CATACOMB BURIALS OF VERKHNY SALTOV NECROPOLIS WITH «BARBARIAN IMITATIONS» OF ARAB DINARS OF THE 8th century

Abstract

Finding gold Arab coins (dinars) or their imitations on the sites of the Saliv archaeological culture is quite rare, unlike silver dirhams. Nowadays in the sites of Eastern Europe of the last quarter of the 1^st millennium AD only 14 gold Kufic coins (11 dinars and 3 imitations) have been found. At the same time, 13 of the 14 coins were localized on the territory of the Khazar Khaganate. Today also 8 or more imitations of gold dinars originating from the territory of modern Ukraine have been ascertained by the scholars. Three of which were found in the catacomb burials of the Verkhny Saltiv burial ground by the expedition of the Kharkov Historical Museum. In catacomb 25 on the main section of the Verkhny Saltiv burial ground (VSB I) a copper coin-sewn patch with traces of gilding, imitating an Umayyad gold dinar minted in 101—109 AH (720—728 CE), was found. Two coins, transformed into pendants for a necklace, were discovered in catacomb 30 in the fourth section of the Verkhny Saltiv burial ground (VSB IV). Both pendants were made from unidentifiable imitations of the Umayyad coins, most likely dinars. Presumably, these imitations of gold dinars were made by craftsmen somewhere in the North Caucasus, and only later came to the bearers of the Saltiv culture of the Seversky Donets basin. According to the grave goods in catacombs 25 of VSB I and 30 of VSB IV together with imitations of gold dinars, these burial assemblages are dated to the first half of the 9th century. Imitations of the gold Umayyad dinars together with gold earrings, beads made of carnelian, coral, monochrome and multi-colored glass, a full set of the dressing room accessories (mirror, toilet box, ear pick, toilet brush) are the grave goods of burials of young women of childbearing age, which indicates that their owners belonged to the social and property elite of the Saltiv population of the Siversky Donets basin.