A Hoard of Medieval Coins from the 12th-century Zlatna Livada Village in the Chirpan Municipality

Abstract

A collective find of billon coins had been found at the village of Zlatna Livada in the Chirpan Municipality and in close proximity to the local monastery, which is the oldest in the Balkans. The coin find contains 919 billons characterised as follows: Manuel I Comnenus (779 coins), Andronicus I Comnenus (117 coins), and Isaac II Angelus (22 coins).
Three other hoards of the same composition were discovered close to Stara Zagora. They were found in the western outskirts of Stara Zagora and in the nearby villages of Kaloyanovetz and Preslaven and contained 699, 884, and 7.5 kg of billions, respectively.
The places where the four hoards were deposited could be related to the following historical events. After plundering Philippopolis in 1189, a part of the crusaders of the Third Crusade took the way to “the very rich city of Veroi (Beroe).” Their route passed through the Zlatna Livada region, causing the local population to hide their coins. The deposition of the last three coin hoards may have been a consequence of the crusaders’ plundering of Veroi or the defeat of Isaac II Angelus by Ivan I Asen’s troops at the Tryavna mountain pass in 1190. Following his defeatр Isaac II Angelus retreated via the old Roman road from Discoduratere through Kran and Beroe to the south.