[gothic-l] Re: Gothic Coins: Was Runic Influences

[dirk at SMRA.CO.UK]

--- In gothic-l at y..., Tore Gannholm <tore.gannholm at s...> wrote:
> Hello Dirk,
> It is fantastic with internet. Here we can share all your knowledge.
Of
> course there was no minting in Hungary. But as you suggest it was
payments
> made, in this case probably to the Heruls living in presentday
Hungary at
> that time.



Hello Tore,

actually I would prefer to see these hoards as originating from trade,
 which is the most common and most widely held explanation, based on
the composition and find circumstances of these hoards.




 When these people after the defeat about 505 moved to
> Scandinavia they brought these coins with them. Some of them we find
in the
> soil.



The problem is that virtually all late Roman gold coin hoards from
Scandinavia include coins of Emperor Justinus I and even Justinian I,
who ruled from 518AD onwards and could not have been present in hoards
 compiled before 505AD. A pre-505AD hoard would consist mainly of coin
of Leo I and Zeno and the earlier types of Anastasius and perhaps the
odd Basiliscus and Marcian. What is your evidence that suggests to you
that these coins have been brought to Scandinavia by the Heruls?





> What is your opion of the analyses made by Fagerlie? Up till now I
have
> understood this as a good book. Fagerlie, Joan M., Late Roman and
Byzantine
> solidi, 1967.



I don't know the book. Fagerlie is well known in the field, but there
are more recent and more comprehensive studies around.




> No doubt Gotland had very close contacts with the Goths both when
they were
> in the Vistula area, when they moved to the Black Sea and when they
were in
> Italy.
> We can find this connection in the Museum.



That is possible, but not supported by coin hoard evidence as no
Ostrogothic let alone Visigothic coins have been found on Gotland or
anywhere else in Scandinavia. In fact, the Ostrogoths and Visigoths
had likely very little trade contact with Northern Europe in general.
However, this does not mean that they didn't have other forms of
contact. For example, we know that the Ostrogoths had contact with the
Thuringians in modern Germany, although no Ostrogothic coins have been
found in Thuringia.

What is your evidence to support your view that Ostrogoths in Italy
and Visigoths in Spain had direct contact with Gotland? You hinted at
artefacts in Museums; what are these? I understand that it virutally
impossible to attribute an artefact to the Ostrogoths unless it has
been found on attested Ostogothic settlement areas and displays some
East Germanic style. I would suggest that a possible contact of
Ostrogoths in Italy with Gotland was more of an indirect nature with a
trade chain covering several tribal territories.


cheers
Dirk




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