Tyragetia (Nov 2018)
A bronze Macedonian coin from the village of Tudora (Ştefan Vodă District)
Abstract
In 1958, the Department of Scythian Archaeology of the Moldavian Expedition of the Institute of History and Material Culture and the Moldavian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the direction of A.I. Meljukova conducted field research in the southern part of the MSSR. On the right bank of the Dniester River, studies were carried out in the area of the Olăneşti and Palanca villages, particularly in the territory of the village of Tudora. As a result, 14 settlements were studied, three of which were of the pre-Scythian time, four attributed to the Scythian period, six to the first centuries of Christianity, and three of the medieval times. The site Tudora I was located at the entrance to the village from Olăneşti and in 1958 was in better state of preservation. There were identified 2 habitation layers – one of the period of the existence of the pre-Scythian fortress and the second of the Roman period. Among the individual finds from this site there is a bronze coin attributed by A.I. Meljukova to the issues of Macedonian King Philip II. On the front side there was an image of the head of the beardless young man (Apollo?), with the hair tied, and on the reverse side - the rider on horse galloping to the right, the legend at the top: О, and in the lower part - monogram NE . The ratio of the obverse and the reverse was 45°. The analysis of the image taken from the original research report shows that the coin from Tudora I belongs to type SG 6696v, whereas items of this type usually have the diameter about 17-18 mm and the weight varying between 5.5 and 7.5 g, and are dated between 359 and 336 BC. We would like to point out that the polis that used the monogram NE was Neonteichos, but it is very unlikely that this town produced bronze imitations of the coins of King Philip II the Macedonian. In the neighboring south Danube areas, this type of coin is well-known, both in Dobrogea, but especially on the territory of Bulgaria. Prof. Ilya Prokopov considers that the respective monogram is rather a combination of letter N and a trident. The authors of this study support the Bulgarian researcher’s opinion. The bronze Macedonian coin presented in the 1958 archaeological report on Tudora (Ştefan Vodă District) is the first such find between the Prut and the Dniester. Unfortunately, the coin itself was not found in any of the museums of the Republic of Moldova. Its fate remains uncertain, with a minimal chance of recovery. The analysis of the image in the photograph allows us to date the coin the second half of the 4th century BC, even near the end of it. The brevity of the text of the report does not allow us to identify other chronological elements, the moment and conditions for the penetration of the coin into the Barbarian World.
