Programme & Abstracts

The ceramic assemblage from the Metaxa–Constanța sector at Histria can be divided into two main chronological phases: the 6th century AD and the first three decades of the 7th century AD. The material has been classified into several functional categories, including tableware, cooking ware, drinking vessels, lighting devices, and transport amphorae used for olive oil, wine, and fish products. Overall, the ceramics recovered from this sector align closely with the broader pattern of Histria’s commercial networks and, more generally, with the economic framework of the province of Scythia Minor.

From a historical and archaeological perspective, the assemblage provides valuable evidence for the chronology of the sector and, in particular, for the final phase of occupation within the fortress. The latest occupation level identified in the Metaxa–Constanța sector yielded both hand-made pottery—characterized by coarse fabrics and simple profiles—and fragments of a plates belonging to Hayes 109 type. The presence of hand-made vessels points to a shift toward small-scale, local production during the terminal phase of habitation. The Hayes 109 plate, widely dated to the early decades of the 7th century AD, serves as a key chronological marker for this horizon.

This association demonstrates that occupation in the area continued into the first half of the 7th century, a period of profound transformations in the urban and economic life of the city. The coexistence of imported fine wares from Mediterranean trade routes and locally produced ceramics reflects both the persistence of long-distance commercial links and the adaptive strategies of local communities in response to changing political and economic conditions in Scythia Minor. Overall, the assemblage offers important insights into domestic practices and commercial exchanges in the urban context of the province during the early 7th century.

The study of cultural encounters and interactions can be successfully approached through the perspectives of religion and art. Research on the figural bronze sculpture of Pannonia has yielded numerous new results in recent years, particularly in the iconographic analysis of representations of individual deities. Special attention has been paid to the role of Greek large-scale sculptural prototypes, Roman copying practices, syncretism, and the preservation or integration of local traditions. This paper presents the most recent research questions and results concerning Pannonian bronze figurines, supplemented by data from recent archaeometric analyses.

In the graves of the Viminacium necropolises, the presence of small wooden boxes is attested by numerous fittings, handles, locks, rivets, as well as nails, clamps, and rings. Although wooden elements are only rarely preserved and usually survive merely in traces, in several cases the original appearance of the boxes could be reconstructed on the basis of the preserved metal fittings. Analysis of the excavated graves at Viminacium indicates a higher frequency of wooden boxes in cremation burials than in inhumation graves. The assemblage of objects typically associated with these caskets includes cosmetics, toiletries, and spinning implements. Based on the types of finds, it may be concluded that the caskets were primarily deposited in the graves of women and younger individuals of female sex. This interpretation is supported by representations of women holding caskets on funerary monuments, as well as by their occurrence in grave inventories as attributes associated with the identification of married women. Their presence in the graves of girls has been interpreted as reflecting the need for early instruction in the care and management of personal property. The funerary practice of burial with a wooden box was present in Viminacium during the 2nd century and the first half of the 3rd century AD.

Antler combs are among the most frequent yet understudied artefacts of everyday life in the Migration Period. This paper examines antler combs from present-day Serbia, dating from the late 4th to the 6th century, based on both published and unpublished material from settlement, funerary, and stray-find contexts.

During this period, antler combs became the most common toiletries, replacing other grooming implements known from antiquity. Despite a degree of standardisation imposed by their utilitarian function, combs remained highly personal objects with ritual significance, as items in direct contact with the owner’s hair, an element associated with vitality and strength. Their frequent inclusion in grave inventories highlights this symbolic dimension.

Typological and technological analysis reveals a combination of inherited Late Roman craft traditions and innovations associated with Barbarians active along the Middle and Lower Danube. Across the Roman borderlands, varied forms and decorative schemes developed, reflecting regional craft traditions and networks of interaction. Rather than treating combs as ethnic markers, this study adopts the concept of cultural entanglement to explore ongoing interactions between Roman and non-Roman communities. Situated within a wider Danubian framework, the Serbian material sheds light on processes of cultural adaptation, continuity, and exchange.

Based on a huge database (over 15000 hoards and 7.5 million coins) – the Oxford University Project: Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire –, this paper moves beyond transactional readings to consider hoards as active participants in the cultural economy of Rome’s Danube frontier. By analyzing hoard composition, deposition patterns, and regional distribution across provinces including Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, and Noricum, the study demonstrates that hoards reflect not only monetary behavior but also networks of mobility, identity negotiation, and cross-cultural contact.

The paper argues that coin hoarding operated as a medium of cultural exchange, where currency functioned simultaneously as payment, prestige object, votive proxy, and marker of social affiliation. The presence of non-local issues, imitations, mixed metal assemblages, and selective retention of older or foreign coin types suggests deliberate engagement with coins as culturally charged objects rather than purely fiscal instruments. Hoards are further contextualized alongside frontier phenomena such as veteran settlement, market integration, and diplomatic exchange beyond the empire, revealing patterns of connectivity that challenge models of strictly centralized monetary flow.

By reframing hoards as repositories of cultural choice, this paper highlights their role in provincial interactions along and across the Danube, offering new insights into how monetary practices intersected with cultural transmission, local agency, and frontier social dynamics.

This paper analyses coin circulation in Emona (modern Ljubljana, Slovenia) during the Late Roman period (3rd–5th centuries AD) on the basis of hoards, funerary contexts, and single finds. The study examines mint provenance, chronological distribution, and denomination structure in order to reconstruct patterns of monetary supply and circulation. During the 4th century, monetary inflow into the territory of present-day Slovenia appears stable and sufficient, with bronze coinage dominating everyday transactions and no clear evidence for currency shortages or the systematic use of imitations.

Differences between Emona and selected Pannonian towns, particularly Poetovio and Carnuntum, become more apparent in the 5th century. In Emona, the latest regular bronze issues, especially the Gloria Romanorum 11 type of Honorius (408–423), are relatively well represented, suggesting continued circulation into the first half of the 5th century. In contrast, such coins are rare in Poetovio, despite archaeological evidence for continued occupation and ecclesiastical activity. These observations indicate differing local developments in monetary circulation and settlement continuity at the western margins of Pannonia. The paper contributes to a regional comparison of late Roman monetary supply and offers insights into the gradual fragmentation of circulation networks in Late Antiquity.

In recent years, numismatic research has increasingly focused on the production of forgeries and imitations of official Roman coinage, both within the Empire and beyond its borders. These objects were produced at different times, in a variety of materials, and with markedly uneven geographical distribution. From a modern perspective, such non-official coinage is often viewed as inherently illicit; yet the sheer volume of surviving examples suggests that their production and circulation were, at least to some extent, tolerated.

It might therefore seem obvious that populations beyond the imperial frontiers—lacking a regular supply of official Roman issues—would have relied more heavily on the imitation of coinage. However, the archaeological evidence presents a more complex picture. In particular, new finds from the regions east of the Pannonian frontier reveal a differentiated and locally specific approach to coin imitation. Notably, this area represents the only region within the Barbaricum where copper imitations played a significant role alongside silver issues, challenging established assumptions about the nature and function of non-official coinage beyond the Roman world.

The paper presents Roman coins from the 4th century AD minted in Aquileia and found in Banat, a region that represented the southwestern part of the former Roman province of Dacia. Currently, in this geographical area, which includes the southwestern part of Romania and the northeastern part of Serbia, there are 17 known late Roman hoards containing bronze coins minted in Aquileia (approx. 300 pieces), most of them coming from the Danube area (Gornea, Radimna, Măcești, Moldova Veche, Moldova Nouă, Dierna-Orșova, Vračev Gaj). Bronze coins from Aquileia also appear in the hoards from Răcășdia and Tibiscum-Jupa. From isolated finds, 17 coins (mostly bronze) are known from 9 localities, most of which are located on the Danube line. The only gold coin minted in Aquileia known to have been found in Banat was discovered at the end of the 19th century in Vršac.

Where sufficient information about Aquileia coins is available, the issuers and monetary types are also presented. At the same time, comparisons are made with hoards discovered in neighboring areas (Serbia, Hungary, Transylvania). It is confirmed that the supply of coins to a region was made from the nearest mints; in the case of Banat, coins from Aquileia were present in a small percentage.

Provincial coinage in the Danubian provinces up to the mid third century AD is an important source for studying cultural exchange and the ways in which local identities were expressed within the Roman Empire. In contrast to imperial coinage controlled by the centre, provincial issues were produced in urban mints and addressed mainly local communities. This made it possible to incorporate regional traditions, religious practices and civic symbolism into the visual language of the coin.

The paper discusses selected iconographic types from the Danubian provinces, with particular attention given to Moesia Inferior and Thrace. It focuses on the interaction between imperial models and local cultural traditions visible in coin imagery. Local deities, river gods, personifications and civic symbols were integrated into designs that conveyed loyalty to Rome while at the same time emphasising local self representation. These images were not the result of mechanical copying, but of conscious choices and adaptations made at the local level.

An analysis of recurring motifs, regional preferences and changes in iconographic choices during the second century and the first half of the third century AD shows that provincial coinage played an active role in cultural communication. Coins functioned as a visual medium through which local communities expressed their identity while remaining part of a shared imperial symbolic world.

The paper examines the coin assemblage from the western gate area at Novae as a key source for understanding economic dynamics, military supply systems, and cultural interactions between the local population, the Roman army, and the wider Danubian limes. The spatial context of the western gate, functioning as a point of movement and exchange, provides valuable evidence for patterns of circulation and contact within and beyond the fortress.

The chronological span from the 1st to the 6th century AD allows for the identification of long-term changes in the intensity, structure, and orientation of monetary circulation, particularly in relation to the transformations of Late Antiquity. Special attention is paid to fluctuations in coin supply, the presence of imperial issues linked to military pay and logistics, and the implications of regional and supra-regional coinage for trade and communication networks.

Through the analysis of coin types, mints, and chronological distribution, the study highlights shift in economic connectivity and cultural interaction along the Lower Danube frontier. The numismatic evidence from the western gate area thus contributes to a more nuanced understanding of Novae’s role within the economic and cultural landscape of the Roman and Late Roman Danubian provinces.

The presence of the Goths in the former territory of Roman Dacia is increasingly well documented through recent discoveries of coin hoards. Until recently, hoards containing fourth-century silver coinage—silicvae—appeared to be relatively rare; however, new finds have partially revised this assessment. At the same time, hoards containing heavily worn denarii, issued predominantly during the Antonine dynasty, appear with growing frequency. Such hoards, terminating with denarii minted no later than the early reign of Septimius Severus, were formed in the eastern regions of present-day Ukraine, an area dominated by the Goths until the arrival of the Huns. Particularly significant is the presence within these hoards of imitations of Antonine imperial issues, a phenomenon characteristic of the barbarian milieu north and east of Dacia.

Monetary finds associated with the Goths in the former territory of Dacia show a strong correlation with the routes of Roman roads, which facilitated more effective territorial control. There appears to be a close relationship between the phenomenon of hoarding and the events that preceded the Goths’ crossing of the Danube, events that ultimately led to the political reconfiguration of the regions north of the Danubian limes.