The Weight of a Glass Coin in Akmonia
Emre Taştemür, Münteha DinçThe main subject of this paper is one of the glass coin weights of the Early Byzantine period, which was minted by the governor of Constantinople and the authorities of other major cities of the Empire from the 6th to the mid-7th century to control their gold coins. The glass coin weight found in Ahat Village (Akmonia) reveals the commercial network of the period and the important role of the city. Glass weights, or exagia, were widespread in the Early Byzantine Period, during which the Byzantine Empire underwent various financial reforms, including a new monetary system. Glass coin weights, a novelty for the Early Byzantine period, were preferred because of their practical use and because they were less prone to irrization than metal. The glass weight found in Akmonia, which is the subject of this study, is very important in terms of presenting the commercial and political history of the period with its monogram and depiction. At the same time, the Akmonia glass weight is the only example of the same typology with a known findspot so far.
Akmonia’dan Bir Cam Sikke Ağırlığı
Emre Taştemür, Münteha DinçBu makalenin ana konusu, başta Constantinopolis valisi olmak üzere, MS 6. yüzyıldan 7. yüzyılın ortalarına kadar İmparatorluğun diğer büyük şehirlerindeki yetkililer tarafından altın sikkelerin kontrolünü sağlamak için basılan Erken Bizans Dönemi cam sikke ağırlıklarından bir tanesidir. Akmonia’da bulunmuş olan bu cam sikke ağırlığı dönemin sosyo-ekonomik ağını ve kentin Geç Antik Çağ’da üstlenmiş olduğu önemli rolü gözler önüne sermektedir. Cam ağırlıklar ya da exagia, Erken Bizans Dönemi’nde yaygındı ve bu dönemde Bizans İmparatorluğu, yeni para sisteminin de dahil olduğu çeşitli mali reformlara sahne oldu. Erken Bizans Dönemi için bir yenilik sayılan cam sikke ağırlıkları pratik kullanımı, metale göre daha az irrizasyona uğramasından dolayı tercih nedeni olmuştur. Araştırmanın konusunu içeren Akmonia’da bulunan cam ağırlık, üzerindeki monogram ve betimleme ile dönemin ticari ve siyasi tarihini de bizlere sunması açısından oldukça önemlidir. Aynı zamanda Akmonia cam ağırlığı şu ana kadar buluntu yeri bilinen aynı tipolojide ele geçmiş tek örnektir.
The subject of this paper is a glass coin weight recovered from Akmonia, which was minted by the governor of Constantinople and officials in other major cities of the Empire from the 6th to the mid-7th century AD to control gold coins. The attempt by humans to quantify the object of exchange and to call it a weight dates back to the Bronze Age. The scaled rods found in Troy in the 3rd millennium BC are seen as one of the greatest symbols of a commercial understanding based on measurement. In the Ancient Greek world, weight measurements were determined by Solon’s laws, and even in Anatolia, production was made in accordance with these laws. The Romans, on the other hand, used their own weight unit, the libra, from the moment they arrived in Anatolia. The main unit in the Roman weight system was the libra, and the traditional value for 1 libra was 327.5 g. However, the weight of the libra changed periodically. The practical use of this innovation, which began to appear in Late Antiquity, was to weigh the solidus (4.54 g) and its divisions, the semissis (2.27 g) and tremissis (1.55 g). The solidus represented the standard gold coin, very important for the entire Byzantine monetary system, and was also the reference coin with which all payments, taxes, or prices were recorded.
However, it has been rightly observed that they did not always correspond exactly to known coin values. The idea is that the glass weights were simply designed “to control the tolerance within which most coins would or would not be accepted in everyday commercial transactions.” The Akmonia glass weight is discoidal in shape, with a diameter of 2.7 cm and an outer frame thickness of 0.4 cm, green in color, stamped with the bust of the emperor with a halo over the box monogram, and with the back left flat. The surface of the glass shows very small intermittent air bubbles, and on the reverse, there is soil filling the pits formed by the breakage of the glass near the surface. The Akmonia glass coin weight can be categorized by Entwistle as Type A “emperor” weights. This category consists of imperial busts with one or more halos, sometimes combined with other imperial busts (Roman and Constantinopolitan governors or Christ) and inscriptions or monograms. As many of these glass weights are quite worn, portrait and dress details have rarely survived. However, examples of jewelry such as diadems and pendilia can be distinguished on some of them. The imperial busts and monograms seen on Type A weights closely resemble those seen as stamps on the reverse of 6th and 7th-century AD silver vessels and serve a similar function, suggesting governmental approval through the use of imperial imagery on the weights, giving them an official character. The Akmonia find bears a bust of the emperor with a halo and diadem and a box monogram underneath, which is analyzed as ‘of Martinos’ in the light of similar examples. The weight of this coin is dated to the reign of Mauricius Tiberius (582-602 AD) due to the monogram and bust depiction. According to Ostrogorsky, Mauricius is the most important of the Byzantine rulers. His reign marked the transition from the aging Late Roman Empire to the new and vibrant life of the medieval Byzantine Empire. It was Mauricius who established the system of exarchs in Ravenna and Carthage. Thus, together with these two exarchs, he pioneered the later thema system. The coin weight found in Akmonia is very important evidence for the presence of an important emperor in the city in Late Antiquity, albeit indirectly. As a result of the surveys carried out in 2014-2017, it is known that Akmonia has a strong glass artifact collection. Although it is far from archaeological and archaeometric data such as kiln, production residue, production tools, raw glass, crucible, and ingot fragments, the recovery of glass slags proves production. The glass weight both contributes to the glass repertoire of the city as a material and emphasizes the socio-economic power of the city in Late Antiquity in terms of its usage.
