The coins from the necropolis at Piasentòt (San Donato di Lamon-Belluno): an exception or a different use of the coins as munere mortis?

The locality of San Donato di Lamon (Belluno) is until today an isolated spot in a remote corner of a valley. The site encompasses a necropolis with dozens of graves with no trace of cremation, but with 113 bronze coins. The composition of the grave finds is anomalous with respect to the other necropoleis in Venetia et Histria: there is no pottery, while the deposits in female graves are composed of jewelry, glass bracelets, fibulae and rings. In male graves the offerings are only coins. In these graves the use of interpretative criteria linked to the function of the coin deserves some scrutiny, for it is usually understood as an “offering for Charon”. In the case of Piasentòt this appears rather restrictive. At a funeral, when an “offering for Charon” had to be provided only the coinage available at that time was used. The choice of denominations and quantities was not determined by some ideological considerations, but rather by what was available, which depended on the regime of rising prices as the distance from traditional marketplaces or trading routes increased. It also depended on the demand for coins in an area that was difficult to reach and where the cost of some artefacts, for example in pottery, would be high enough to make it more expedient to compose all the funerary offerings with coins.