Round-shaped weights from the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania Archaeology Collection

The National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania Archaeology Collection contains several dozen weights of various shapes, materials and bearing a variety of markings. They were used in different periods and served a range of purposes. For example, some weights were meant for weighing coins or luxury goods, others were used by jewellers, coin minters and pharmacists.

This virtual exhibition presents a group of twelve weights that stand out for their round shape and variety of markings/ornaments. The weights on display are chronologically speaking the earliest weights in the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania Archaeology Collection. All of them were found in the first decade of the 21st century during archaeological research of the Vilnius Lower Castle’s Palace of the Grand Dukes territory.

 

In the European space, north and east of the Holy Roman Empire, a weighed currency economy  (Gewichtsgeldwirtschaft) was widespread. The essence of this economic system was a process of exchange of precious metal based on weight, which was used in trade transactions. Raw precious metals, usually silver, served as this currency. In the Viking Era, real coins were also used as weighed currency, namely, Arab dirhams, however their value was judged only by their weight.

One could purchase a particular good for a set amount (weight) of silver. For example, in the 10th–11th centuries, a marten fur would cost 7.5 grams of silver, while a sword would set someone back 120 grams of silver, and a slave cost up to 45,000 grams of silver.

Weighed curency based trade transactions required having special equipment – weights (ill. 1–12) and balances (ill. 13). These round weights of a standardised appearance, size and weight, mostly made of iron and coated in a copper alloy and marked with various geometric ornament compositions, are authentic witnesses of historic trade transactions.

 

When the findsites of the round-shaped weights are marked on a map of the Vilnius Lower Castle’s Palace of the Grand Dukes area, we find that two concentrated zones stand out. One is in the northern part of the territory, while the other is in the south east.

Taking into account the apparent trend, the weight findsites can be interpreted by associating them with the surroundings of the Early Brick Castle (late 13th – early 14th centuries); it was built on top of a steep-sloped hill on the south west foot of Castle Hill. This hill was surrounded by natural ravines from the north and south that also served a defensive function, and by the Vilnia River to the west.

So, if we consider the weight findsites from the perspective of the Early Brick Castle’s environs, we learn that most of the artefacts under discussion were concentrated between this castle’s defensive walls and the defensive trenches that surrounded them. The findsites of eight weights are located between the castle’s northern defensive wall and the castle’s northern defensive wall from its first stage of expansion (the second and third decades of the 14th century), and the gate tower and the northern ravine – a defensive trench. Three weights were found outside of the castle’s apparent (no longer extant) eastern/south eastern defensive wall and in the vicinity of the apparent ravine (defensive trench). The findsite of another weight was located a distance of around 50 metres south east from the latter three.

 

When we talk about the description of the round-shaped weights, two concepts are usually found in historiography on this topic: barrel-shaped and round-shaped weights. This kind of grouping based on shape usually rests on two criteria: a visual assessment of the form and the relative diameter and height of the weights and the area of their flat parts.

Based on historiography and taking into account the special features of the weights under discussion, the weights presented here from the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania Archaeology Collection are described as being of an irregular round shape with cut off opposite ends. Three main criteria were used when creating their typology – shape, markings (ornamentation) and materiality.

When we consider the variations in the weight shapes, three groups can be discerned. According to their markings, or lack thereof, each of the three weight groups were divided into a total of eleven subgroups. The markings on most weights are unique and they do not repeat. The markings were most commonly executed by pressing a punch (poinçon) onto the flat planes of the weights that had compositions of geometric ornaments and/or marks. Four weights stand out for having a more or less deeper X-shape mark. Based on the weight researchers’ conclusions, it may be suspected that this kind of marking could have been both made initially or added later, when the weight might have been adapted to serve a new purpose.

In terms of the materiality of the weights, the researchers noticed that the round-shaped weights noted for their unique markings were usually made from two metals – they had an iron core that was covered with a copper alloy coating. However, there were cases when such weights would be cast from a copper alloy. Among the twelve weights presented at this exhibition, eight have survived in excellent condition, so when testing them with a magnet their iron core could not be identified. In order to accurately determine their materiality, the X-ray method could be used. The copper alloy coating on the other four weights is damaged somewhat, so their iron core can be clearly identified.

 

Researchers state that balances and round-shaped weights existed for as long as weighed currency was in circulation. Lithuania’s archaeological material confirms the use of silver bullions already in the late Iron Age (10th–11th centuries). Semi-circular bar-shaped silver bullions were used as currency from the middle of the 13th century. By the second half of the 14th century (most probably from the fourth quarter of the 14th century), trihedral silver bullions appeared, although at the same time coins also started being minted in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In this context it would appear that the chronology of the presented weights could be very wide.

In fact, the dating of the round-shaped weights from the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania Archaeology Collection does raise some questions for discussion. Based on sources representing the three main weight findsites – numismatic material, archaeological artefact sets and dendrochronological research data of wood samples – the weights should be dated to the mid-14th – first half of the 15th centuries, while some could be dated even to the beginning of the 16th century. However, at the same time in many cases both the numismatic material and the artefact sets allow pointing to signs of the shuffling of cultural layers. For example, earlier coins have been found in later layers, and vice versa; fragments of trihedral silver bullion falsifications have been found along with pot-shaped stove tile and trough roof tile sherds; the weight typical of the second half of the 16th century has been found in layers lower than the round-shaped weight, and so on.

When we look at the context of Lithuania and its neighbouring countries, we also find that weights of this type are dated to an earlier period. In Lithuania, they are mostly found in cremation burial grounds from the 9th–13th centuries (Bandužiai (Klaipėda), Laiviai (Kretinga District), Viešvilė (Jurbarkas District), etc.). Only in two burial grounds are they dated to the 13th–14th/early 15th centuries (Barinė (Panevėžys District), Obeliai (Ukmergė District). Weights found at the Šliktinė (Skuodas District) offering site are dated to the 9th–11th centuries, and in Kernavė – to the 13th–14th centuries. The chronology of round-shaped weights found in Latvia, Scandinavia, present-day Belarus and Russia’s territories usually spans the 10th–13th centuries.

Several premises may be preliminarily raised regarding the dating of the weights presented here. Either these weights are among the most recent artefacts of this type in the East Baltic region, used for weighing silver bullions right up to the turn of the 15th century (and some time thereafter), or they ended up in later layers when various earth movement and digging works were carried out, when they could have been raised or lowered to the level of earlier layers. At this time all we can say for certain is that deeper studies are needed to analyse issues regarding the chronology of these weights.