[Bonetools] Coin Balances

Mon May 8 10:34:27 CEST 2023

Dear Hans and Martin,
Thank you very much for your replies! I've become much more cunning in
finding quasi-legal article copies, and I've learned about 10 new german
words!

I have the two short papers on the bone münzwaage from Hirsau (Gross 1991
and Steuer 1993 - ref. below).  Steuer mentions others found at Cologne and
Strasbourg but unfortunately without any bibliographical reference. If by
any chance you have an idea where I should start looking, I'll very much
appreciate it. I will be happy to write something for "bonetool of the
month" once I have things organised.

Unfortunately I could not find a bone balance in the Eastgate report as
well. For now, the only bone example from England that I know of is from
Castle Acre.

Steuer, H. 1993. Auf der Suche nach dem schweren Gold - eine Münzwaage aus
dem Hirsauer Kloster, in  Zeitspuren. Archäologisches aus Baden.
Archäologische Nachrichten aus Baden 50. p.200

Sincerely
Ariel

On Wed, May 3, 2023 at 9:58 AM Martin Foreman <
Martin.Foreman at northlincs.gov.uk> wrote:

> Dear Chums,
> I believe there is a medieval bone coin balance fragment from Eastgate,
> Beverley, in Evans and Tomlinson ?1998? Excavations at 33-35 Eastgate,
> Beverley 1983-86: No. 3 (Sheffield Excavation Reports) with a note on
> them solicited by Stephanie Armstrong,
> Best wishes,
> Martin
>
> Martin Foreman
>
> Finds Liaison Officer
>
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> ------------------------------
> *From:* Bonetools <bonetools-bounces at listserv.niif.hu> on behalf of Hans
> Christian Küchelmann <info at knochenarbeit.de>
> *Sent:* 02 May 2023 16:54
> *To:* BONETOOLS <bonetools at listserv.niif.hu>; Ariel Shatil <
> ariel.shatil at mail.huji.ac.il>
> *Subject:* Re: [Bonetools] Coin Balances
>
> Dear Ariel,
>
> I remember having seen several European examples of coin balances in
> archaeological reports and publications, but unfortunately I do not
> remember exactly where, since they were presented mingled within other
> finds. A check in my reference database revealed only one 12th century find
> from Germany (Gross 1991). In case you are interested in that one and do
> not have access to the journal, I can scan the article for you.
>
> And by the way, would you like to write a blog entry about your findings
> on coin balances for the bonetool of the month blog in one of the upcoming
> months?
>
> Best wishes
>
> Christian
>
> Reference:
> # Gross, U. (1991): Eine beinerne Münzwaage des 12. Jh. aus dem Kloster
> Hirsau. – Archäologie in Deutschland 2/1991, 44-45
> --
> Knochenarbeit
>
> Hans Christian Küchelmann
>
> Speicherhof 4, D-28217 Bremen, Germany
> tel: +49 - 421 - 61 99 177
> mail: info at knochenarbeit.de
> web: www.knochenarbeit.de
> ORCID-ID: 0000-0003-0207-3804
>
> > Am 18.04.2023 um 08:12 schrieb Ariel Shatil <ariel.shatil at gmail.com>:
> >
> > Hi friends and colleagues,
> >
> > So.... recently I've been looking at coin balances, a.k.a. tumbrels,
> a.k.a. trebuchets, made in bone. A very nice complete example has come into
> my hands. It was found in Jerusalem and according to the excavators dates
> to no later than the 11th century. MacGregor and others mention 2 items
> from Izmir, now in the Ashmolean Museum, that date to the 6th or 7th
> century, but since these are not from excavations I believe this date is
> questionable. Few bone examples from excavations in Kadikalesi, Turkey, are
> dated to the 13th-14th century.
> >
> > Looking for similar objects I found records of a rather large number of
> them in sites of the Golden Horde and the Rus principalities, with dates in
> the 14th to the 16th centuries. From the same area, but usually slightly
> later (15th-16th) there are also many examples made of copper alloy.  Metal
> examples of nearly similar dates (14th-15th) I've also found in Turkey and
> Syria.
> >
> > There is also a large group of them in England, 13th-14th centuries,
> mostly made of copper alloy, but the earliest example is made of bone and
> is of late 12th century date. I also found records of a single balance from
> Denmark (copper alloy) and a single one from Germany (bone), of similar
> date range.
> >
> > On top of all that, there are the Ottoman coin balances (18th-20th
> century) also made of bone, wood and metal.
> >
> > If you throw all this data on a map, you'll notice big geographical
> gaps, and there are of course the somewhat "smaller" chronological gaps.
> I'm trying to wrap my head around these objects and maybe bridge some of
> these gaps, so any information or data you might know of will be very
> helpful.
> > Especially interesting to me will be data, if it exists, from Syria,
> Turkey, the Caucasus, the Balkans, the Baltic countries, Poland? maybe
> Scandinavia? and, well, basically anywhere.
> >
> > Thank you,
> > May the force be with you.
> > Ariel
> >
> > I've added some images for reference:
> > 1. Bone balances from Kadikalesi in Turkey
> > 2. 18th-20th century Ottoman balances of wood, metal and bone
> > 3. Bone balance from Seliternoe/Sarai-Batu
> > 4. Copper Alloy balance from Anglesey
> > 5. Bone balance from Kolomna near Moscow
> >
> >
> > <Kadikalesi.jpg><Othomann var materials.jpg><Saray-Batu
> Seliternoe.jpg><Anglesey Copper Alloy.jpg><Kolomna
> Russia.jpg>_______________________________________________
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