Ultima Thule? О находках позднеримских монет на территории Тулы

Roman coin finds are very rare in the forest zone of Eastern Europe. This especially applies to coins of the Late Roman period. Information about finds of such coins has been known since the early XIX century, but this information can be considered unreliable. In 1987, two Late Roman bronze coins (Arcadius and Leo I) were accidentally discovered on the territory of Tula, but their archaeological context is unknown. In 2015-2018 information on 24 new finds of Late Roman bronze coins found under different circumstances, mainly during archaeological research in the territory of Tula was collected: from the hillfort and settlement Malaya Strekalovka, from the Upa 2 and Bolshaya Kozhukhovka 1 settlements and near Bolshaya Kozhukhovka village. The earliest coin among the finds from Tula is follis of Licinius, and the latest is the AE2 of Leo I. Along with the Constantine I follis from the Busharino hillfort, these findings are the most eastern among Late Roman bronze coin finds in Europe. Probably, they correspond with the newly discovered archaeological group located in basin of the Upa River and dated IV-V centuries AD. It is unlikely that in the region coins came directly from the territory of the Roman Empire. Of the possible ways of inflow coins to the region there are two. The first – from Tanais, through the Don River and the population of Chertovitskoe-Zamyatino sites group. Nevertheless, the completely different structure of Late Roman bronze coin finds in Tanais and their absence in the Upper Don region makes this way of receipt unlikely. The second, more probable, opportunity is from the basin of the Seim River. On the territory of the L’gov-Fatezh sites group, dated on the Late Roman Period – Great Migration Period, the concentration of Late Roman bronze coins with a similar chronological structure is also known.