@ARTICLE{Moesgaard_Jens_Christian_What_2022,
 author={Moesgaard, Jens Christian},
 volume={Rok LXVI},
 pages={85-109},
 journal={Wiadomości Numizmatyczne},
 howpublished={online},
 year={2022},
 publisher={Komitet Nauk Historycznych PAN},
 abstract={The aim of this paper is to make us aware of the limits of the numismatic documentation of Northern and Eastern Europe during the Early Middle Ages/the Viking Age. The sheer mass of material – almost 900,000 coins are recorded from finds along with numerous non-monetary silver artefacts – may induce us to think that everything is documented already, but at a closer scrutiny, this turns out to be wrong. Some regions and periods and some find categories are well covered by the material, others not. The paper presents a series of cases where a new find, a new technology (e.g. metal detector), a new methodological approach (e.g. die studies) or simply a more detailed study of the material brought new and unexpected insights. Some of the cases concern the coin production, others the coin circulation. Going beyond numismatics seen in isolation, the results inform us about the economic, political and social structures of the past society and thus highlight the contribution of numismatics to the study of history. In turn, these knowledge break-throughs open new paths of research and, significantly, make us aware of potential similar parallel cases of not yet recognized insights. This will help us to guide future research. In some cases, it would even be safe to extrapolate from the specific innovative case study to more general assumptions. In particular, the paper highlights danger of drawing conclusions from absence of evidence. Several examples are presented where the supposed lack of finds or of coin production turned out to be the result of inadequate research methods or technologies for finding the material in the ground. In other cases, the hazard of the discovery of a hoard changed the situation from absence or scarcity to abundance overnight. If conclusions are to be draw from absence of evidence, a minimum requirement would be to check that adequate research methods have been applied in order to ascertain that the absence is real and not the result of present day factors.},
 type={Article},
 title={What Do “Known Knowns” Teach Us About “Known Unknowns” and “Unknown Unknowns”? Reflections On Our Knowledge of Early Medieval/Viking Age Coinage and Currency},
 URL={http://journals.pan.pl/Content/123938/PDF/2022-01-WNUM-04-Moesgaard.pdf},
 doi={10.24425/wn.2022.141935},
 keywords={Early Middle Ages, Viking Age, Northern and Eastern Europe, coin finds, research methods},
}