Finds of Oriental and European silver coins form a conspicuous, yet elusive, element in the archaeological material of the ninth-twelfth centuries in the Northern lands. In Finland the contrast between the handful of coins from the pre-Viking period and the seven thousand coins from the Viking Age is striking, but compared with the finds from Sweden and Russia, the material is very modest. This, however, does not diminish its importance from Finland's point of view. The number of coins acquired by Finnish museums from finds made in the present area of Finland is now slightly more than 7000. There is also information on perhaps a thousand other coins that have been dispersed or melted down during the past two or three hundred years.
Author(s): Tuukka Talvio
Series: Iskos, 12
Publisher: The Finnish Antiquary Society
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 236
City: Helsinki
Acknowledgements 7
PART I
1. lntroduction 8
The material 8
Methodological considerations 10
A note on collections, geography and dates 14
2. The coins in the finds 18
3. Previous studies 30
4. Hoards 37
The discovery of hoards 38
The eastern coins 41
The ninth century 42
The tenth century 45
The western coins 46
Geographical distribution 46
Chronology 49
Non-monetary silver in the hoards 58
Relation between coins and non-monetary silver 58
The origins of non-monetary silver 62
Problems of dating 64
Hoards with no coins 65
5. Grave finds 67
Coins in graves as ornaments and money 67
The finds 72
The coins 76
Summary 79
6. Single and cumulative finds 80
Single finds 80
Cumulative finds 83
7. Coin imports 84
The eastern coins 85
The earliest finds from Finland 85
Ninth-century hoards 88
Tenth-century Åland 91
The tenth-century on the mainland: the last phase of Islamic imports 98
The Byzantine coins 104
The western coins 106
The tenth and eleventh centuries 106
The twelfth century 109
Import routes 110
The end of western imports 116
8. Interpretation of the hoards 117
Recent studies 117
The Finnish hoards and the 'Satakunta problem' 119
9. Coins and money in late prehistoric Finland 124
PART II
Catalogues
Hoards 131
Grave finds 167
Single finds 195
Cumulative finds 205
Appendix: Coin finds from former Finnish Karelia and the Salla-Kuusamo area 209
Bibliography 218
Abbreviations 230
List of figures and maps 231
Index of finds 232
