9th-century Arab silver coins found near Truso in Poland — Notes from Poland

Six early medieval Arab silver dirhams and two fragments of such coins were discovered in a forest near the town of Młynary, not far from Elbląg in northern Poland. Notes from Poland reports the discovery.

Jakub Jagodziński, a representative of the Archaeological and Historical Museum in Elbląg, told the Polish Press Agency that the dirhams have been preliminarily dated to the first half of the 9th century. This was around 1,200 years ago, before the founding of the Polish state. Specialists will be able to establish a more precise date after examining the coins.

The coins will be transferred to a museum

The find was made during a legal search in a forest near Młynary, east of Elbląg. After conservation work, the dirhams will join the collection of the Archaeological and Historical Museum in Elbląg. The museum's archaeologists also plan to visit the discovery site in search of other artifacts.

According to Jagodziński, the coins may have belonged to merchants travelling on routes to or from Truso. Another version is that they may have belonged to Prussian guards who later collected tolls on these routes.

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A Viking Age trading port

Truso was a Viking Age trading port founded by Scandinavians on the shores of Lake Drużno near the Vistula delta. The settlement existed from the late 7th to the early 11th century. Its location facilitated trade with Kyivan Rus, Byzantium and the Islamic world.

Historians knew of Truso's existence from accounts by the Anglo-Saxon traveller Wulfstan of Hedeby. After a long search, the exact location of the settlement was discovered in the 1980s by archaeologist Marek Jagodziński, the father of Jakub Jagodziński.

Arab coins have previously been found at the site of Truso: in 1986, a hoard of 11 whole coins and five fragments was discovered there. Archaeologist Grzegorz Kurka explained that the value of the silver was important in transactions involving dirhams, so the coins were often broken into pieces.