1/31/2024 0 Comments Scandinavian coinage200 silver objects, and these analyses are placed in a broader context of early medieval silver metallurgy, mining archaeology and numismatics to interpret the compositional shifts as shifts in trade. This study features the use of laser ablation mass spectrometry of ca. The elemental and lead isotope compositions of locally minted Hedeby coins were compared to jewelry objects, hacksilver and imported silver coins, and four chronologically related groups could be identified that reflect changes in the origin and type of raw materials used. Hedeby, a Viking emporium, was an important gateway of trade between the Baltic and North Seas, and this makes it is an ideal place to explore the evolution of the silver supply in the 10th and 11th centuries A.D. The trade of silver in Viking Age Scandinavia is intertwined with the development and collapse of long distance trade routes stretching as far as the North Atlantic in the west to Central Asia in the east. They were intended for use only by people visiting the town and using its market. This change in the transactional sphere had probably been prompted by the arrival of Western European silver coins to Scandinavia at the turn of the first millennium AD.Finally, the Anglo-Scandinavian coinages probably did not have any monetary value outside the strongholds in which they were minted. Because of that there might have existed a similar situation in the transactional sphere in the Viking Age, as later during the Middle Ages, whereby different qualities of silver were recognized and valued according to different exchange-rates. It is also argued that at some stage in the bullion economy, coined silver was preferred to hack-silver in transactions. These weights follow the Islamic mitqal standard. The archaeological evidence from the Sigtuna mint seems to suggest that the Sigtuna coins were weighed with oblate spheroid weights. In such a monetary system, which had both elements of a coin-based and a bullion-based economy, weighing was probably the only way in which to settle the exchange-value. It is suggested that the coinages did not necessarily have a nominal value, but an officially sanctioned exchange-value, which could only be reckoned and valued by weight and not by number. Their numismatic classification has recently been accomplished by meticulous die-studies, but the question of how they were used as means of payment remains unresolved. Today, their status as Scandinavian imitations of English coins – minted in Viking towns such as Sigtuna and Lund – has been recognized. In the early days of numismatic research their status among other Viking-age and early medieval coinages was not clearly understood, nor was it clear how they should be classified. The aim of this paper is to discuss the monetary use and function of the Anglo-Scandinavian coinages, especially the Sigtuna coinage.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |