Roman Gold and Silver Mining in the Central Balkans and Its Significance for the Roman State

Résumé

This paper offers a reassessment of the archaeological evidence for the organization, scale and significance of the Roman silver and gold mining in the Central Balkans. The focus is on two provinces, Dalmatia and Moesia Superior, which contained the majority of the region’s mineral resources, roughly corresponding to the modern states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Kosovo. In contrast to Iberia or Dacia, the Central Balkans have thus far been underrepresented in mining syntheses in the Roman Empire, and, consequently, the importance of the region in the metal supply of the Roman Empire has been critically underestimated. This paper argues that the Central Balkans were the Roman Empire’s main source of silver bullion from the second half of the second century until at least the first half of the fourth century A.D.