Csengeri Piroska - Tóth Arnold (szerk.): A Herman Ottó Múzeum évkönyve 54. (Miskolc, 2015)
Régészet - Simon László: Néhány régi-új adat a miskolci római denárleletről
Néhány régi-új adat a miskolci római denárleletről 309 OLD AND NEW DATA ON THE ROMAN DENARIUS FINDS OF MISKOLC Keywords: Roman coins, denarii, Roman period settlements, Miskolc, Vandals, Przeworsk Culture After the short reports of Andor Leszih (LESZIH 1933, 943), it was Katalin Sey who published the denarii found at Miskolc in 1933 in greater detail (BÍRÓ-SEY 1990, 62—67). With the help of contemporary newspaper articles, archival documents and city maps it was possible to gain more information on the prevalence of the find, as well as the site and its environs. In November, 1933, soil was transported from an old military ground to the building site of a new steam mill, and a hand-shaped clay vessel was found that contained Roman denarii. The workers broke the vessel and took the coins. Later, 115 of these denarii entered the collection of the Miskolc Museum (now Elerman Ottó Museum). The site is located on the high bank of the Sajó River, on its right side (Figs. 1 and 6). The military ground is identified by the Third Military Survey Map, where the ground is called “Exerzierpl.” (Fig. 2). According to city maps (Figs. 3 and 4), the Hodobay housing complex was built on the southern side of this ground before 1928. The area north of the complex must have been the location from where the soil was transported to the new steam mill. Not much later Lajos Marjalaki Kiss collected Roman pottery from this area, which also suggest that a Roman settlement must have existed here (K. VEGH 1975, 85). The denarii found in 1933 are associated with this settlement. The shape of the small, middle-bellied, hand-made pot (Fig. 5) is typical for the Roman Imperial Period in the northeastern region (SOOS 2014,129). It is impossible, however, to date this pottery type to a smaller chronological window (see GINDELE—ISTVÁNOVITS 2009, 25). Some of the coins were taken to the Hungarian National Museum as part of a find exchange. Here, Katalin Sey examined them and published the assemblage that she identified as consisting of 95 pieces. According to the old numismatic inventory book of the Herman Ottó Museum of Miskolc, 10 denarii of Commodus, 3 of Lucius Verus and 3 of Crispina, as well as one denarius each issued by Antoninus Pius, Faustina, Lucilla and Septimius Severus are missing from this published collection. According to the inventory book, the last coin is of the same type as the one issued by Septimius Severus (RIC 22?), and so the fact that it is missing does not influence the end date of the assemblage (AD 193). The denarius hoard of Miskolc (Table I; Fig. 7) is one of the Roman Imperial Period coin hoardes found in Eastern Hungary (the others were found in Hetényegyháza, Csurog, Tyúkod, Mende, Kecel I., Tiszaföldvár, and Elek) in which the latest coins were minted at the end of the 2nd century. The more-or-less uniform end dates of these coin hoards are due to the changes in the empire’s power structure and the appearance of new people. Katalin Sey suggested that their burial may be connected to the ethnic changes brought by the Gothic migration (BIRO-SEY 1990, 63), while others associated it with the appearance of the Sarmatians (FARKAS 2001, 257). New Sarmatian groups, however, must have had only a small impact on the region of present-day Miskolc. In this area, it was rather the Hasding Vandal groups, associated with the Przeworsk Culture and maintaining contacts with the Roman provinces, who had influence through their expansion (GODLOWSKI 1984, 332). The Imperial Period settlements localized at and around the provenance site (Fig. 6) as well as finds from other sites unambiguously reflect the presence of this group in the Sajó Valley (K. VEGH 1975, 93; LOVÁSZ 1999, 250-251; FARKAS-TORBÁGYI 2008, 264; SZABÓ-VADAY 2009, 301-304). This fact, as well as the connections between this finding and the Germanic (Vandal) archaeological heritage was already emphasized by Andor Leszih in 1933 (LESZIH 1933). [Translated by Kyra Lyublyanovics] Simon, Fásuló
