PARS PRO TOTO IN AN INTERPRETATIO SARMATICA OCCIDENTALIS. THE ROMAN COINS IN SARMATIAN GRAVES FROM THE NECROPOLIS TIMIȘOARA – HLADIK 1 (ROMANIA)
PARS PRO TOTO IN AN INTERPRETATIO SARMATICA OCCIDENTALIS. THE ROMAN COINS IN SARMATIAN GRAVES FROM THE NECROPOLIS TIMIȘOARA – HLADIK 1 (ROMANIA)

Summary/Abstract: During the rescue archaeological investigations between 2019-2020 at the future southern bypass road of Timişoara, 139 Sarmatian graves were unveiled and documented. Twenty of these graves have provided 20 Roman imperial denarii, 1 coin per grave. The present paper is cataloguing this numismatic evidence and presents conclusions following and a comparative analysis carried out on three levels: i. the coin position in connection to the skeleton; ii. the analysis of coin and the associated funerary inventory; iii. analysing these graves with similar discoveries from other necropolises from the Pannonian Plain. The approach is carried out in order to establish general and specific patterns of the meaning of placing Roman coins in Sarmatian graves. If clearly a consequence of the close vicinity of the Roman Empire – the custom did not make it to the Eastern Sarmatians –, the coinage frequency and symbolism within the western Sarmatian environment suggest a specific interpretatio Sarmatica Occidentalis – pars pro toto.

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