ROMAN COINS FROM THE HILL FORT AND SETTLEMENT NEAR KARDON IN THE BELARUSIAN DZVINA REGION

The article presents antique coins which were discovered during the excavations of the archeological complex of Kardon in Shumilina district, Vitebsk region. According to the wide factual basis, a very rare phenomenon had been traced in the territory of the Belarusian Dzvina region: ancient coins were found in its eastern part (Vitebsk region) through official excavations by the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in 2016. These are a denarius of Marcus Aurelius (AD 164) from the hill fort and a didrachm of Vespasian and Titus (AD 69 to 79) from settlement 1. The authors expressed their ideas on possible ways and circumstances for these artifacts to have appeared on the archaeological site of Kardon. They believe that the Roman coins most probably got on the right side of the Vitebsk Dzvina region through representatives of the Kiev culture from the area between the Dnieper and Dzvina rivers. This opinion is substantiated by artifacts related to this culture that were found both in Kardon and in the considered region. The dating of the lower cultural layers of the hill fort and settlement 1 in Kardon is made on the basis of the availability of comb-marked pottery, and it is possible that the coins got on the site in the earliest period of its existence. 

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