5 / NUMISMATICS 5

1 / MONOGRAPHIES 1

/ Published by
/ NATIONAL MUSEUM IN BELGRADE
1, 11000 , / Trg Republike 1a, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
www.narodnimuzej.rs

/ Editor in Chief
/ Bojana BORI BREKOVI

/ Rewieves
/ Ivana POPOVI

. / Miloje R. VASI

/ Translation
/ Stanislav GRGI

/ English Language Editor

/ Tamara RODWELLJOVANOVI

/ Graphic Design
. / Branislav L. VALKOVI

/ Photographs and computer graphics

. / Neboja N. BORI

Korice / Cover
/ Ema RADOVANOVI

/ Print
, / PUBLIKUM, Belgrade

/ Circulation
500 / 500 copies

ISBN 978-86-7269-171-9

/ All rights reserved

/This monograph has
been published with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia.
 -
.

METALLA TRICORNENSIA
-

Bojana BORI-BREKOVI
Adam N. CRNOBRNJA

A HOARD OF SILVER ROMAN COINS

FROM THE MINING AREAS OF THE METALLA TRICORNENSIA
AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NUMISMATIC STUDY

2015 / Belgrade 2015



/ 9/
/ 11 /

/ 13 /
, / 13 /
/ 16 /
/ 20 /
/ 24 /

/ 27 /
(castellum) / 28 /
(vicus metalli et metallum) / 30 /
(territorium metalli) / 38 /

/ 43 /
/ 43 /
II / 46 /

- / 52 /
/ 55 /
/ 57 /

/ 115 /

/ 125 /

/ 135 /
/ 135 /
/ 136 /
/ 138 /
/ 159 /

/ 219 /
CONTENTS

EDITORS WORD / 63 /
INTRODUCTION / 65 /
BORDERS OF PROVINCES AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE POSITION
OF THE KOSMAJ MINES / 67 /
Borders of the provinces Dalmatia, Pannonia Inferior and Moesia Superior / 67 /
Administrative position of the Kosmaj mines / 70 /
Explorations of Roman mines on Mount Kosmaj / 74 /
Beginnings of exploitation of the mines on Kosmaj / 78 /

TERRITORIAL ORGANISATION OF ROMAN MINES ON KOSMAJ / 81 /

Military fortification (castellum) / 82 /
Central mining settlement and the core area of the mines at Kosmaj (vicus metalli et metallum) / 84 /
Wider area of the Roman mines at Kosmaj (territorium metalli) / 92 /

A HOARD OF SILVER ROMAN COINS FROM THE VILLAGE OF MIROSALJCI / 97 /

Contents of the hoard / 97 /
Horizons of depositing hoards of the second half of the 2nd century in the territory of Serbia / 100 /
Comparison of the contents of the hoard with other hoards
/ 106 /
from the Danubian and Balkan provinces
Variants and sub-variants deviations from reference literature / 109 /
Possible reasons for the depositing of the hoard from Mirosaljci / 111 /

ILLUSTRATIONS / 115 /

BIBLIOGRAPHY / 125 /

CATALOGUE / 135 /
Introductory notes / 135 /
Obverse types / 136 /
Reverse types / 138 /
Catalogue / 159 /

PLATES / 219 /

METALLA TRICORNENSIA
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9
 A HOARD OF SILVER ROMAN COINS FROM THE MINING AREAS OF THE
METALLA TRICORNENSIA
An archaeological and numismatic study*

* The study is the result of work on the National Museum in Belgrade project Hoards of Roman Coins from the Period of the
Principate, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Sebia and is part of the project, supported
by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Sebia: Life in Antiquity: The Expan-
sion of Cities and Urban Civilization in the Balkans and Neighbouring Regions from the Hellenistic to the Late Roman Period
(No. 177005).
 EDITORS WORD

The monetary find described in the monograph A Hoard of Roman Silver Coins
From the Mining Area of Metalla Tricornensia. An archaeological and numismatic study,
by Bojana Bori-Brekovi and Adam N. Crnobrnja, was discovered by chance in the
village of Mirosaljci, 40 km to the south of Belgrade in 1995 and, after members of
the Ministry of the Interior had promptly intervened, it was deposited in the National
Museum in Belgrade. Its contents, 724 denarii of Rome and two drachmas of Lycia,
minted in the period from the reign of Nero to that of Commodus, were examined
from the archaeological, historical and numismatic aspects, with special emphasis on
the spacial aspect of the find.
The place where the coins were discovered, located on the fertile south-western
slopes of the Parcanski Vis, in the border area of the provinces of Moesia Superior,
Dalmatia and Pannonia Inferior, was the reason for a new analysis of the presumed di-
rections of the borders and for reconsidering what is already known about the mining
territory on Mount Kosmaj, its organization and attribution to a particular province.
In this light, proceeding from earlier assumptions based on epigraphic and, to a
lesser extent, archaeological material, supplemented by new, primarily archaeological
and topographic data, it emerged that the Kosmaj mines were located in the province
of Moesia Superior and its metalla Tricornensia, and that the locality where the hoard
was discovered belonged to the territory of the imperial domain of the mining area of
Kosmaj. Its position on the fertile southern slopes of the Parcanski Vis, favourable for
working the land, with a registered facility in the immediate vicinity, and significant
evidence as to the presence of settlements in the surrounding area, defined the agrar-
ian character of the entire area, which supplied the numerous population of this min-
ing area with wheat and other foodstuffs.
On the basis of an exhaustive analysis of the hoard, it was shown that the main part
of the find was formed during the 2nd century, during the reign of Antoninus Pius and,
especially, Marcus Aurelius, exactly at the time when the exploitation of silver-bearing
lead ore was intensified and when it was at its peak. With Commodus, the inflow of
coins in the hoard became very sporadic and one denarius belonging to him, dated to
the period from January 1st to July, 192 AD, determined the terminus a quo of its burial.
The most probable cause for this was economic instability which, besides local trouble
or reasons of an entirely personal nature, could have been caused by Commodus in-
ternal policy, which was particularly unpopular towards the end of his life and reign.
Although the Kosmaj mines were in an administratively separate territory and had
special economic status, they could not have remained isolated from the influence of
the rest of the province. Commodus repressive measures regarding taxation and fees
were thus identified as being one of the possible causes for insecurity and destabilisa-
tion in the area of the Kosmaj mines, which did not necessarily have to leave a trace in
written sources.

Bojana Bori-Brekovi

63
CIP - -
,

904:737.1.032(37)02(497.11)
069.51:737.1(497.11)
737.1.032(37)02
902.2(497.11)

-, , 1947-
metalla Tricornensia
: / -, .
; [ ;
. ] = A Hoard of Silver Roman Coins from the Mining Areas of
the Metalla Tricornensia : an Archaeological and Numismatic Study / Bojana
Bori-Brekovi, Adam N. Crnobrnja ; [translation Stanislav Grgi ;
photographs and computer graphics Neboja N. Bori]. - Beograd = Belgrade :
= National Museum, 2015 ( : ). - 245 . :
. ; 28 cm. - ( ; 5. ; 1 = Numismatics ; 5.
Monographies ; 1)

. . . . - 500. -
. - : . 123-132.

ISBN 978-86-7269-171-9
1. Up. stv. nasl. 2. , ., 1972- []
a) (). b) , -
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COBISS.SR-ID 220155148