Migration Period
between Odra and Vistula

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Boročiče

Boročiče, Volyn oblast, Ukraine (former name Boroczyce, in powiat horochowski) the site of discovery in 1928 during the construction of the railway line from Łuck to Stojanów, close to the village pond, of a great →Migration Period  hoard. A clay pot and two silver vessels held presumably ca. 10 kg denarii from the 1st and 2nd century. The deposit included at least two silver vessels (figs. 1 and 2), a biconical pottery vessel with two handles (fig. 1), and two silver ingots. One more find has been linked to the same deposit, discovered in the immediate vicinity, on the spoil heap – a ca. 172 g medallion of Jovian struck in 363 at Constantinople provided with a richly ornamented frame in a Pontic style (fig. 3). The deposit is interpreted as the property of Gothic →Goths  power elite amassed over several generations and deposited in late 4th or early 5th century. The majority of surviving pieces from the hoard is now held by the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw where they mostly returned in 1992, the denarii also in the Ossoliński National Institute in Wrocław and in museums in Lviv.

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Literature: J. Piotrowski, Skarb Boroczycki powiat Horochów na Wołyniu, Lviv 1929; M. A. Tichanova, Boročickij klad, Svetskaja Archeologija 25, 1956, p. 301-317; A. Bursche, Złote medaliony rzymskie w Barbaricum. Symbolika prestiżu i władzy społeczeństw barbarzyńskich u schyłku starożytności, Warsaw 1998, p. 69-72, 230, tab. L; K. Mitkova-Szubert, Zawartość, losy i próba interpretacji skarbu rzymskiego z Boroczyc na Wołyniu, Wiadomości Numizmatyczne XLIII, 1999, p. 137-152; A. Bursche, J. Kowalski (ed.), Barbarzyńskie Tsunami - Okres Wędrówek Ludów w dorzeczu Odry i Wisły, Warszawa-Szczecin 2017.

  • Fig. 1. Boročiče, surviving objects from the deposit (State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw). full resolution

    Fig. 1. Boročiče, surviving objects from the deposit (State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw).

  • Fig. 2. Boročiče, silver vessel and selected denarii from the deposit, archival photograph (State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw). full resolution

    Fig. 2. Boročiče, silver vessel and selected denarii from the deposit, archival photograph (State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw).

  • Fig. 2. Boročiče, obverse of the Jovian medallion, plaster cast; this find is now missing, only its archival photograph survives (State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw). full resolution

    Fig. 2. Boročiče, obverse of the Jovian medallion, plaster cast; this find is now missing, only its archival photograph survives (State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw).