Arm wrestling between monetary and bullion economies in medieval Czechia?

While medieval artefacts characteristic of the bullion economy were rare in Czechia just two decades ago, today hundreds of related artefacts are known. The article presents the largest assemblage of precious metal weighing tools found at a single site in Czechia. The hillfort of Vraclav, which served as the centre of regional administration in the 11 th –12 th century, also produced the country’s largest known collection of artefacts often accompanying spheroid weights in this part of Europe: the authors connect small lead discs with a central hole with handling of precious metal. A metal detector survey yielded several silver melts and numerous melts and pieces of lead, including parts of rods and deposits from the bottoms of melting vessels. The overall picture suggests a metallurgy focused on extracting precious metal. Using analogies from other sites, including rural ones, the authors place the finds in the context of the slowly monetising Czechia. Based particularly on a comparison with the neighbouring territory of Poland, there are clear parallels in the production sphere, a significant difference in the economic sphere, and a complete divergence in the sphere of ideological patterns between Central European and Baltic environments of the period.