HOARD OF GOLD BOSPORAN STATERS OF THE II-III centuries AD FROM THE VILLAGE OF KAZANSKAYA ^*

In 1972, a treasure trove of staters of the Bosporan kings Sauromat II (174-210/211) and Reskuporid III (211-226) was found in the village of Kazanskaya near Kropotkin, Krasnodar Krai. The treasure was deposited in the Krasnodar Museum (KM - 1021-1034) ¹ . After N. V. Anfimov, an employee of the museum, informed ² about the discovery, this treasure was mentioned in the summary of Bosporan treasures of Roman time ³ . Meanwhile, a detailed description of staters from this treasure by year and type, as well as their metrological data, has not yet been published. The Kazan hoard includes only 14 coins, of which Sauromat II owns 4 copies. (N 1-4), Rescuporide III - 10 copies. (N 5-14). The most similar in composition and time of concealment to the published complex is the hoard of 1958 from Gnilovsky gorodishche4, consisting of staters Evpator, Sauromat II and Reskuporid III.

* The article was written in the framework of the project "Hoards of ancient coins in the South of Russia", supported by the Russian State Scientific Foundation. The project code is 98-01-00113.

¹ The authors thank the director of KGIAMZ I. I. Borzilo and the curator of the funds T. V. Yurchenko for the kind opportunity to publish the treasure.

^{Anfimov N. V.} 2 Hoards of Bosporan coins found in the Krasnodar Territory //Tez. dokl. archaeological conference. IA of the USSR Academy of Sciences, dedicated to field research, 1972, Moscow, 1972, p. 1.

^{Frolova N. A.} 3 The invasion of barbarian tribes in the cities of the Northern Black Sea region according to numismatic data / / SA. 1989. N 4. p. 196; ona. Coin business of the Bosporus (mid-I century BC - mid-IV century AD). Part II. Moscow, 1997. p. 169.

^{Yatsenki V. V.} 4 A treasure trove of electric Bosporan staters from the Gnilovo settlement / / VDI. 1993. N 3. pp. 43-54.

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The earliest coin of the Kazan hoard is the stater of Sauromat II with the date ZOY (477 BC = 180 AD) - N 1. According to the classification of A. N. Zograf, the coin business of Sauromat is divided into three periods. ⁵ Stater 180 refers to the first period (174-186). The average weight of staters of the first period is 7.70 g. However, starting from 180 g. the weight of gold coins decreases sharply: out of 8 registered staters of this year (not counting the copy from the published treasure), only three coins have a weight of more than 7.70 g; the average weight of the rest is only 7.57 g. ⁶ . Analysis of the staters of the first period suggests that Sauromat P had to face a number of difficulties related to the financial and economic state of the Bosporan Kingdom.

Stater 193 (No. 2) from the Kazan hoard refers to the second period of coinage of Sauromat II (186-196). During this period, gold minting was conducted more intensively than in the first. The formal weight of staters of the second period is 7.70 g, but the percentage of gold content decreases. In particular, in the staters of 193, it is only 33 % ⁷ .

The third period of coinage of Sauromat II (197-210) includes two staters of 197 from the published hoard-N 3 and 4. This time is characterized by a reduction in gold emissions. The average weight of staters of the third period is 7.70 g, the gold content is less than 37.5 % ⁸ .

Rescuporide III begins gold production in 211. The Kazan hoard contains one copy of the stater of this year (No. 5). The treasure also includes staters 214 (N 6), 215 (N 7), 218 (N 8, 9), 219 (N 10), 220 (N 11), 211 (N 12), 222 (N 13) and 225 (N 14). In terms of weight, Rescuporide III staters strictly adhere to the norm from 7.60 g to 7.70 g. In the first years of his reign, there are still coins that contain up to 50 % gold, but starting in 215, the composition of the metal in coins sharply deteriorates: the gold content in them decreases by almost half. In just two years (217-218), the gold content in the stater fell by 10-15 % ⁹ .

The results of the analysis of metrological data and the chemical composition of Sauromate II and Rescuporide III staters lead to the conclusion that the quality of the Bosporan stater is gradually decreasing. A number of researchers drew attention to the fact that the Roman monetary system was also experiencing a crisis at the same time, and tried to link the activities of the Bosporan kings in the field of finance with the decline in the coin business of Rome and, in particular, with the reforms of Caracalla. However, the reasons for the deterioration in the quality of the Bosporan stater should be sought not in the depreciation of the Roman denarius on the Bosporus, but in the changes that took place in the economic and political life of the Bosporan state itself. The reform of Sauromat II was due precisely to these changes, and not to a decrease in the weight of the Roman denarius and a deterioration in the quality of its metal. At the same time, of course, it cannot be denied that the almost simultaneous crisis phenomena in the coin industry of the Roman Empire and the Bosporus must have had the same socio-economic roots and common causes. They represented the first signs of a turning point in the life of ancient states, followed by a gradual but steady decline. ¹⁰

The latest coin of the Kazan treasure is a stater with a date in KF (522 BC = 225 AD), which determines the date of hiding the treasure.

^{Zograf A. N.} 5 Reform of monetary circulation in the Bosporan Kingdom under Sauromates II / / VDI. 1938. N 2. p. 287; Zograf A. N. Sauromates II's Reform of the Currency / / NC. 1938. P. 39; on. Antique coins / / MIA. 1951. 16. pp. 204-206.

^Frolov. 6 Monetnoe delo Bospora... Ch. I. M., 1997. p. 147, 301-302; Yatsenko. Uk. soch. p. 43-54.

^Frolov. 7 Coin business of the Bosporus ... Part I. p. 147.

⁸ Ibid., pp. 149, 163.

^Frolov. 9 Coin business of the Bosporus ... Part II. pp. 3-9.

^{Frolova N. A.} 10 O prichinakh reformy denezhnogo obrashcheniya na Bospora v pravlenie Sauromat II (174-210 gg. AD) [On the reasons for the reform of monetary circulation in the Bosporus during the reign of Sauromat II (174-210 AD)]. Coin business of the Bosporus ... Part II. pp. 17-19.

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application

COMPOSITION OF THE TREASURE ^*

* * *

Table. Hoard of gold coins from the village of Kazanskaya

Vestnik drevnoi istorii, No. 4 (incl. to articles by M. G. Abramzon, N. A. Frolova, Yu. V. Gorlov, to p. 70)

^* The ordinal numbers of the coins in the list correspond to the numbers in the photos (see the table on the insert). The following abbreviations are used in references to literature: Frolova. I; Frolov. II-respectively: Frolov. Coinage of the Bosporus ... Part I.; Part II.

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THE HOARD OF GOLDEN BOSPORAN STATERS OF THE 2-3 cc. AD FROM KAZANSKAYA STANITSA

M.G. Ahramzon, N.A. Frolova, Yu.V. Gorlov

The article describes and analyzes the hoard of golden coins found in 1972 on the territory of Kazanskaya stanitsa in Krasnodar Region. The hoard contains coins of two Bosporan Kings: four coins of Sauromates II (AD 174-210/211) and ten coins of Rhescuporis III (AD 211-226). The board is dated back to AD 180- 225.

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