Money And Currency In Medieval Greece 227
evidence needs therefore to be treated with some circumspection. The great
majority of the coins which are available to us would have been lost uninten-
tionally, either dropped or misplaced during everyday activities, or not recov-
ered from their places of storage. In order to be useful to modern science these
coins need to be available in good quantities, from a good mix of contexts and
geographical positions, published according to adequate standards. These con-
ditions are only partially met for the medieval Greek context.
Beginning our analysis with single finds, coins are available from a large
number of locations. They are usually the result of archaeological investi-
gations, and are therefore subject to the kind of considerations which have
motivated excavations in Greece. By contrast, there are very few single coins
gathered more haphazardly from the open countryside, and there is nowhere
near blanket coverage for the territory under consideration here. The most pro-
lific, specifically medieval excavations which have produced coins have been
conducted at Glarenza in Elis and at the Frankish Complex at Corinth, fol-
lowed by much lower-key enterprises on Andros, at Panakto in Boeotia, or the
monastery of Zaraka in the north-east Peloponnese. The most typical form of
specifically medieval investigation by the archaeological authorities in Greece
and Albania concerns the restoration of medieval structures, usually churches
or castles, which produce exceedingly small numbers of coins. A number of
representative examples may be given, for instance churches at Pantanassa in
Epirus, Tigani in Mani, Riganokampos near Patras, or Ballsh in Albania. The
medieval Albanian fortresses of Berat and Kanina have also yielded coin finds.
There are overviews for these kinds of data for Greek Epirus and Elis specifically,
given respectively by Oikonomidou/Galani-Krikou and Baker. Looking now at
archaeology which either has a diachronic focus, or which is more specifically
interested in the Bronze Age or classical past of Greece, many more examples
can be found. First and foremost amongst these are the American excavations
at the Athenian Agora, and in Ancient Corinth, which have produced literally
thousands of coins dating 1200–1460. The evidence from these two sites is of
utmost importance for our knowledge of medieval Greek coin usage, but it can
also significantly skew the picture. Of secondary importance are the data from
a number of urban contexts, which have been gathered through a combination
of targeted and rescue excavations: Arta, Sparta, and Argos. The following clas-
sical sites have also yielded smaller numbers of medieval coin finds: Delphi,
Nemea, Messene, Troizina in the Argolis, Tenos, Akraiphnion in Boeotia, and,
in Albania, Apollonia and Butrint. By contrast, there are virtually no or very
insufficient single data from some of the most significant settlements of medi-
eval Greece, Mistra, Patras, Coron-Modon, and Chalkis/Negroponte.