The aim of the study was to understand what distribution patterns tell us about Carolingian historical and economic processes in the Netherlands, and how this pattern was affected by post...Show moreThe aim of the study was to understand what distribution patterns tell us about Carolingian historical and economic processes in the Netherlands, and how this pattern was affected by post-depositional processes. This was done by investigating coins in relation to geographic layers and changes of distribution patterns through time were studied using 50-year time slices from 750 AD to 950 AD. Coins are mostly found along the coast and near major rivers in the centre of the Netherlands, with hot spots at known Carolingian trade settlements such as Dorestad, Domburg and settlements at the mouths of the Rhine and Meuse rivers. Other hotspots are found at Nijmegen, which was the site of a Carolingian palatium, and the northwest coast of the province of Friesland. While clay rich features of marine and fluviatile deposits favour the preservation of coins, it is likely that coins were mainly circulating in the vicinity of navigable waters. Frisian merchants were renowned in the Carolingian empire and beyond for their prominence in international trade and their core area coincides seamlessly with the coin distribution pattern. Coin circulation appeared to be at its peak during the reign of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. Circulation then again diminished following political instabilities, Viking invasions and the gradual silting of the river Rhine after the death that were later to become trade centres of importance in the later Middle Ages after Dorestad went defunct in the 850s AD. Coins are infrequently found in many parts of the Netherlands. Large parts of the Netherlands were deemed inhospitable during the Carolingian era due to vast areas of peat bogs that were drained in the late Middle Ages and the modern era. The south and east of the country is characterized by deposits of cover sands was also found to be sparse in Carolingian coins. That the southern provinces of Noord-Brabant and Limburg were so thinly endowed with coins was a surprise, as these areas are known to have been close to the Carolingian heartland. The poor preservation qualities of metal objects in sand is only part of the answer why this is the case. The river Meuse and the southern provinces were found to have been of little interest to Frisian traders, who conceivably preferred the relatively neutral extremities of the Empire that were conductive to international trade. Perhaps coins in the Netherlands were principally a medium used by merchants in long distance trade, and not as readily used in local and regional trade along rural settlements.Show less
