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Descoperiri monetare la Histria, Sectorul Sud (2013-2017)

2018, Materiale și Cercetări Arheologice, S.N.

Abstract

COIN FINDS AT HISTRIA, THE „SOUTH SECTOR” (2013-2017) During the 2013-2017 systematic research taking place in the „South Sector” of the archaeological resort Histria, 85 coins were collected, out of which 68 exemplars (80%) were identified. The excavations have been focused on the north-west boundary of the sector, corresponding to the western part of the enclosure and the compartments of an important edifice identified as early as 2011-2012. The size of the coin batch indicates a certain dynamics of monetary presence in an area probably intensely inhabited in the Roman Histria between the second half of the 2nd Century AD and the end of the Tetrarchy. The restriction of the fortified enclosure and implicitly of the urban area during the late Roman Empire, abandoned the area of the great edifice to the extra muros zone, to be overlapped by two levels of necropolis. The 68 coins are chronologically distributed as follows: six coins from the age before the Roman rule, 40 coins from the period of Principate (seven denars, 18 antoninians, one sestertius, one dupondius, 13 provincial coins), 16 Late Roman coins and six Byzantine coins from the 6th Century AD. Along with monetary issues already documented in the finds at Histria, there are also rarities such as: a coin from the late period of the city's autonomy, bearing an uncommon countermark (No. 6); Istrian coins by Antoninus Pius and Caracalla, of less known types (No. 8, 13) respectively a pseudo-autonomous coin with the ICTPI legend engraved in an unusual way (No. 14); a piece of 4 Assaria of Nicopolis ad Istrum, with a type of reverse not yet documented for the governance of Lower Moesia by L. Aurelius Gallus, 202-205 AD (no.12); the single one antoninianus from Gordian III so far registered at Histria (No. 27); an antoninianus issued by Vabalathus (No 38). The structure of the batch generally confirms the previous remarks – occasioned by the publication of the first batch of coins in 2014 – about the monetary presence in the southern area of the studied urban center. Probably most of the coins appeared in a secondary position, with no stratigraphic significance. Exceptions are made by some pieces found in the debris of the walls and on the treading level of the studied building, at least 16 of which could constitute chronological points of reference. The numismatic material indicates a hypothetical building of the great edifice, probably of public utility, in the first part of the 3rd Century AD. After a plausible destruction by fire during the "Scythian War", it was probably partially rebuilt in the days of Aurelian or Probus, and functioned until the beginning of the second decade of the 4th century AD, when it was finally devastated, apparently in the course of another fire. The coins that were sporadically penetrated later do not reflect the habitation of the area, being related rather to funerary systematizations in the second half of the 4th Century AD and later. For a general overview, the full list of the coin finds at Histria- the „South Sector” is attached.