The article analyzes individual coins of the Hungarian King Bela III, Khorezm Shah Jalal-ad-Din, as well as coins from the number of individual finds and from two hoards of the Georgian Queen Rusudan, bronze coins of medieval China discovered in different years in different parts of the North Caucasus.

Each group of finds is considered against a broad historical background of events in the first half of the 13th century. The authors tend to associate the appearance of the Bela III coin with the activities of trade agents from Latin Romania, who ensured the influx of various goods from the former knightly states to the Kuban region. Coins of Jalal-ad-Din and Queen Rusudan were used as the main means of payment for active trade, which resumed after 1222. The authors associate Chinese coins with trade relations between the Golden Horde and China. Thanks to the development of these relations in the North Caucasus, not only these coins became widespread, but also highly artistic products made of silver, porcelain and silk fabrics, which are well represented in the excavation materials of household monuments and late nomadic antiquities of the XIII-XIV centuries.

Keywords: medieval period, coins, Bela III, Khorezm Shah Jalal-ad-Din, Queen Rusudan, Song Dynasty, North Caucasus, trade, communications.

Introduction

Laconic evidence of written sources that convey the dramatic events of 1222 is well known. Then, a year before the battle on the Kalka River, the Genghisids, having passed through Transcaucasia from Derbent, first appeared in the North Caucasus. They, according to al-Asir, fought three battles with the Alan-Polovtsian forces of the North Caucasus, but were able to win only by separating the latter with the help of bribes and offerings to the Polovtsian aristocracy. The Genghisids defeated the North Caucasian Alans and, following the departed Polovtsians, retreated towards Kalki. Many Caucasian scholars, who have commented in sufficient detail on various episodes from al-Asir's narrative, assess the results and consequences of this raid as a catastrophe for the entire "North Caucasian Alania" and consider 1222 to be the beginning of "feudal troubles and fragmentation" in the region. Without calling into question the dramatic nature of the situation at the beginning of the 13th century, let's pay attention to a number of coins of this time, which, if considered by experts, were considered separately and as individual artifacts. Meanwhile, taken together, the numismatic material we are interested in can expand our understanding of the consequences of the Genghisid raid of 1222. and the specifics of the region's development in the future.

Description of finds

1. Coin of the Hungarian King Bela III. It is considered the earliest among the ones we are considering. A random find from the territory of the Taman settlement (Temryuksky district of Krasnodar Krai), the so-called Byzantine-like follis (Fig. 1) [Goncharov and Chkhaidze, 2007, p.344]. According to the description, on the obverse of the coin there is an image of "The Virgin Mary sitting on the cross".

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Fig. 1. Map-scheme of places of discovery of Eurasian coins of the XIII century in the North Caucasus. The numbers correspond to the numbering of the categories of finds in the text.

on the throne, with a cross in his right hand." Around the circle is the legend: "SANCTA MARIA". On the back, " the king and Queen sitting on the throne. Each of them holds a scepter", between them - "a long cross or stylized image of architectural arches, around individual letters". The weight of the copper coin is 1.93 g, the diameter is 26.7 mm [Ibid.] This coin, issued at the end of the early Middle Ages, according to E. Yu. Goncharov and V. N. Chkhaidze, based on the information of documentary sources published by I. Yu.Knyazky, could have ended up on the territory of the North Caucasus due to the military advance of the Hungarian kings to the east in the first third of the XIII century. (In 1226, the Hungarian kings proclaimed their authority over all of Cumania and in 1228 created the Polovtsian Bishopric.) Perhaps, according to the same researchers, the coin from Hungary came to the lower Kuban region in the first half of the XIII century. together with one of the Polovtsians or participants in the European Bagu campaign in 1241 [Ibid.]. However, according to V. N. Chkhaidze, "currently there is no archaeological evidence not only of the appearance of Polovtsians on Taman in the early 12th or mid-13th centuries, but also of their presence on the peninsula in general" [2008]. The version that allows us to link the find of interest to the appearance of participants in the European campaign of the Genghisids in Taman may also seem preferable. But there are well-known written sources that reported the movement of military operations (1239-1240) from Taman to the east, in the direction of Derbent, and the completion of this campaign in the North Caucasus by 1241; one part of the military units, having captured Magas, the early capital of medieval Alanya, after a month and a half siege, moved towards Derbent, while the other remained in the North Caucasus. The third group returned "to their own hordes", which were located far beyond the borders of the North Caucasus. We do not have any written information about the appearance in the North Caucasus of any new Genghisid units that returned to the North Caucasus from Central Europe. The question of "whether such coins were used" in Hungary itself up to "before the Mongol invasion" is still open [Ibid.]. For these reasons, it is necessary to consider other possibilities of getting the Bela III coin of interest to the lower Kuban.

In the history of the Kingdom of Hungary during the reign of Bela III, a whole series of events is considered significant. Among them are, for example, the campaign led by Bela III against Austria, the seizure of Dalmatia and part of the Byzantine possessions, the conclusion of peace with Isaac II Angel, the marriage of Bela III to the sister of the King of France, Margaret Capet, as well as the campaign against the Galician Principality, the Third Crusade participants staying with him in Hungary, the confrontation with Venice, etc. [History of Hungary, 1971]. Taking into account these events, a variety of assumptions may appear about the reasons, ways and conditions of the appearance of the coin of interest on the Taman Peninsula, and even in the early Middle Ages. By the time it was discovered in Taman, the coin was straightened and badly erased, although such coins were issued in the form of a "cup" (Goncharov and Chkhaidze, 2007). In addition, it had late specials-

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but there were holes punched for hanging; probably, by the time the coin reached Kuban, it could no longer be used as a means of payment, but as a decoration, talisman, amulet, or "icon" (Fig. 2). In other words, by this time the coin had practically lost its original functions. Given the presence of the image of the Virgin Mary on its obverse, it can be assumed that the resulting pendant could also serve as a cult object. However, when and by what route this object came to Taman is anyone's guess; sources mention the presence of medieval Magyars in the Kuban region only in connection with the end of the reconnaissance mission of the monk Julian, who visited Kuban and the Volga region twice (1235 and 1237) on behalf of the Hungarian King Bela IV (Golman, 1988).

The object of interest to us could have come to the lower Kuban together with the owner of a pendant made from a coin. This version allows us to consider the coin not so much as a result of direct connections between the inhabitants of the Taman Peninsula and the population of Hungary, but as a consequence of contacts mediated through different ethnic merchants or trade agents who, even during the first three Golden Horde khans, began to build trade routes to the Golden Horde, for example, from Latin Romania and Liguria, or those who the influx of various European goods, including "knightly" household items, to the territory of the Northern Black Sea region and the Golden Horde. This category of goods came to the Kuban region, as experts believe, not so much from Central Europe, but from Southern Europe (Kramarovsky, 1985,1993,1998) and through the territories of states that were founded by former participants of the Crusades shortly before the Genghisid invasions of Europe.

2. Coins of Khorezm Shah Jalal-ad-Din and Queen Rusudan of Tbilisi coinage. There are two copper coins of Jalal-ad-Din of the Tbilisi re-minting, as well as several copper coins of the Georgian queen Rusudan and two treasures.

Coins of Khorezm Shah Jalal-ad-Din (1220-VIII. 1231) were found on the territory of Derbent and in its environs (see Figures 1 and 2) [Pakhomov, 1970; Jalagania, 1979; Gusev, 1995; Prokopenko, 1995b, 2000; Narozhny 1996b,2007]. Such samples are considered to be the means of payment of the Georgian treasury, which was seized by Khorezm Shah after his capture of the capital of the Georgian kingdom and soon re-minted in his name (Jalagania, 1979; Buniyatov, 1988).

Coins of the Georgian queen Rusudan (d. 1245) - random finds and found as part of coin hoards in Derbent (see Fig. 1,2), and also not far from it (Pakhomov, 1970; Jalagania, 1979; Gusev, 1995). Another unbroken coin was raised in the vicinity of the modern village of Mayrtup in the Shali district of the Chechen Republic (see Figures 1, 3) (Vinogradov and Narozhny, 1988; Narozhny, 1997, 2007). Five punctured coins (rather than two, as previously indicated (Tmenov, 1985; Vinogradov, 1988)) were found in a "cave crypt" on a medieval burial ground near the village of Dzivgis in North Ossetia (see Fig. 1,10) (Tmenov and Tsutsiev, 2003). Another five broken coins were recovered from stone boxes and semi-underground crypts near the mountain Ingush villages of Keli and Egikal in the Dzheyrakhovsky district of the Republic of Ingushetia (see Fig. 1, 4, 5; 3) [Vinogradov and Narozhny, 1988; Narozhny, 1997]. The literature mentions exactly the same coin (unbroken) raised on the territory of the modern city of Krasnodar (see Figures 1, 7) (Pakhomov, 1970; Prokopenko, 2000). Coins from Ossetia and Ingushetia were identified by I. L. Dzhalagania (Center for Archaeological Research, Tbilisi) and G. A. Fedorov-Davydov (Moscow State University); all coins minted in Tbilisi in 1227 were described in detail by D. K. Kapanadze and E. A. Pakhomov (Kapanadze, 1955; Pakhomov, 1970).

Two large hoards of Rusudan copper coins discovered in the North Caucasus are also known. Per-

2. Hungarian coin from the Taman settlement (according to Goncharov and Chkhaidze, 2007).

3. Georgian Rusudan coins from Mountainous Ingushetia.

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It was discovered by chance in the 19th century in the vicinity of the present-day village of Storozhevaya in the Upper Kuban (see Fig. 1,6) during the laying of the Nadezhda Redoubt (for the historiography of the issue, see [Pakhomov, 1970; Prokopenko, 2000]). The number of coins found in the hoard is unknown; only their abundance was reported. The second treasure was found in 1848 during the construction of the Khadyzhensky fortress (see Fig. 1, 8) on the territory of the "Maikop department of the Kuban region". The hoard quickly "sold out"; only 500 coins from it have been preserved (Pakhomov, 1959). There is information about one more find - the "Rusudan silver coin", raised in the territory of the modern city of Azov, Rostov region (see Figs. 1, 9). In the publication of information, the coin is mistakenly called "copper" in 1227 (Fedorov-Davydov, 1985). According to Yu. A. Prokopenko, this silver coin belongs to the issue of 1230 [1995a, b]. The same opinion was expressed in 1999 by V. I. Perevozchikov, who at that time was the chief curator of the Azov Museum of Local Lore.

Almost all of the listed Rusudan and Jalal al-Din coins have repeatedly become the objects of attention of specialists, who have variously determined the reasons and conditions for their distribution in the region, as well as the reasons for hiding some of them in the form of hoards. Most often, these finds were seen as a reflection of the long-term "Georgian-North Caucasian" trade and religious ties, which did not stop even after the dramatic events of 1222. Two more versions based on Yu. Yu. M. Sikharulidze, when covering the history of Georgia in the XIII-XIV centuries, pointed out that during the reign of Georgia's queen Rusudan, the apogee of raiding activity of the highlanders of the North Caucasus fell, while they got the most diverse "loot", including, probably, coins in the name of Rusudan [1959]. Prokopenko suggests that all these numismatic materials should be considered as "the property of Georgian officials and officers" who, after the capture of Tbilisi by the army of Khorezm Shah Jalal-ad-Din, tried to find salvation in the North Caucasus. These" refugees", as Yu. A. Prokopenko suggests, took with them a significant part of the Georgian coins to the Kuban. Later, for unknown reasons, the coins were hidden in the ground in the form of two vast hoards [1995a, b; 2000]. Both versions have the right to exist, but they do not take into account the whole reality. In addition, they do not explain the reason for the appearance of so many coins in the Kuban region - individual finds and synchronous coin hoards of Transcaucasia. E. A. Pakhomov compiled a detailed list of them, including Rusudan coins and coin hoards found in Transcaucasia: Ani, on the territory of the Kare fortress, "in the Kutaisi district","Kagyzman, Ardakan, Akhalkalakh and Pitsunda" [1926], i.e. not only in Eastern and Western Georgia, but also in the territories adjacent to Georgia [Narozhny, 19966, 2007]. All the Transcaucasian hoards consisting of Rusudan coins are quite difficult to associate only with "refugees". When looking for reasons for the distribution of Transcaucasian coins in the North Caucasus, other, more realistic versions should also be taken into account.

To get a complete picture of the reasons and conditions for the influx of numismatic materials of interest to the North Caucasus, it is necessary to consider coins from among individual finds within several conditional groups.

The first group consists of Khwarezm Shah and Rusudan coins found on the territory of Derbent and in its environs, as well as a coin from Mayrtup (see Figures 1, 2, 3). All the finds of this group, of course, are adjacent to the historical territory of Derbent, which was a major urban and commercial center of the Middle Ages at the junction of Europe and Asia. This city was also an important trade and transit point, where numerous international trade routes and less significant routes of antiquity and the Middle Ages intersected [Kudryavtsev A. A., Kudryavtsev E. A., 2003,2008]. According to experts, in the first third of the 13th century, medieval Georgia, having survived all the upheavals associated with the invasion of Jalal-ad-Din, restored trade and economic ties with the North-Eastern Caucasus, including Derbent (see, for example, [Jalagania, 1979]). The resumption of trade provided an influx to these areas not only of coins of interest to us, but also of certain groups of irrigation ceramics, which are more consistent with the previous time and are perceived by many experts as handicrafts characteristic not only of Derbent, but also of the territories of modern North-Eastern Azerbaijan adjacent to it. Numerous fragments of "Azerbaijani" ceramics from settlements in the vicinity of the modern Chechen village. Mayrtups repeat the technological features and decor of such early medieval samples, have obvious signs of industrial defects (cavities left by air bubbles, smudges of underglaze paintings, etc.), which makes us associate these finds with the restoration of old production centers in North - Eastern Azerbaijan and Derbent after 1221-1222. Together with the coins we are interested in, samples of such watering utensils not only document the process of revival of handicraft production and trade in Transcaucasia, but also outline the boundaries of its distribution in territories located far to the north and northwest of Derbent (Narozhny, 2008). This gives good reasons for revising the traditional assessment of the US-

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The development of the North Caucasus after the 1220s was described only as catastrophic and saturated with permanent civil strife.

The second group includes coins from the mountainous zone of North Ossetia (Dzivgis) [Tmenov and Tsutsiev, 2003] and Ingushetia (Keliysky and Egikalsky burial grounds) [Vinogradov and Narozhny, 1988]. They gravitate to another trade artery of the Middle Ages-the Daryal Mountain Pass (see Figures 1, 4, 5, 10), which connected the central regions of the North Caucasus with Transcaucasia and only in the XIX century became a relatively well-equipped Georgian Military Road. It can be assumed that Rusudan coins from the mountainous regions of Ossetia and Ingushetia were ordinary means of payment; for some reason, they were "withdrawn" from trade near Daryal. "Settled" in the highlands of the Eastern Trans-Darya Region and eventually lost the functions of equivalent means of payment, the coins were broken and began to be used by the local population as pendant or hanging ornaments, talismans and amulets. In their new capacity, they enter burial complexes and become accompanying inventory.

Another possible explanation for the spread of Georgian Rusudan coins in the Eastern Trans-Darya region. Written sources that reported on the political cataclysms in Georgia, which were associated with the appearance of troops of Khorezm Shah Jalal-ad-Din near its borders, say that Tsarina Rusudan was engaged in military preparations. Having learned about the preparations of Jalal al-Din, the document states, Rusudan "called up the eastern and western troops of the Eras, Kakhs, Somkhitars, Javakhs, Meskhs, Taovites, Dadiani, Abkhazians, Jiks", i.e., the tribes living on the territory of Eastern and Western Kartli [Buniyatov, 1988]. The same events are described by the Georgian Chronograph of the 14th century: before the invasion of Tbilisi by Jalal-ad-Din, Queen Rusudan "opened the Gates of Daryal, letting in oats, durdzuk, and at the same time other mountaineers of those places" (Tsulaya, 1980; Anonymous Georgian Chronograph, 2005). As a result, according to a written source, "their (Rusudan allies) gathered. - Auth.) many, and she sent all of them to the battle with the Khorezmians. They passed through Tiflis, and the Sultan (Jalal-ad-Din - Auth.) was encamped near Bolnisi. When the Khwarezmian outposts noticed their approach, they reported it to the Sultan. He moved forward, and a terrible battle began... but God was angry with the Georgians and could not calm this anger. Once again, the royal troops were defeated and fled. And the Sultan came to Tiflis again. If there was still something left to plunder, he would plunder, and destroy the rest" (Buniyatov, 1988). Thus, Rusudan, preparing for the defense of the Georgian capital, tried to increase the number of its troops not only at the expense of Georgian tribesmen, but also allies from neighboring territories, including the North Caucasus. In the Georgian Chronograph of the 14th century mentioned above. named oats - medieval Alans from the Pridaryalie and durdzuki-medieval ancestors of the modern Ingush, who lived in the neighborhood of the Alans in the Eastern Pridaryalie. It is likely that the detachments that came to the aid of the queen were recruited for a certain fee and, despite the defeat, the Rusudans had to pay off all their allies, including the North Caucasian highlanders.

In numismatic literature, one can find the statement that for the first time Queen Rusudan issued money on her own behalf only four years after her accession to the Georgian throne, i.e. in 1227, in connection with the "need for monetary reform". Since Tbilisi was occupied by the troops of Khorezm Shah at that time, Rusudan minted its own coin in Kutaisi (Kapanadze, 1955; Pakhomov, 1970). According to the documents, the issue in 1227 was an attempt to unify the monetary system. In addition, most likely, in 1227 Rusudan needed to pay for the military service rendered to her by the Caucasian allies listed in the source. The coinage of copper coins in 1227 was probably intended to provide payments for military aid. It is possible that the Alans and Durdzuks, who were returning back to the Eastern Trans-Daryalie, largely contributed to the noticeable distribution of Rusudan coins in the high-altitude zone of Ossetia and Ingushetia. But very soon, because of the isolation from Georgia, these coins were unclaimed and were turned into original jewelry. Many of these coins in the composition of necklaces (along with glass and water beads, cowry shells) were found in the funerary complexes of the "cave" crypts of the Ossetian Dzivgis, in Ingush, Keli and Egikal stone boxes and semi-underground crypts.

It is more difficult to explain the reasons for the appearance of two extensive ("Nadezhdinsky "and " Khadyzhensky") hoards of Rusudan coins in the Kuban. Both treasures were discovered, as already noted, by accident, during the construction of Russian military fortifications. Such objects were usually built on hard-to-reach hills, from which the entire surrounding area was clearly visible. In the Middle Ages, exactly the same places were chosen for settlements and ancient settlements. It is quite possible that the Russian fortifications were built on the territory of two medieval settlements or ancient settlements, in the cultural layers of which both hoards of Georgian coins minted in 1227 were located. Moreover, in the North Caucasus, a similar overlap of the Russian border was repeatedly recorded.-

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fortifications of the XIX century of various archaeological sites (Narozhny, 19966). Moreover, historically and geographically, the territory where both treasures were discovered tended to the basin of the Black and Azov Seas (see Figures 1, 6, 8), along which, according to the reports of an Armenian author of the XIII century. Gaiton (Mirny, 1965; Narozhny, 1997), better known as Getum Patmich (Ter-Mkrtchyan, 1985), was another international trade route. This author, describing the development of trade in the 13th century, emphasized that three important trade routes lead East from the Golden Horde: the first from the Volga Region bypassing the Caspian Sea, the second through Derbent, and the third along the eastern shore of the Black Sea (Mirny, 1965). The Eastern Black Sea trade and dry-track route can also be identified with the" road of the West " (Narozhny, 1997), mentioned in Georgian sources (Tsulaya, 1980). Probably, it was along this route that Georgian coins got from Transcaucasia to the upper Kuban. Moreover, taking into account both of these treasures, the inflow of the money supply was quite solid. But even with this explanation of the conditions for the distribution of Rusudan coins in the upper Kuban in the form of hoards, the reasons and at least the approximate time of their concealment are not entirely clear. When determining the time, one should take into account the Rusudan silver coin found in Azov, minted in 1230 (see Figs. 1, 9). It can be assumed that among the Georgian coins that were circulated along the land route along the eastern coast of the Black Sea, there were not only copper coins of 1227. Probably, silver Rusudan coins minted in 1230 also occasionally fell on this territory, up to Azov. in the late 1230s, i.e., before the second Genghisid invasion of the North Caucasus. Genghisid troops moved from the west (from the Azov and Black Seas) to the east of the North Caucasus, towards Derbent. This military campaign, launched at the end of 1238, unlike the invasion of 1222, was much larger, longer and more dramatic in its consequences and aimed at a planned conquest of the region; it lasted until the early 1240s. Most likely, the military actions not only interrupted for a while the long-established trade and economic relations between the population of the North Caucasus, Georgia and Transcaucasia, but also provoked the concealment of existing coins in the form of hoards. This version allows us to consider Georgian coins in the North Caucasus not so much as a reflection of occasional actions, but as the main component of the entire monetary circulation in the region of the first third of the XIII century.

Chinese coins. In 2001, Yu. D. Obukhov published a Chinese coin that was accidentally raised in 1996 in a ploughed field near the present-day town of Budennovsk in the Stavropol Territory, where the Golden Horde town of Madzhar emerged and developed dynamically in the 13th century (see Figures 1, 11) [2001]. A coin with a square hole in the center (Fig. 4, 1). The diameter of the round disk is 34.0 mm, the weight is 10.5 g, the nominal value is 3 wen. It was defined as a Chinese "coin of the period of the reign of the Tsei-Tei Emperor (1201-1204) from the Song Dynasty (960-1279)" [Ibid., p. 128]. In connection with this discovery, Yu.D. Obukhov also referred to the information of V. A. Gorodtsov: this researcher, introducing the results of his excavations at Madzhar in 1907, mentioned several other "Persian and Chinese" coins found there (Gorodtsov, 1911).

Probably, the same information about the "Persian and Chinese" coins from Madzhar was repeated by the well-known Stavropol local historian G. N. Prozritelev. In 1995, referring to the archival records of G. N. Prozritelev, stored in the funds of the Stavropol Museum of Local Lore, already SA. Prokopenko claimed that "Chinese (Siamese) coins" were once found on Madjar [1995b, 1996]. He later wrote about this as an established fact [1996]. The above identification ("Chinese - Siamese" coins) is a clear misunderstanding. Putting an equal sign between the definitions of "Chinese" and "Siamese", G. N. Prozritelev, followed by Yu. A. Prokopenko, considered these coins as belonging to monetary circulation in the medieval state of Siam. But Siam at the time we are interested in was an integral part of the Kingdom of Ayugia and the features of its own state independence began to acquire only in the XIV-XV centuries. The monetary circulation of Siam, according to the spe-

4. Chinese coins from the North Caucasus. 1-the city of Madzhar (Obukhov, 2001, p. 129, fig. 1), 2-the North-Western Caspian region (drawing by M. P. Sevostyanov).

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It was only at the beginning of the 15th century that the Chinese monetary system began to develop under the influence and on the basis of Chinese money circulation (Berzin, 1982). Therefore, the identification of Chinese coins discovered by A. A. Gorodtsov in the cultural deposits of Madzhar in the 13th-14th centuries with "Siamese" coins proposed by the authors is questionable (Narozhny and Narozhnaya, 2003).

A.V. Pachkalov points out that it is necessary to take into account not only the Chinese coin from the Madzhar settlement published by Yu. D. Obukhov, but also "finds of Chinese coins of unknown time", which were noted in the publication of T. M. Minaeva (the number of coins was not indicated, the coins were not published). [Pachkalov, 2008]. It seems that A.V. Pachkalov is referring to a certain number of Chinese coins that were once found on Madzhar, but allegedly not taken into account by specialists. T. M. Minaeva, to whom A.V. Pachkalov refers, touched upon the problem of interest, but only stated the fact of finding "Persian coins" on Madzhar, which was long known from the publication of V. A. Gorodtsov. and Chinese coins" (Minaeva, 1953). Thus, so far only two cases of Chinese coins being found on the territory of this Golden Horde city are known: the first one was discovered in 1907 by V. A. Gorodtsov (the number and denomination of coins are not specified, and the further fate of these coins is unknown), the second one - only one coin was raised on the ancient settlement, which was published by Yu.D. Obukhov.

However, the information provided by V. A. Gorodtsov and Yu. D. Obukhov does not cover all the information about the Chinese coins discovered in the North Caucasus that we are interested in. In the late 1950s, according to E. I. Krupnov, various bronze objects were found here. Among them, the Caucasian expert names "Chinese medieval coins and mirrors", collected by him in the sandblasts of the North-Western Caspian region (see Figures 1, 13). Unfortunately, the researcher did not specify the exact location of their discovery; he only noted that all these medieval objects were collected in the vicinity of the villages of Achikulak, Bazhigan, and the village of Alekseevskaya (Krupnov, 1961). This is the Caspian lowland, which is located at a considerable distance from the territory of the Madzhar settlement.

Another Chinese coin was discovered in the second half of the 1950s. It was associated with a scattered Late Nomadic burial site near the already mentioned village of Achikulak in Dagestan (see Fig. 1, 12; 4, 2). The drawing of the burial and inventory with this coin was kept in the personal archive of the Grozny local historian M. P. Sevostyanov and was published after his death (Narozhny, 2005). Judging by the scale of the drawing, this coin is identical in size to the coin from Madzhar published by Yu. D. Obukhov. The similarity can also be traced by the size of the square frame in the center and the pattern of symbols. These coincidences suggest that the coin from Achikulak is identical in time and face value to the coin from the Madzhar settlement.

Thus, today we can only talk about two Chinese coins: from the collection at Madzhar and from the burial at Achikulak. V. A. Gorodtsov's vague information about several other Chinese coins from the territory of Madzhar and E. I. Krupnov's information about coins from the North-Western Caspian region is also trustworthy. Unfortunately, neither V. A. Gorodtsov nor E. I. Krupnov provide any information about the number of such coins and their face value.

The considered data allow us to conclude that Chinese coins were used in the North Caucasus much more often than is commonly believed. They were used, as far as the collected data allow, at least not only in the territory of the Prikum region, but also in the North-Western Caspian region. Quite naturally, questions arise about the reasons and conditions for the distribution of Chinese coins in the territory of these microregions of the North Caucasus.

Yu. D. Obukhov, determining the reasons for the appearance of the coin published by him in the region, does not exclude that it could have been "a war trophy brought here from the Mongol campaigns in China, or... a "souvenir" that got to the North Caucasus together with one of the merchants or travelers who "went to the Far East"". According to Yu. D. Obukhov, this coin was simply dropped on the territory where the Golden Horde Madzhar later appeared [2001]. It can be assumed that the same "trophy coin "or" souvenir " became part of the burial equipment of the Mongol warrior. Chinese coins in Mongolian burials are also recorded far beyond the borders of the North Caucasus, for example, on the territory of Transbaikalia (Kovychev, 1981). However, this version of the appearance of Chinese coins in the North Caucasus is a clear simplification. It is not applicable to those coins that V. A. Gorodtsov and E. I. Krupnov wrote about. It should hardly be forgotten that the coins from the excavations of V. A. Gorodtsov, however, as well as the find published by Yu. D. Obukhov, were associated with the cultural layer of the Golden Horde Madzhar. Yes and E. I. Krupnov associated the "Chinese coins and mirrors" discovered in the Northwestern Caspian region with the development of trade relations between the Golden Horde. Most likely, these Chinese coins became widespread in the North Caucasus due to transit international trade. Without excluding the possibility of accidental penetration of Chinese coins into the territory of the Prikum region and the North-Western Caspian region, the Chinese coins discovered here should be considered together with other artifacts of Chinese origin. Among them are highly artistic silver bowls with handles, etchings, etc.-

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There are also carved imitations of them made of wood (Narozhny, 1996a), magnificent sets of belt sets from the graves of noble Genghisids "generations of Genghis Khan's grandsons" from the North Caucasus (Kramarovsky, 1995a, 2001). Most of these items can be compared with a range of items from the "Velikokhansk" heritage [Kramarovsky, 1995a, b; 2001; Narozhny and Okhonko, 2000, 2007]. Probably, along with Chinese coins, the Golden Horde possessions in Eastern Europe, including the North Caucasus, also included products made of Chinese porcelain, including those that were discovered on Madzhar during the excavations of V. A. Gorodtsov [1911]. Perhaps in the thirteenth century. In the North Caucasus, there were also "Chinese mirrors" mentioned by E. I. Krupnov, and magnificent silk fabrics, fragments of which were preserved in the materials of excavations of individual burials of the Novopavlovsky necropolis [Dode, 2001; Narozhny and Okhonko, 2007], and the Dzhukhta-2 burial ground in the Stavropol Territory [Dode, 2001; 2005a, b, c; 2007], as well as in synchronous burial complexes between the Don and Sala rivers (Vlaskin et al., 2006). Together with them, the distribution of and many others, in the terminology of M. V. Gorelik, are "Sinisms" [1979, 1982], which decorated Mongolian costumes of the Golden Horde era [Daudet, 2001; 2005a, b, c; 2007]. All these finds of Chinese origin from the North Caucasus can be directly linked to the development of trade and trade relations of the Golden Horde. Moreover, today bronze Chinese coins are also found outside the North Caucasus, for example, in the Saratov Volga region (Golden Horde town of Ukek) [Nedashkovsky, 2000]. A treasure trove of such coins has been discovered on the lower Volga (Selitrennoe Gorodishche) (Fedorov-Davydov, 1998). In all likelihood, the appearance of various products from medieval China in the North Caucasus can be explained not only by the migration of certain noble Genghisids and their families. The influx of some of these artefacts was probably the result of increased international transit trade in the mid-second half of the 13th century. During this period, the Italians began to master the main trade arteries; they filled the transport highways leading from Kafa to the Volga region, Khorezm, Semirechye, Mongolia and China. The peak of this activity, according to researchers, occurred in the last quarter of the XIII century. [After Marco Polo, 1968]. Probably, the range of goods imported from China was very rich and diverse, which contributed to the intensive turnover of means of payment, including bronze Chinese coins. This conclusion is also supported by the data that in the last quarter of the 13th century, for example, in the neighboring Iranian Tabriz, paper banknotes were issued according to the Chinese model and at the same time resorted to the services of Chinese advisers (Ivochkina, 1990, p.128). A similar, though not entirely successful, attempt to introduce paper money (1294) was noted in the territory of Georgia adjacent to the North Caucasus [Ibid.]. These evidences are a historical background that clearly demonstrates the reasons, conditions and nature of the influx of bronze Chinese coins into the Golden Horde possessions in the North Caucasus.

Conclusions

The conducted research makes it possible to state that the considered finds (individual coins of the XIII century and coin hoards) from different parts of the North Caucasus allow not only to deepen, but also significantly expand the understanding of various events, phenomena and processes of the era, poorly reflected in written sources. European coins found in the region, including the Bela III coin, indicate trade contacts between the population of the Taman Peninsula and the Southern Black Sea region. The coins of Khorezm Shah Jalal-ad-Din and Queen Rusudan, evaluated together with concise data from written sources and archaeological material, make us take a fresh look at the history of relations between Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus - they were interrupted by the events of 1222 only for a short time. Due to the inclusion of the Golden Horde's political and economic dictatorship in the system (early 1240s), the creation of new urban centers, and changes in the former trade routes, the North Caucasus was drawn into the orbit of the emerging political and economic system of the Golden Horde and into the sphere of its active international trade (Vinogradov, Dudarev, and Narozhny, 1995). The changes that took place led to the influx and circulation of other coins of a wide variety, including coins from Hulaguid Iran, India and China. The discovery of such coins in funerary complexes and cultural layers of domestic monuments of the North Caucasus is quite a worthy reason for a comprehensive analysis of the causes, conditions and ways of their influx to the North Caucasus and their use in the context of the historical situation of the era. These groups of coins are only a small part of the numismatic material accumulated in the North Caucasus. Together with brief written sources and archaeological materials, they are fundamentally important for the historical reconstruction of many significant events, phenomena and processes in the political, economic and ethno-cultural history of the North Caucasus in the 13th century.

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The article was submitted to the Editorial Board on 16.05.08.

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