ANTIQUE COINS VI–I CENTURY BC ON THE PODILLIA (original) (raw)

2022, The Ukrainian Numismatic Annual

The purpose of the article is to study and systematise coin finds in the territory of Podillia and introduce them into scientific circulation. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study is a set of general scientific and numismatic methods, which are primarily determined by the available source base and the assessment of its reliability or unreliability. Scientific novelty. Over the past decades, the number of known finds of ancient coins in settlements of the VI-I centuries BC in different regions of Ukraine, including Podillia, has increased significantly. However, there is no generalised comprehensive study of the finds of coins of the VI-I centuries BC from Podillia and its adjacent territories, which led the author to address the stated topic and write this article. The main results of the study. The analysis of the 118 ancient coins of the VI-I centuries BC found on the territory of Podillia allowed us to identify 7 points of concentration of such finds, including 4 settlements near which several single coins were found, and 3 settlements near which single coins and coins hoards found. A separate category among the corpus of Podillia coin finds is made up of 12 «demonetised» coins (11.65%), i.e. those decorated as ornaments. The presence of a corpus of finds of ancient coins of the VI-I centuries BC in Podillia, including finds of coin treasures, points of accumulation of single finds, especially locations with a combination of such finds and treasures, as well as the presence of «demonetised» coins among the coin finds, gave grounds for determining the probability of the existence of a commodity-money economy using coins as a means of payment in this historical region of Ukraine in the studied period. Although it is clear that these commodity-money relations were not as developed as in the Greek colonies of the Northern Black Sea and among the neighbouring Thracian tribes. Based on the analysis of numismatic sources, the article proves that the North Black Sea trade in Podillia in the VI-I centuries BC was connected with Olbia, especially during the IV-III centuries BC. The southwestern vector of trade activity of the population of Podillia in the VI-I centuries BC was connected with the Thracian lands, from where not only coins of the Greek colonies of the Western Black Sea and Thracian coins came, but also partly coins of Macedonia. Most of the finds of Thracian and Macedonian coins are from the issues of the IV-III centuries BC.