Gheorghe Mănucu-Adameşteanu
Ingrid Poll
Bogdan Constantinescu
Roxana Bugoi
Municipal Museum, Bucharest, Romania
"Horia Hulubei" National Institute of Nuclear Physics and Engineering, Magurele, Romania
Comm. Nufărul is at 12 km below the city of Tulcea, on St. George Danube's arm. The succession of the fortified enclosures, with preserved walls of 4-5 m height and 2, 40 - 2, 90 m thickness, are the arguments to locate here an important Byzantine centre from Xth - XIIIth centuries ( as well a Roman fortified settlement existed here during the Ist - VIIth centuries). The settlement knows its foremost development during the XIth century.
The archaeological excavations, started in 1977, put in evidence a cultural layer that sometimes has a thickness of over 3 meters. The monetary discoveries play a major role in understanding the archaeological truth. From these, over 2000 coins are Byzantine.
We analyze in this paper the gold coins dated in the Xth century, represented by three solidi issued by Emperors Constantine VII - Roman II. The first coin is a class VII emission (921 - 931), while the other two belong to the XV class emission (945 - 959). The coins are ordinary and are frequent finds between the discoveries from Dobroudja, especially those from XV class.
The coins were analyzed by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), using a spectrometer based on a 30 mCi 241Am annular gamma-source and a horizontal HPGe detector.