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.

beads and coins from the Orient must in my opinion be understood as evidence of trade. The regularity and the volume of this inflow make the alternatives gifts, exchange chains and tributes most improbable. The character of the material is also suggestive of real trade. Standardized tokens of value like dirhams and beads produced in enormous series in manufactures are trade materials of a special character. Coins are primarily directed to partners in a trade relationship where both sides recognize the value of these tokens. Beads are rather produced with the aim to exchange with a considerable profit. Glass is relatively seen a very cheap material and has already in the Hellenistic period a well established function in trade systems characterizing a center-periphery relationship (for the Early Medieval Period see Callmer 1977 174f, L'vova 1977, 1981). Although we must identify the main force behind the transfer of these Oriental materials to the Baltic as trade I do not at the same time classify the ultimate process which led to the acquisition of the Oriental objects by the buried individuals in the relevant graves as trade. The attitude of these individuals to trade is a more complicated problem which I shall not go into here in detail. As it was stated at the beginning it may well be that two sides in a transaction may understand it differently: one side as trade and the other side as non-trade exchange. Our study has in terms of a special investigation shown us trade systems with great capacity and long routes. They developped rapidly in the second half of the eighth century as a result of the strong economic development in the Abbaside Caliphate. This state was the economic center of the western and central parts of the Old World and with a number of different strategies it bound to itself marginal areas, one of which was Northern Europe. In terms of general results of this study we can point at the classical center-periphery relationship, which fluctuates but is of a basically similar character from the Hellenistic period onward. Our investigation also shows the very rapid changes in intensity of these relationships. After a decline in the seventh century the recovery is on the way already in the eighth century. REFERENCES Äijä, K. 1988. Vikingatida gravar vid Hedvigsdal i Solna. Riksantikvarieämbetet och Statens historiska museer, Rapport UV, 1988:18. Stockholm. Andrae, R. 1975. Mosaikaugenperlen. Untersuchung zur Verbreitung und Datierung karolingerzeitlicher Millefioriperlen in Europa. Acta praehistorica et archaeologica, 4. Berlin. Antejn, A. K. 1973. Damasskaja stal v stranach bassejna Baltijskogo mor'ja. Riga. Arbman, H. 1937. Schweden und das karolingische Reich. Stockholm. -1943. Birka I. Die Gräber. Text. Stockholm. Arkeologi i Sverige 1981. 1984. Stockholm. Arne, T. J. 1914. La Suède et l'Orient. Uppsala. Arrhenius, B. 1976. Die ältesten Funde von Birka. Praehistorische Zeitschrift, Bd 51:2. Berlin. Belikova, 0. B. & Pletneva, L. M. 1983. Pamjatniki Tomskogo Priob'ja V-VIII w. n. e. Tomsk. Bencard, M. 1979. Wikingerzeitliches Handwerk in Ribe. Acta Archaeologica vol. 49. Copenhagen. Bender-Jergensen, L. 1986. Forhistoriske textilier i Skandinavien. Kobenhavn. Bendixen, K. 1981. Sceattas and other coin finds. Ed. M. Bencard. Ribe excavations, Bd 1. Esbjerg. Berezovec, D. T. 1952. Charivs'kyj skarb. Archeolohija, t. VI. Kyiv. Björkman, W. 1965. Karl und der Islam. Karl der Grosse, Persönlichkeit und Geschichte, I. Düsseldorf. Borisov, A. Ja. & Lukonin, V. G. 1963. Sasanidskie gemmy. Leningrad. Bulkin, V. 1977. 0 pojavlenii normannov v Dnepro-Dvinskom mezdurec'e. Problemy istorii kul'tury Severo-zapada RSFSR. Leningrad. 35