6th century gold coin found in 10th century house in Bulgaria –

In a medieval house in the northern Bulgarian village of Debnievo, archaeologists discovered five gold coins from the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great (reigned 527-565). The house dates from the 10th century, so the coins would have been 400 years old when the house was inhabited, and could have been valuable heirlooms or discovered when the house was being built.

Excavations conducted in Debnievo over the past five years have uncovered remains of a settlement dating back to the 4th-3rd centuries BC, and evidence of continued habitation from the 4th-6th centuries AD. Next to the village is a fortress that was built in the early 5th century, when the region was part of the Byzantine Empire.

This medieval residence was built on the ruins of a Byzantine building. In the 10th century, a fire destroyed the building beyond repair, after which it was abandoned. The occupants left behind many items, including two iron sickles and axes, ceramic vessels, and three copper rings. Archaeologists found five coins on the floor of the house.

All five coins are of the same type: a ‘tremesis’ – a small gold coin worth one-third of a ‘solidus’ – with the emperor wearing a pearl crown on the obverse and the goddess of victory holding a wreath in her right hand and a cross and globe in her left hand on the reverse. The inscription on the obverse reads ‘Our Justinian Eternal Augustus’, referring to the first Roman emperor whose name was later used to refer to all emperors, and ‘Augustus Victorious’ on the reverse. Two of the coins may have been burned in a house fire, and they were stuck together.

Archaeologists speculate that the house’s builders discovered the coins while working on early Byzantine ruins beneath their new residence.