Vadas Ferenc (szerk.): A Wosinszky Mór Múzeum Évkönyve 15. (Szekszárd, 1990)

Handelsbeziehungen - Johann Callmer: The beginning of the Easteuropean trade connections of Scandinavia and the Baltic Region in the eighth and ninth centuries A. D.

Oriental coins beads more and more dominate the stock of beads in the Baltic. They probably begin to appear during the last quarter of the eighth century and disappear not later than the end of the first quarter of the ninth century (cf below the coin date from Arninge). The third type of bead which must be considered here is the spherical cornelian bead (Callmer 1977 91 bead type T001). We are of course not concerned with later occurrences of spherical cornelian beads. Only occurrences in the eighth and early ninth centuries are considered. The main distribution area of this type of bead (Fig. 6) during the period of interest is Caucasia and the territory of the Saltovo-Majaki culture and Crimea (Deopik 1961209f, 1963 136f). The occurrence of spherical cornelian beads can be followed further north to Mordovia and the Kama basin (Goldina & Koroleva 1983 62-3). They are however not frequent there. There are few finds from these areas compared with the millefiori beads considered above. Early spherical cornelian beads are then only found in Eastern Middle Sweden, on the Aland islands and in a few finds further south along the westcoast of the Baltic (24 finds are known to the author). There are also spherical cornelian beads in the earliest layers in Staraja Ladoga (Davidan 1989 113f). This picture of the distribution of the spherical cornelian beads agrees most closely with that of the millefioris. Evidently we are also here concerned with a distribution which is the result of trade activities of a group based in the East with special aims in the center of the Baltic region. It is in this case very interesting to note that the richest occurrences of these beads are in some necklaces from graves at Birka. The cornelian beads seem to be contemporary with the amethyst coloured pierced beads described above. A few spherical rock crystal beads have a similar dating and show the same distribution pattern (e. g. Kivikoski 1963 52). A few other types of Oriental beads occurring in the Baltic region could also have been mentioned here but they occur in very small numbers and do not indicate a different distribution background from that of the types dealt with here (Deopik 1961 Ris. 2:2, 5, Callmer 1977 PL 21 T003, T004). It has thus been possible to indicate some Oriental types of masproduced beads which were brought for trading purposes to the Baltic region. The finds are to a large extent concentrated to the western side of the Baltic where Helgö and Birka in Middle Sweden play an important role. Numerous other types of Oriental beads which are also known from Western and Southern Europe have probably reached the Baltic from the east but only these types directly prove the inflow from the East. The question of the earliest appearance of Oriental coins in the Baltic is a classical one. Most scholars have worked with the hoards and reached the conclusion that the Arabic dirhams either reached the Baltic during the nineties of the eighth century or ca. 800 A. D. (Noonan 1980, Losinski 1988 138f, Callmer 1976). For a dating to before 800 there is still only the hoard from the neighbourhood of Staraja Ladoga of 28+3 dirhams with a tpq of A. D. 786/7 (Markov 1910 140). Other finds like Novye Mliny (Paristovka), (Kropotkin 1971 91), Hesselby in Dalhem on Gotland (Stenberger 1947 39) and Penzlin, Kr. Waren, Neubrandenburg (Kiersnowski 1964 52) which have been used as arguments for a more massive representation of pre 800 hoards must be turned down for source-critical reasons. After 800 the hoard evidence is massive and we may feel confident that by that date dirhams arrived in great numbers to the Baltic. 29