole length, is raided by the Khurasanis who border on it, while the northern half is raided by the Andalusians from the side of Galicia, France, Lombardia and Calabria. In these areas, many captives can still be obtained”4.

Ibn Ḥawqal thus claims that Slavic lands were cut into two halves by a sea-arm extending from the abodes of the northern tribes of Gog and the Magog to the Black Sea. Such a channel cutting Europe from Asia indeed appears, with the name al-Ṣaqāliba written across it, on the world map appended by Ibn Ḥawqal to his work5.

2 I base my observations on such lists of hoards as Brather (1995–96), and on the database of silver hoards I am currently building. The only Hungarian hoard comes from the former Máramaros county and was buried in the upper reaches of the Tisa after 935/6, see Fomin, Kovács 1987.

3 Thus also Nazarenko 2001, 92–93.4 Ibn Ḥawqal, p. 110 (French translation p. 109). See also the discussion of this passage, in particular

on the identification of the Ṣaqāliba with the Slavs, in Ayalon 1979, 92–101. A similar passage can be found in Ibn Ḥawqal’s chapter on the Caspian Sea, p. 392 (French translation p. 383): “the Khwarizmians often enter the [lands of the] Bulgars and of the Slavs, raid them, plunder and bring captives”.

5 Ibn Ḥawqal, between p. 8 and 9 (French translation map 1, between p. 12 and 13).


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This imaginary sea is not merely a misconception; it allowed Ibn Ḥawqal to explain how Ṣaqāliba slaves could possibly be traded at both extremities of the Islamic world, in al-Andalus and in Khurasan. Ibn Ḥawqal was well-placed to observe the popularity of the Slavic slaves: his extensive travels led him between 943 and 973 to both Spain and Central Asia6. In order to explain how lands so distant could have had access to the same pool of Ṣaqāliba slaves, Ibn Ḥawqal not only logically described the land of the Ṣaqāliba as “long and broad”, but he also suggested that two distinct systems of supply were in place: the Andalusians, or Spanish Muslims, obtained Ṣaqāliba slaves from “the northern half” – more exactly, the western half – of the Slavic lands, while the other half was raided by the Khurasanis, or Muslims from Central Asia. The separation between the two systems is symbolised by the sea cutting through the Slavic lands.

With the exception of this sea, Ibn Ḥawqal was right. Much of what was happening in the Slavic lands in the 10th century can be explained by the existence of two separate trade systems fuelled by the demand for slaves from Umayyad Spain and from Samanid Central Asia. But despite many similarities, these two systems operated in different ways in Central Europe.

Even though many questions are still unanswered, the logic of the Samanid trade system is beginning to be better understood7. The finds of hundreds of thousands of dirhams minted by the Samanid emirs delineate its geographical extent: the Samanid silver made its way to Rus’, Gotland, mainland Sweden, Pomerania and central Poland. Chronologically, its inflow spans the first half of the 10th century and ends probably in the 950s or 960s. The mechanisms of this trade system are known from the famous account of Ibn Faḍlān, who visited the market place of Bulgar on the Volga in 9228. He described how the Rus’ – that is Scandinavians settled since recently in various parts of the modern Russia and Ukraine9 – were selling slave girls and furs to a gigantic caravan of merchants from Central Asia. Ibn Faḍlān’s insistence on slave girls is probably more than a pretext to describe the sexual mistreatment they were subjected to: other sources confirm that slaves, and in particular women, were the main source of silver for the Scandinavian merchants. This is an important point, because large-scale slave trade systems were complex ventures involving sophisticated logistics, as slaves had to be hunted down, fed, and guarded on their way to the market place.

Markets were a crucial element of this system. According to Arabic sources, exchanges between the Northern Lands and the Islamic world were concentrated in the markets of Bulgar and Itil, political centres of Volga Bulgaria and Khazaria10.

6 On Ibn Ḥawqal and his travels, see Miquel (1967, 299–309; 1968). He visited Spain in 948 and Khwarizm soon after 969.

7 A detailed argument is developed in my forthcoming paper on the systems of trade in Slavic slaves in the 9th and 10th centuries.

8 I quote Ibn Faḍlān by the number of folio of the Mashhad manuscript and paragraph of Zeki Validi’s edition. The most recent English translation: Lunde, Stone 2012, 3–58. Polish translation with an extensive commentary: Kmietowicz et al. 1985.

9 Pace Montgomery 2000. On the chronology of the Scandinavian presence in the Rus’, see Zuckerman 2000.

10 See, for instance, Ibn Ḥawqal, p. 15 (French translation p. 14–15): “Bulgar is a small country and has few provinces. It was famous because it was the market of the neighbouring kingdoms”.

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Thanks to extensive studies by Gert Rispling, it is now known that the Bulgars and, to a lesser extent, the Khazars were producing vast quantities of coins imitating Abbasid and Samanid dirhams, probably equivalent to more than 10% of the total inflow of the Oriental silver to Northern Europe in the 9th and 10th centuries11. The reasons behind the minting of such quantities of silver can only be economic. Even if precise mechanisms still have to be elucidated, the following preliminary explanation can be proposed: the production of dirham imitations by the Volga Bulgars was a response to an excess of the demand for silver, generated by the Scandinavians, over the supply of dirhams offered by the Khwarizmian merchants. Assuming that trade was conducted on an annual cycle12, if the Muslim caravan brought too little silver or was altogether unable to reach Bulgar – Ibn Faḍlān’s account shows how fragile steppe communications were13 – the Bulgar merchants stepped in and conducted transactions on behalf of their Khwarizmian partners with coins produced locally. Ibn Faḍlān describes trade partnerships between Muslim merchants and Turks; similar arrangements must have existed with the Bulgars14. Dirham imitations were thus produced by the Volga Bulgars to ensure liquidity in the market of Bulgar. As a result, the Bulgars did not only control the market place, but they also acted as market makers actively intermediating the exchanges between the suppliers and the purchasers of the main commodity traded in their market, the slaves.

If the Samanid trade system consisted in the Rus’ and other Scandinavians selling Slavic slaves and other commodities, such as furs, to Muslim merchants in exchange for silver coins, it is difficult, in the absence of hoards, to obtain a similar understanding of the dirhamless trade system. Written sources show that it gravitated around the market place of Prague. Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʼqūb, who visited it around 961 or 966, wrote in his well-known report:

“The city of Farāgha is built of stone and lime [on the bank of a river. It is smaller than a city and bigger than a village. It has a market with everything needed for the travellers and the inhabitants.] (…) It is their principal trading city. The Rūs and the Ṣaqāliba go there from Karākū with commodities, while from the country of the Turks and of the Muslims come to them Jews and Turks15 with commodities and mathāqīl al-marqaṭiyya and carry away slaves (raqīq), tin and various kinds of wool”16.

11 Rispling 2005.12 The distances and times of travel make any other unlikely. Ibn Faḍlān left Khwarizm on 4 March

922, arrived in Bulgar after a journey of 70 days, on 12 May 922, and stayed there until autumn (fol. 206r, §50). The journey from Khwarizm to Bulgar and back thus took almost 5 months, making multiple journeys within a year impossible. The same applies to the Rus’ coming to Bulgar. Rus’ expeditions to Constantinople were similarly subject to a yearly rhythm, see Const. Porph., DAI §9.

13 The caravan was stopped three times by the Turks, but two of these stops may have been due to the exceptional presence of caliphal envoys: Ibn Faḍlān, fol. 201r-v (§28–29) and 202v (§36).

14 Ibn Faḍlān, fol. 200v (§25).15 Rather than “from the country of the Turks come to them Muslims, Jews and Turks”, see Lewicki

1971, 698–699.16 Al-Bakrī 1.332 (§545), see also Kowalski 1946, 49, 74–76 and Lunde, Stone 2012, 164. The passage

in brackets comes from the geographical dictionary of al-Himyarī, p. 86, see also Lewicki 1960; 1971. On the date of Ibrāhīm’s travel to Central Europe, see Engels 1991 and Třeštík 2001, 135–138.


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Even if Ibrāhīm is unfortunately not explicit on what he himself brought to Prague and what he bought there, exports from Prague to “the country of the Muslims”, no doubt the Umayyad Spain, and to “the country of the Turks”, that is Hungary, must have consisted mainly again of Slavic slaves17. Ṣaqāliba slaves are massively attested in al-Andalus as domestic servants – several thousand of them are said to have lived in the palace-city of Madinat al-Zahra under the caliph ʿAbd al-Raḥman III in the mid-10th century18 – and as members of the top echelons of the caliphal administration and guard. The remaining parameters of the Prague trade system are more uncertain. As far as chronology is concerned, it may be conjectured that large-scale trade started in Prague only in the 920s, in reaction to the increase of Spanish demand under ʿAbd al-Raḥman III (912–961)19. Ibrāhīm’s account suggests that slaves were brought to Prague by the Rus’ and the Ṣaqāliba coming from Kraków, in other words by, on the one hand, Scandinavian merchants and, on the other, the Western Slavs who controlled the area that was later called Lesser Poland. These were at this point of time the Czechs; it is probably not too far-fetched to identify slave hunting as the main motivation behind their expansion to the northern side of the Carpathians20. We will see that Rus’ merchants from the ‘dirham zone’ probably started to supply the market of Prague little before the trip of Ibrāhīm, the Bohemian dukes therefore initially played the key role in the procurement of slaves for the Prague market. In contrast to Bulgar, Prague was thus long supplied primarily by its owners: as a result, there was no need for intermediation, and hence no need for local currency.

Although Ibrāhīm names various monetary units in his description of the market of Prague, silver does not seem to have been the main means of exchange used there around the mid-10th century. Ibrāhīm mentions mathāqīl (sg. mithqāl) al-marqaṭiyya brought by merchants from Hungary and the lands of the Muslims and used also in the country of Mieszko21, and qinshār (pl. qanāshir) used in Prague; the former is perhaps hacksilver, and the latter Western European deniers22. However, this testimony stands in contrast to the near total absence of monetary finds in Bohemia before the 960s. For Dušan Třeštík, the fact that dirhams “occur only exceptionally in the coin finds does not need to mean anything. It is known that hoards do not reflect the real circulation of coinage”23. But the picture is no different for single finds. Almost no coins are archaeologically known from Bohemia prior to 960, and Ibrāhīm’s description of the use of kerchiefs as a means of exchange in Prague

17 See, for instance, Žemlička 1995, 270–271.18 Ibn ʿIdhārī, 2.232 (French translation 2.383). On the Ṣaqāliba in Spain, see recently Meouak 2004.19 Ibn ʿIdhārī 2.259 (French translation 2.430): “the caliphs tried to gather as many of them [the

Ṣaqāliba] as possible. Al-Nāṣir [ʿAbd al-Raḥman III] and al-Ḥakam made them their closest friends”. See also Guichard and Meouak 1995, 880.

20 Pace Třeštík 2001, 104, who interprets the Czech expansion as an attempt “to control as effectively as possible an as long as possible stretch of the trade route” from “the Caliphate of Cordoba via Kiev to the markets of the Khazars (…) and China”. On the lack of attestations for this route before c. 960, see below.

21 Al-Bakrī 1.333 (§548), translated in Kowalski 1946, 50, and Lunde, Stone 2012, 165.22 Štěpková 1957.23 Třeštík 2001, 122.

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hints at the low availability of silver24. Unfortunately, neither texts nor archaeology give any indications of what was offered by the Spanish merchants in exchange for slaves: perhaps exotic and luxury goods, such as beads, textiles, silk and weapons, or silver and gold in a non-monetary form, but almost certainly not big quantities of coins.

The two trade systems did not intersect until the 960s. The first travel between Prague and the ‘silver zone’ attested in the written sources was the embassy of the Rus’ princess Ol’ga to king Otto I in 959 and the ensuing unsuccessful mission of Adalbert to Kiev in 961. Its fate – Adalbert barely escaped with his life while some of his companions were killed during their return from Kiev – proves that the route Prague-Kiev was not yet practicable25. It was probably opened only in the late 950s: when around 955 the Spanish Umayyad dignitary Hasdai b. Shaprut tried to establish contact with the Khazar king Joseph, his letter had to be carried from Prague to Kiev via Hungary, which implies that direct communication was not yet possible26. Similarly, the surprise of Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb when he saw Samanid dirhams in Mainz around the same date indicates that the two trade zones came into contact only very recently27.

The evidence of hoards shows a similar picture. German coins first arrived in the Baltic area (Denmark, Sweden and Pomerania) in the 950s28; the several specimens known from hoards buried in Greater Poland in the same decade are also likely to have arrived via the Baltic coast29. The trade route connecting Prague to the domain of Mieszko in Greater Poland probably dates only from the 960s30, when Mieszko’s warriors turned to Prague in reaction to the decreasing supply of dirhams. They quickly secured access to this market by means of an alliance concluded by the

24 Single finds: Profantová, Novák 2005. Kerchiefs: al-Bakrī 1.332 (§546), translated in Kowalski 1946, 49, and Lunde, Stone 2012, 165.

25 Cont. Reg. Trev. s.a. 959–962. The identification of the Rugi of the ‘Raffelstetten Plea’ with the Rus’, recently defended among others by Nazarenko 2001, 80–91, is unlikely, which leaves the route Prague-Kiev unattested before 959.

26 Golb 1982, 92: messengers of the king of the Gebalim came [to Spain] and with them were two Israelites, one of whom was named Mar Saul and the other Mar Joseph. When they heard of my consternation [i.e. of Hasdai’s inability to send his letter to the king of the Khazars], they consoled me, saying to me: ‘Give us your epistles and we will bring them to the king of the Gebalim. Out of respect to you he will send your letter to the Israelites dwelling in the land of HNGRYN, and they will likewise send it to Rūs and from there to Bulgār, until your letter, as you desire, arrives at the place you wish it to. I accept the identification of the Gebalim, etymologically inhabitants of the Phoenician merchant city of Byblos, with the Czechs, who controlled the market of Prague, as proposed by Putík 1996 and Třeštík 2001, 115–116. Hasdai’s letter dates to the mid-950s, several years after his first unsuccessful attempt to contact the Khazar king in 948, on which see Zuckerman 1995, 240–241.

27 Al-Qazwīnī, 2.409 (s.v. Maghānja), translated in Engels 1991, 422, see also Kowalski 1946, 38.28 Jonsson 1990; Suchodolski 1990.29 The earliest German coins from Greater Poland come from the hoards of Grzybowo (tpq 952, I am

grateful to Dorota Malarczyk for this information), Kuźnica Czarnkowska (tpq 954) and Poznań I (tpq 961).

30 The first substantial find of German coins is the hoard of Turew (c. 80 coins, mainly Bavarian, tpq 962), see Suchodolski 1988; 2012, 177–187, with complements at 187–188. Other hoards with termini post quem in the 960s do not contain Western coins (Wielonek, tpq 961, and Węgierskie, tpq 965 – I owe this information to Dorota Malarczyk). The often quoted (e.g. Kara 2009, 256 ill. 89 and 264 n. 1387) tpq of 948 for the hoard of Gwiazdowo is based on the single described coin and cannot be used for this type of analysis. On all these hoards, see the relevant entries in Slaski and Tabaczyński 1959.


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dukes Mieszko and Boleslav I in 965 and of the resulting baptism of Mieszko. The inflow of German coins to the Piast territory intensified in the 970s, when they replaced the dirhams as the main component of the hoards. With the exception of the earliest finds, German coins are found side by side with the earliest coins issued by the Bohemian dukes, which made their first appearance in several hoards buried in Greater Poland in the early 970s31. On this basis Stanisław Suchodolski dated the beginning of their production to c. 970. The only potentially earlier hoard containing a Bohemian coin, found on the small Danish island of Sejerø, has the tpq of 953, but, as an isolated example, it does not invalidate the date proposed by Suchodolski32. The “official” coinage in the name of the duke Boleslav – it cannot be determined whether it was issued by Boleslav I (929 or 935–between 967 and–between 967 andbetween 967 and 972) or Boleslav II (between 967 and 972–999) – was preceded, or rather, judging–999) – was preceded, or rather, judging999) – was preceded, or rather, judging from the chronology of the hoards, accompanied by imitations of Bavarian coins that Wolfgang Hahn attributed, among others on the basis of die links, to Prague. Hahn dated them to the 960s, but they appear in the Polish hoards slightly later than the coins issued by the duke Boleslav33. Finally, considerable doubt surrounds an isolated coin bearing the name of the duke Wenceslas (Václav, 921–929 or 935?)–929 or 935?)929 or 935?) found in 1997 in Kazan’34. The beginning of the Czech coinage can therefore be dated to the turn of the 960s.

This coincidence of the earliest evidence for contact between Prague and the suppliers of slaves from the dirham zone and of the beginnings of Bohemian coinage is intriguing. The geography of the earliest finds with Bohemian coins suggests that it was an export coinage: most of the early finds come from Greater Poland and Silesia, and none is currently known from Bohemia itself35 (Fig. 2). Interestingly, no early hoards with Bohemian coins were found in Pomerania, Mazovia and Gotland36. This suggests the following hypothesis: similarly to the monetary production of the Volga Bulgar, initiated in response to the appetite for silver of the Scandinavian suppliers of slaves, Bohemian dukes started issuing coins

31 Suchodolski 1998, 5–11; 2012, 306–322. The earliest hoard is either Uść on the Lower Vistula (tpq 970/1, see Kiersnowscy 1959, find 187, p. 110–111) or Obrzycko on the Lower Warta (tpq ca 970 according to Suchodolski 2012, 188, but given that attributions of the youngest German coins are uncertain I take Byzantine coins of John Tzimiskes (969–976) to be the latest securely dated coins, hence the tpq of 969). On the earliest finds of Bohemian coins, see also Radoměrský 1956, and Cach 1970; 1982.

32 On the hoard from Sejerby on Sejerø, a small island north-west of Sjælland, see most recently von Heijne 2004, fynd 4.96, p. 290, with older bibliography. It contained 143 coins: 97 dirhams (most recent 942/3), 34 Nordic, 10 Anglo-Saxon, 1 German of the archbishop Bruno of Cologne (953–965), and 1 Bohemian coin. Another early hoard with two Bohemian coins from Metsaküla in Estonia, usually dated to 964/5 (see recently Leimus 2007, find A.17, p. 34–35, with further references), was buried after ca 975, the earliest possible date for a half-bracteate from the group KG 9b, see Suchodolski 1998, 10 n. 18), with Malmer 1966, 222–224.

33 Hahn 1986. The earliest hoards are Nowa Obra (tpq 974, see Suchodolski 2012, 188), Zalesie and “Kórnik” (both tpq 976).

34 See the papers in “Numismatické listy” 67/4, 1999 and the scepticism of Suchodolski 2012, 317, 322.

35 The earliest Bohemian hoard is the find from Nový Dvůr at the Saxon-Bohemian border, buried after 985, see Lukas and Polanský 2007, 79.

36 The earliest Gotlandic hoards containing Bohemian coins have a tpq of 991: Hatz and Hatz 1973–74. With the exception of the Sejerby hoard, the oldest Danish hoard with a Bohemian coin is Grågård (tpq 985), see von Heijne 2004, find 10.2.

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in the late 960s because there appeared a new demand for monetary silver. Similarly to the Volga Bulgars who produced coins in their role of intermediaries between the suppliers and the buyers of the slaves, Bohemian dukes produced first coins when they found themselves, for the first time, in the position of intermediary, that is when Prague started to be visited by suppliers of slaves other than the local elites. Finally, just like the Scandinavian demand for silver attracted Samanid dirhams to Bulgar, the Scandinavian-like appetite for silver of the warriors from Greater Poland

was in the last analysis responsible for the inflow of the Western silver to Prague and for the breaching of the divide between the two monetary zones that until the 960s partitioned the West Slavic lands.Fig. 2. Hoards containing Bohemian coins with tpq before 980. Numbers include “official”

Bohemian coins and imitations of Bavarian coins attributed to the Czech dukes37.

Thus, despite fundamental similarities between the trade systems centred on Prague and on Bulgar – both were supplying slaves from the Western Slavic lands to the Muslim world – they differed in one key respect: the demand of their suppliers for coined silver. As long as the market of Prague was supplied by its own dukes, who were less interested in monetary silver than the Scandinavians and the Slavic elites under their cultural influence, coins were not used there as a means of exchange. This changed only in the 960s, when suppliers from the dirham zone

37 Find places of the imitations: Hahn 1986, 295–296. The find place of the hoard preserved in Kórnik is approximate, see Gibasiewicz 1958, 15.


145

started doing business in Prague, and only from that time on Western Slavic lands can be considered, at least in monetary terms, a single economic zone.

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