Archaeologists say the coins may have remained in circulation until the turn of the 11th century. Six early medieval Arab silver coins and fragments of two others have been found in a forest in northern Poland, near the site of a Viking trading port that once connected the Baltic with distant markets. The dirhams were found in the Młynary Forest District near the city of Elbląg. They date from the first half of the ninth century, although researchers have yet to establish precisely when they were made, archaeologist Jakub Jagodziński told Polish state news agency PAP. He said the coins may have belonged to merchants traveling to or from Truso, a former Viking trading port near Elbląg on Poland’s Baltic coast, or to guards who collected tolls along the routes leading to it. “It is possible that they remained in circulation until the turn of the 11th century, when the Truso settlement ceased to function,” Jagodziński said. A link to distant trade Founded by Scandinavian settlers, Truso was a center for crafts and trade from around the late seventh century to the early 11th. Its position near the mouth of the Vistula River linked it to routes reaching Kyivan Rus, Byzantium and the Baghdad Caliphate. Coins from the Arab world and Western Europe have previously been found at the site. Truso was discovered in 1981 by archaeologist Marek Jagodziński, the father of Jakub Jagodziński. The newly found coins will be conserved and studied before going on display at Elbląg’s Archaeological and Historical Museum.
