GLASS WEIGHTS FROM CARIČIN GRAD (JUSTINIANA PRIMA)

Abstract

This paper presents two Early Byzantine glass weights unearthed in the intramural housing located in the southwestern part of the Lower City. Owing to the finds of a large number of coins, both weights have been dated to the last quarter of the sixth century. One glass weight, of six nomismata (?) (Fig 1.1), is circular and flat in shape, of green-brown glass, and features a monogram impressed on the upper side. The cruciform monogram is composed of the following letters: left IO (?), right Κ, down Δ, and up . The monogram is impossible to read in full as the first two letters in the ligature are unclear. The weight was found fragmented. It is 45 mm in diameter, 0.5 cm in thickness and weighs 21.45 g. Its weight is far below the theoretical weight of 27.24 g of six nomismata/solidi. Our piece has even a lower value than that of five nomismata (22.7 g), so it is possible that it was used to weigh six lightweight solidi of 20 siliquae (22.7 g). The glass weight of six nomismata (?) belongs to a large group of weights bearing a cruciform monogram. The other glass weight, of one nomisma (Fig 1.2), is circular and flat in shape, of dark blue glass, and bears impressed schematized representations of three busts arranged left, right and below the central motif of the half-moon, respectively. Above the half-moon is an indistinct representation. It may be a fourth bust, but extremely reduced in size, probably because of the lack of space, as the central motif takes up most of it. All the representations are rendered as contours, without any details. The weight is 25-23 mm in diameter, 0.3 cm in thickness and weighs 4.26 g. Its weight is 6.17% lower than the theoretical one of 4.55 g per numisma/solidus. It may be assumed that the weight was used to weigh lightweight numismata/solidi, whose theoretical weight was 4.35 g. Our piece is of a similar ponderal value to that of the pieces in the group of 12 weights, ranging between 4.15 g and 4.36 g, from a find of 21 weights in total made in a structure at Sardis. A glass weight of one nomisma may be tentatively ascribed to the group of “imperial” weights. They are pieces containing en face bust portraits of emperors, Christ or prefects in a large number of different combinations. Our assumption that the glass weights from Caričin Grad were used to weigh lightweight solidi is based on their very weight as well as on the substantial circulation of lightweight solidi in the last quarter of the sixth and early seventh centuries in northern Illyricum. Namely, lightweight solidi accounted for 14.28% in hoards and for 8% of individual finds of gold coins from the said period. The glass weights from Caričin Grad have no known analogies, which makes a more thorough interpretation of them rather difficult.