Datarea mormântului 97 de la Vălcani în lumina cercetărilor numismatice și carbon 14 - contribuții la cronologia monedelor de tip H.1
The dating of grave 97 from Vălcani in the light of numismatic and Carbon-14 research – contributions to the chronology of H.1.-type coins

Summary/Abstract: The early medieval burial site near Vălcani has been discovered alongside other archaeological elements dating from the Neolithic era to the Modern Age. The funerary site from the 10th–11th centuries has been much more varied than the former ones and is the biggest one in Banat.The coin discovered in grave 97 from Vălcani is a coin from Stephen I (1000-1038). The grave was radiocarbon-dated in order to obtain a more precise dating, given that the coin in the grave gives us a safe terminus post quem. At the same time, through this terminus post quem we can verify the reliability of the radiocarbon dating.Thus, the sample from the human skeleton conventionally indicates 1060±18, which places the death of the individual from grave 97 between the years 900 and 1030. Calibration in the Oxcal 4.4 Interface program indicated with a probability of 95.4% the years of death between 900-1025, respectively with a certainty of 68.3% between the years 989-1021. The calibration offered a high probability dating at the end of the 10th century and the first quarter of the 11th century. However, given the certainty that the coin was issued in the 11th century by Stephen I, the dating in the 10th century cannot be taken into account. The comparative analysis of the radiocarbon dating and the terminus post quem thus captures a very narrow chronological sequence of around 20 years, which is of special importance both for the burial site and for grave 97, in particular with regard to Stephen's H.1 type coins, considering the theories advanced in the literature and discussed in the paper. It can be concluded that the minting of the H.1 coins is very likely the result of the coronation of Stephen I, so it most likely appeared in the first decade of the 11th century, a result that invalidates much of the older literature.

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