About a new monetary hoard of diobols from Mesembria discovered in the south of Dobruja

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, very possibly with the help of metal detectors, a small hoard composed of 14 silver coins, of the Corinthian crested helmet type, minted in the Hellenistic epoch in Mesembria, was discovered. The very little information that has been preserved regarding the context of the discovery excludes the presence of a vessel (in the sense that there is no information regarding its recovery). It is also very possible that the 14 specimens recovered do not represent all the coins discovered in the small hoard. Compared to other hoards that seem to be associated with it in a distinct monetary horizon, silver pieces from Apollonia Pontica are also absent. Important to note is the fact that there were two lots of the same find, which were purchased separately by the same person, from different people. The first batch contained 9 copies, the second 5 copies. It is quite possible that the hoard contained several coins, at least based on the idea that the coins were divided by the discoverer’s half/ half. And it is still very possible that some copies have already been sold by them before reaching the indicated Constanta collector. Consequently, we believe that the hoard contained at least more than 20 pieces of silver minted in Mesembria. The hoard discovered at Chirnogeni, although it does not contain silver coins from Apollonia Pontica, is part of a horizon of hoards discovered in historical Dobruja and the north-east of today’s Bulgaria, probably buried between 339 and 313 BC. However, despite some inherent inaccuracies of its location and interpretation and the burial context, we believe that the material that does not come from controlled archaeological excavations has a role in studying the presence and monetary circulation of some categories of coins minted in the west of the Pontos Euxeinos in the pre-Roman period. In this case, from Dorian Mesembria. As a result, the information is relevant to the pre-Roman monetary history for this area of extreme northeastern Thrace, at a time when Macedonian power dominated including most of the Balkan Peninsula.

Keywords

• hoard
• diobols
• mesembria
• dobruja
• philippus ii
• atheas
• lysimachos.