Medieval French Coins Unearthed in Poland? A Mystery Begins

Could a scavenger hunter’s find be a part of the lost booty once extorted by Vikings to spare Paris from ruin?

What happened to the huge ransom the Vikings received for sparing Paris in 845, however, has always been a mystery.

The Vikings had a major trading post called Truso just 30 miles from Biskupiec, the Polish village where the coins were found. That has led some experts to speculate that the silver extorted in Paris made its way there and then spread into nearby areas as part of a flourishing Baltic-region trade, whose main commodity was slaves.



I had never thought about the longevity of the slave trade in the world until I read this fact. The year 1865 (marking the triumph of President Lincoln's Thirteenth Amendment legislation) minus the year 845 is equal to a thousand and 20 years. This is a millennium plus 20 years by itself. One would have add the number of years that slavery existed prior to this date to get the grand total.

Is it not amazing that President Lincoln, as the head of this American democracy, brought a permanent end to slavery in this section of the world in 1865 at the expense of the American Civil War?

When you put it that way - Yes, a practical end to over 1000 years of overt slavery, a resolution of this US hypocrisy --
(It's amazing to me that the Slave Power had such political power, that a scolding Europe was not enough to right the wrong.)

Only recently did I learn of the idea that the words "slavery" and "slavic" may have the same origin, but then a quick surf, and people state that's not necessarily the case. (below)

>>> Is it not amazing that President Lincoln, as the head of this American democracy, brought a permanent end to slavery in this section of the world in 1865 at the expense of the American Civil War?

ahhh, careful. There is modern slavery, and prison labor. Where there's a will, there's always a Black Market.

From Wiki -
In medieval wars many Slavs were captured and enslaved, which led to the word slav becoming synonym to "enslaved person". In addition, the English word Slav derives from the Middle English word sclave, which was borrowed from Medieval Latin sclavus or slavus, itself a borrowing and Byzantine Greek σκλάβος sklábos "slave," which was in turn apparently derived from a misunderstanding of the Slavic autonym (denoting a speaker of their own languages). ... a version was expressed, according to which the Greek word Σκλάβινοι does not come from the self-name of the Slavs, but from the Greek verb σκυλεύο - "to extract spoils of war". According to this version, the self-name of the Slavs and their Modern Greek name coincided phonetically purely by chance.

(07-15-2021 05:43 AM)Amy L. Wrote:  When you put it that way - Yes, a practical end to over 1000 years of overt slavery, a resolution of this US hypocrisy --
(It's amazing to me that the Slave Power had such political power, that a scolding Europe was not enough to right the wrong.)

Only recently did I learn of the idea that the words "slavery" and "slavic" may have the same origin, but then a quick surf, and people state that's not necessarily the case. (below)

>>> Is it not amazing that President Lincoln, as the head of this American democracy, brought a permanent end to slavery in this section of the world in 1865 at the expense of the American Civil War?

ahhh, careful. There is modern slavery, and prison labor. Where there's a will, there's always a Black Market.

From Wiki -
In medieval wars many Slavs were captured and enslaved, which led to the word slav becoming synonym to "enslaved person". In addition, the English word Slav derives from the Middle English word sclave, which was borrowed from Medieval Latin sclavus or slavus, itself a borrowing and Byzantine Greek σκλάβος sklábos "slave," which was in turn apparently derived from a misunderstanding of the Slavic autonym (denoting a speaker of their own languages). ... a version was expressed, according to which the Greek word Σκλάβινοι does not come from the self-name of the Slavs, but from the Greek verb σκυλεύο - "to extract spoils of war". According to this version, the self-name of the Slavs and their Modern Greek name coincided phonetically purely by chance.

Man's inhumanity to man.