Късноантична монетна находка от Пернишко

Late Antique coin hoard from Pernik region

Abstract

In the summer of 2016, a hoard containing more than 1000 bronze coins of a small denomination, stuck together in druses, was arrested during a police action in Dolna Sekirna village, Breznik municipality, Pernik district. Most probably the hoard comes from an archaeological site in Chuka locality 439 m away from Kolina neighbourhood, 1,4 km from Peyna neighbourhood, and 536 m from Slivie neighbourhood of Dolna Sekirna village.
After the initial restoration, it turned out that the number of the whole coins is 1255. The hoard covers the period of the 4th–5th c. Most of the coins are of a poor quality and erased representations due to the characteristics of the metal and the long time of circulation of some of them as well as to their stay in the soil. Their metric data and external features definitely relate them to the second half of the 4th – the second half of the 5th c. 468 whole coins have been identified according to the emperors and the time of issue. The earliest coin among them remains isolated from the rest. It is an antoninianus of emperor Gallienus (253 – 268 AD). The rest of the coins are dating from the period of 311 – 474 AD. The weight of the coins is 1181,23 g in total. The hoard was composed during the period of 450 – 474 AD under Marcianus and Leo I. The coins are mostly of nominal AE3 and AE4 with the advantage of the latter. Except for the coins of the Roman mint (9 pieces), all of them issued under the emperor of the Western Empire Valentinian III, the rest were struck in the ateliers in the Eastern Empire (48 pieces). The coins minted in Constantinople prevail (27 pieces).
The coins of emperor Leo I (457 – 474 AD) mark terminus post quem of the hoard in discussion as the same terminus post quem is in effect for the hoards from Bosnek village, Pernik region, Goz village, Breznik region, from Krakra Fortress as well as the coin complexes from the archaeological research at Krakra Hill, villa rustica in Daskalovo residential area (today’s Tsarkva residential area) and Arbanas neighbourhood in the town of Radomir. Its concealment we may associate with events from the second half of the 5th c. that took place in Serdica and in its vicinities – the invasion of the Huns of Holmidak in 466 – 467 AD south of the Danube or the disarray between the Alanian mercenaries of the Empire and their leader Aspar and the leader of the Isaurians, Tarasis Kodisa – the future emperor Zeno.