260 



I-:K AM> IIOMAX ANTIQUITIES. 



ornaments of unmistakable Greek origin are found in both 

 regions. To complete the chain of proof, many of the anti- 

 quities, both in the Museums of Kief and Smolensk, are 

 similar to those of the North. 



Many of the forms of the antiquities, such as neck-rings 

 and gold snake-shaped bracelets, fibulas, &c., which were 

 thought to belong exclusively to the North, are found in great 

 number in the graves of Kertch, in Southern Russia, where 

 they lie almost side by side with the exquisite Grecian 

 antiquities the pride of the Hermitage Museum in St. Peters- 

 burg mementoes of the colonies established by Greece on the 

 shores of the Black Sea. They show that at that period there 

 were two distinct civilisations and peoples living near each 

 other one Greek, the other native. The natives were probably 

 of the -same stock as a great number of the people of the 

 North. 



Western and Eastern, Roman and Byzantine, coins have 

 been found ; the gold solidi were for the most part used by 

 the people in the North as ornaments, for loops have been 

 attached to or holes made through them. The two largest 

 discoveries hitherto made of Roman coins are those of Hagesta- 

 borg, in Scania, southern Sweden (5f>0 denarii), found in 1871, 

 and of Sindarfe (Hemse parish), Gotland, at which latter spot 

 about 1,500 Roman coins were found, in 1870, in a clay urn. 1 

 Few coins dating before the Christian era have been found. 



1 The earliest coins (Gotland) are 

 those of Augustus ('-'9 B.C. A.D. 14). 

 Then follow those of Nero, and coins 

 nt' all the different emperors to Alex- 

 ander Severus (222-235) ; the greatest 

 numbers arc those of Trajan (98-117); 

 Hadrian (117-1.'58,; Antoninus Pins 

 ( li'iS-Kjl'; ; Faustina, wife of Antoninus 

 Pius, Marcus Aurelius (161-180); Faus- 

 tina junior, wife of Marcus Aurelius, and 

 Coininodiis (18(1-192). At Hagestaborg 

 the nx^t numerous were those of An- 

 toninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Faustina 

 the younger, and Coinmorius. The earliest 

 are of the time of Nero (54-68), the 

 latest of that of Septimiiis Severus (193- 

 .11. In Olaud the earliest are those 

 of Trajan, the latest tiio>e of Alexander 

 Severus. In /eeland the earliest are of 

 Vespusian, the latest of Macrinus ('217. 



218). In Fyen the earliest are of Tiberius 

 (14-37), the latestofGeta (211. '212). In 

 Bornholm the earliest are of Ntro, the 

 latest of Septimius Severus. In Jutland 

 the earliest are also of Nero, the latest of 

 Maeriuus (217, 218 i. In southern Sweden 

 the earliest are of Claudius (41-54), the 

 latest of Alexander Severus, but only 

 one or two of the latter have been found ; 

 after the time of Commodus the silver 

 denarii became rarer and rarer. On 

 the island of Fyen a complete series of 

 sold coins from Decius (249-251) to 

 Licinius the elder (.->07-323) have been 

 found. The Byzantine coins are of gold, 

 and chiefly used as ornaments, date from 

 Constantinus Magnus (306-337) to Ana- 

 stasius (491-518); one also of Justinius I. 

 (518-5'_'7) has been found. In Nor- 

 way the gold coins of the above period 



