https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0645-8341
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ABSTRACT
The relationship between numismatic research and archaeological stratigraphy is one of the most significant resources for defining the economic and social mechanisms of the Middle Ages. A numismatic assemblage comprising 146 coins – mostly unpublished – recovered from the late sixth-century Visigothic settlement of Reccopolis in Guadalajara, Spain, is the focus of this study. Through characterisation of the deposits and monetary finds it has been possible to establish a contextual interpretation in which indicators of durability, continuity and rituality in the use of currency can be observed. In connection with this, a substantial number of coins have been found concentrated in specific sectors of the site, especially in the neighbourhood of the church, where the foundational value of some hoards has been reinterpreted. This study establishes a constant connection between chronological dating and stratigraphic contextualisation, exploring the complex periods of continuity in use of certain specimens, while also stressing the importance of interpreting coinage within wider material assemblages.
Acknowledgements
This work is part of the Reccopolis and Its Material Culture: From the Object to the Built Space (RECCULT) project. It has been funded within the Scientific Research and Technology Transfer Projects (2022–2025) of the government of Castilla-La Mancha. It was also carried out within the Alcalá University (Spain) research group Archaeology: Landscapes, Colonialism and Cultural Heritage.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Doménech-Belda and Gutiérrez-Lloret, “Viejas y nuevas monedas;” Castro-Priego, “Reccopolis y los hallazgos numismáticos;” Olmo-Enciso and Castro-Priego, “Coins, Cities and Archaeological Contexts;” Amorós-Ruiz and Doménech-Belda, “Espacio, tiempo y monedas;” Barrios Rodríguez and Blázquez-Cerrato, “Monedas antiguas halladas.”
2 Castro-Priego, “Estratos, vellones, feluses y tremises,” 123–25.
3 Casey and Reece, Coins and the Archaeologist.
4 Saguì and Rovelli, “Residualità, non residualità.”
5 Klackenberg, Moneta nostra; Kemmers and Myrberg, “Rethinking Numismatics.”
6 Haselgrove and Krmnicek, “The Archaeology of Money;” Graeber, Toward an Anthropological Theory of Value.
7 Gullbekk, “Natural and Money Economy;” Gullbekk et al., Coins in Churches.
8 Harris and Reece, “An Aid for the Study,” 30–33; Barker, Techniques of Archaeological Excavation.
9 Castro-Priego, “Estratos, vellones, feluses y tremises.”
10 Olmo-Enciso and Castro-Priego, “Coins, Cities and Archaeological Contexts,” 560; Castro-Priego, “Reccopolis y los contextos numismáticos,” 475, and “Absent Coinage,” 46.
11 Olmo-Enciso, “De Celtiberia a Šantabariyya,” 50–60.
12 Olmo-Enciso, “Recópolis: una ciudad en una época de transformaciones,” 43–46.
13 Campos, Juan de Biclaro, obispo de Gerona, 88.
14 Cabré-Aguiló, El tesorillo visigodo de trientes, 36.
15 Olmo-Enciso, “Ciudad y estado en época visigoda,” 102–06.
16 Henning et al., “Reccopolis Revealed,” 737, 739; Olmo et al., “Beside and Within the Walls,” 3–10.
17 Olmo-Enciso et al., “Espacios de poder en Recópolis,” 76–85.
18 Olmo-Enciso, “Recópolis: una ciudad en una época de transformaciones,” 52–53.
19 Bonifay and Bernal, “Recópolis, paradigma de las importaciones africanas,” 103–10.
20 Diarte-Blasco et al., “Urban Defence and the Visigoths,” 40.
21 Henning et al., “Reccopolis Revealed,” 739–47.
22 Catalán and Andrés, Crónica del moro Rasis, LXI and LXIX.
23 Simonet, Historia de los Mozárabes, 826; Pareja-Serrada, Diplomática arriacense, 115.
24 Cabré-Aguiló, El tesorillo visigodo de trientes, 37–41.
25 Castro-Priego, “Absent Coinage,” 46.
26 Cabré-Aguiló, El tesorillo visigodo de trientes, 38.
27 Cabré-Aguiló, “Un hallazgo de monedas de oro,” 349–56; Beltrán-Villagrasa, “Monedas de Leovigildo en el tesorillo de Zorita de los Canes,” 23–48.
28 Cabré-Aguiló, El tesorillo visigodo de trientes, 44.
29 Cabré-Aguiló, El tesorillo visigodo de trientes, 43. No further late Roman coins have been discovered in the basilica area, where Cabré found the deposit.
30 Miles, The Coinage of the Visigoths, 96–99; Barral i Altet, La circulation des monnaies suèves et visigothiques, 86–92.
31 Campos, Juan de Biclaro, obispo de Gerona, 87–88; Rodríguez Alonso, Las historias de los Godos, 258–59.
32 Torres Balbás, Ciudades yermas hispanomusulmanas, 34–42; Raddatz, “Studien zu Recópolis 1,” 213–33; Claude, “Studien zu Reccopolis 2,” 167–94; Vázquez de Parga, “Studien zu Recopolis 3,” 259–80; Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España Romana, 90–93.
33 Castro-Priego, “Reccopolis y los contextos numismáticos,” 474–75; Olmo-Enciso and Castro-Priego, “Coins, Cities and Archaeological Contexts,” 559.
34 Olmo-Enciso, “Arquitectura religiosa y organización litúrgica,” 163–64.
35 Its identification as a baptistery has been undisputed for the past seventy years. Cabré, El tesorillo visigodo de trientes, 38; Palol, Arqueología cristiana de la España Romana, 90–93; Olmo-Enciso, “Arquitectura religiosa y organización litúrgica,” 173–74; Godoy-Fernández, Arqueología y liturgia. Iglesias hispánicas, 243; Utrero, Iglesias tardoantiguas y altomedievales, 523–26.
36 Tomasini, The Barbaric Tremissis in Spain, 63–66; Barral i Altet, La circulation des monnaies suèves et visigothiques, 86.
37 Castro-Priego, “Reccopolis y los hallazgos numismáticos,” 136; Bartlett et al., “Weight, Fineness, and Debasement,” 178–82.
38 The treasure was uncovered during maintenance and cleaning work, and the Management Department of the Reccopolis Archaeological Park wrote a report on the circumstances in which the discovery was made. See Gómez-García, “Memoria y descripción del hallazgo superficial,” 1–2.
39 Castro-Priego and Olmo-Enciso, “Dírhams, feluses y contextualización arqueológica,” 1102–07; Olmo-Enciso et al., “Espacios de poder en Recópolis,” 89–92.
40 Castro-Priego, “Reccopolis y los contextos numismáticos,” 477.
41 Olmo-Enciso et al., “Entre el periodo visigodo,” 105–09.
42 Gómez de la Torre-Verdejo, “La producción del vidrio en época visigoda,” 259–62; Castro-Priego and Gómez de la Torre-Verdejo, “La actividad artesanal en Recópolis,” 119–23.
43 Marot Salsas, “La Península Ibérica en los siglos V-VI,” 139–49, was the first to propose heterogeneous monetary circulation models in the Iberian Peninsula for the fifth to seventh centuries. The Tolmo de Minateda site is a paradigmatic example of the microspatial monetary circulation of the sixth to ninth centuries in the Spanish Levant, see Doménech-Belda and Gutiérrez-Lloret, “Viejas y nuevas monedas,” 337–74; Amorós-Ruiz and Doménech-Belda, “Espacio, tiempo y monedas,” 162–72. The last decade has seen a significant increase in coins found within a stratigraphic context, and the analysis of Andalusi copper types from the eighth century is yielding an enormous amount of data, which will be interpreted in the coming years. In this sense, together with the Vega Baja of Toledo site, one of the most interesting areas is Šaqunda. See Castro-Priego, “Estratos, vellones, feluses y tremises,” 123–60; Casal-García et al., “El arrabal de Šaqunda,” 845–66.
44 For a review of Merovingian coin finds in the Iberian Peninsula, see Martínez-Chico, and González García, “Hallazgo de un denario,” 215–17.
45 Olmo-Enciso, “De Celtiberia a Šantabariyya,” 50–60.
46 Castro-Priego, “Absent Coinage,” 46.
47 Castro-Priego, “Reccopolis y los contextos numismáticos,” 480–81.
48 The direct relationship between the abandonment of the site and the foundation of a medina in Zorita, in the early ninth century, had already been highlighted by the written sources, yet the numismatic contextualisation of the finds has made this statement more precise, revealing that it was a gradual process during the independent Emirate of Cordova 756–929 CE. See Catalán and Andrés, Crónica del Moro Rasis, LXI and LXIX.
49 Pareja-Serrada, Diplomática arriacense, 115.
50 Simonet, Historia de los Mozárabes, 826; Pareja-Serrada, Diplomática arriacense, 114.
51 Utrilla-Utrilla, “Aragón, de reino a corona,” 159.
52 A comprehensive approach to the phenomenon of monetary perforation can be found in Perassi, Monete romane forate, esp. 275–99, as a continuation of the research by Doyen, The Chairman’s Address, IV–VI. For an excellent dissertation on the phenomenon of drilling and its use in Viking societies, see Audy, “Suspended Value,” especially the introduction for the extent of the phenomenon and its relationship with processes of demonetisation and use as amulets. The perforation of Andalusi coins has been the subject of various approaches since the 1980s, primarily focused on the Emiral (eighth to tenth centuries CE) and Caliphal (tenth to eleventh century CE) periods. See Canto, Perforations in Coins; Rodrigues Marinho, Uma prática singular.
53 Sánchez-González, La necropolis medieval del yacimiento de Recópolis, 585. It was most certainly a handusi coin (fractional coin, trimmed, and smaller than the die that minted it). On the manufacture and production of these series during the eleventh to twelfth centuries CE, see Francés Vañó, La moneda handusí en al-Andalus, 8–11. The fragmentation process was prior to minting. Regarding the important metrological variability of pieces, Francés Vañó maintains that there was no stable weight ratio in coins, but rather in the bars from which they were cut, which conformed to the term Ūquiyya, etymologically derived from the Roman uncia, a unit of weight representing 27.75 g.
54 Pareja-Serrada, Diplomática arriacense, 114–16.
55 Kemmers and Myrberg, “Rethinking Numismatics,” 101–04.
56 Tomasini, The Barbaric Tremissis in Spain; Barral i Altet, La circulation des monnaies suèves et visigothiques, 86–92; Bartlett et al., The Byzantine Gold Coinage of Spania, 376; Bartlett et al., “Weight, Fineness, and Debasement,” 178–82.
57 Barral i Altet, La circulation des monnaies suèves et visigothiques, 82–86; Pliego-Vázquez, La moneda visigoda, 79–83; Mateos-Cruz et al., “Un tesoro de tremises visigodos,” 255–67; Castro-Priego, “Reccopolis y los contextos numismáticos,” 475–76.
58 Metcalf et al., “Sixth-Century Visigoth Metrology,” 77.
59 Perassi, “Nuove acquisizioni sulla vasca battesimale di Tas Silġ,” 230–42; Perassi, “Coins and Baptism in Late Antiquity,” 108.
60 Perassi, “Coins and Baptism in Late Antiquity,” 112–13.
61 Arslan, “Monete provenienti dal canale perimetrale del fonte battesimale,” 176–77; Facchinetti, “L’offerta di monete nei fonti battesimali,” 45–53.
62 Sotomayor, “Sobre la fecha del Concilio,” 137–68; Vilella and Barreda, “Los cánones de la Hispana,” 567–69; Meigne, “Concile ou collection d´Elvire?” 361–87. The date of the Council of Elvira has generated intense controversy, beginning with the philological review by Vilella and Barreda (as a continuation of the classic study by Meigne), in which the authors stated that the text of the so-called Council constituted texts from at least three different sources. In contrast, Sotomayor and Berdugo, “Los cánones del Concilio de Elvira: una replica,” 380–410, defended the authorship of the text as pertaining to the beginning of the fourth century, with a definitive configuration in the early sixth century. According to this new interpretation, Canon 48, which establishes a relationship between the act of baptism and monetary payment, would be one of the later texts, written at a time not before the mid fifth century.
63 Vives, Concilios visigóticos e hispano-romanos; Facchinetti, “L'offerta di monete nei fonti battesimali,” 43–44.
64 Leatherbury, “Coins as Votive Gifts,” 253–69.
65 Krmnicek, “Coins in Walls, Pits and Foundations,” 519–30.
66 Huffstot, “Votive (?) Use of Coins,” 222.
67 Bijovsky, Gold Coin and Small Change, 90–99.
68 Bijovsky, Gold Coin and Small Change, 90.
69 Kloner, “The Synagogues of Horvat Rimmon,” 46.
70 Bijovsky, Gold Coin and Small Change, 91.
71 Ahipaz, “Floor Foundation Coin Deposits,” 63–70.
72 Burrell, “Small Bronze Hoards at Late Fifth Century,” 166.
73 Arslan, “Il deposito monetale della trincea XII,” 290–94. A more recent version in which the researcher highlights the possible ritual-foundational function of the Capernaum coin hoard can be found in Arslan, “The L812 Trench Deposit inside the Synagogue,” 155–58.
74 Ariel, “Coins from the Synagogue at ‘En Nashut,” 148. The author highlights that although it is difficult to justify in some cases, there are a significant number of synagogues in which it is possible to find coin hoards under pavements that cannot be considered monetary concealment for economic purposes: “Thus, the hypothesis that there were foundation deposits in some Byzantine period synagogues, though difficult to prove, is supported by a growing body of evidence. Published deposits which may be thus interpreted were found at Capernaum, Kh. Marus, Ḥorvat Kanef, Qaṣrin, Dabiyeh, Khorazin, and Gush Ḥalav. In the last instance, we are referring to what may be described as ‘money pouch’ hoards (as distinct from genuine hoards), found near a threshold of the synagogue.”
75 Ariel, “Coins from the Synagogue at Dabiyye,” 74.
76 García-López, “Relaciones topográficas de España,” 125–26; Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia, Signatura: 9/3954-60.
77 García-López, “Relaciones topográficas de España,” 126: “It cannot be acknowledged that this tradition refers to Pippin, founder of the Carolingian dynasty in France. His name in this tradition must be a thoughtless transcription of that of some Spanish personage. Would the memory of Liuvigild or Reccared I, founders of Recopolis, be preserved in such a hidden way?”
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Notes on contributors
Manuel Castro-Priego
Manuel Castro-Priego (PhD 2011) is Assistant Professor of Archaeology at the University of Alcalá. He has held internationally competitive research contracts in Ecuador (Prometeo Program) and the USA (International Numismatic Commission) and has published a range of works on early medieval numismatics and archaeology. His lines of research focus on monetary circulation in the Visigothic and early Islamic periods in the Iberian Peninsula, the definition of material culture in late medieval Castile, and the characterisation of the first European contact on the Pacific coast of South America. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator of the project Reccopolis and Its Material Culture: From the Object to the Built Space (RECCULT), funded by the Scientific Research and Technology Transfer Projects of the government of Castilla-La Mancha.
Pilar Diarte-Blasco
Pilar Diarte-Blasco is a Ramón y Cajal Researcher (MICINN) at the Institute of History, CSIC (Madrid). She completed her European PhD in 2011 at the Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain) and then held several prestigious postdoctoral fellowships in Italy, Spain and the UK, including a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship (2015–2017) at the University of Leicester. She has directed projects devoted to the study of post-classical transformations of landscapes and townscapes in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. As a result, she has published numerous papers and the book Late Antique and Early Medieval Hispania: Landscapes without Strategy? (Oxbow, 2018).
Lauro Olmo-Enciso
Lauro Olmo-Enciso is Full Professor in Archaeology at the Department of History and Philosophy, University of Alcalá (Alcalá de Henares). He has been a Fulbright Postdoctoral and Visiting Scholar at Harvard University and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Siena. His research interests and publications are focused on Medieval Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, and Heritage. He has carried out research stays at universities and research centres in the USA, Italy, Germany, Serbia, Ecuador, Jordan, and Egypt, with support from the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, the Spanish Ministry of Culture, and the Regional Research Plans of several Spanish Autonomous Communities. He directs archaeological research projects at several late Antique and medieval sites, including the Visigothic royal foundation of Reccopolis as an early medieval and Islamic city (sixth-ninth centuries AD).