Gold necklace found in Roman baths in Bulgaria

A gold chain necklace with three beads has been discovered in the Deultum National Archaeological Reserve in southeastern Bulgaria. The chain is broken and may have had more beads on it originally.

Founded in 69 A.D. by the Emperor Vespasian to the veterans of Legio VIII Augusta who had played a key role in securing the throne for him during the Year of Four Emperors, Deultum was the second Roman colony on the Balkan Peninsula and the first Roman city in what is now Bulgaria. It was strategically located on a major river with Black Sea access the ancient Thracian town of Develt. The port town prospered from trade and copper mining, growing into a large, well-planned city with numerous temples, civic buildings, an amphitheater and large public baths.

The necklace was discovered in one of the rooms of the ancient city’s public baths. Another significant treasure was unearthed in the adjacent room last October: a 2nd century earring with tiny glass balls at the end of three gold pendants artfully made to look like pearls. The earring bears a distinct resemblance to those worn by an elegant woman in one of the Fayum mummy portraits. They are not related, not part of a scattered hoard or owned by the same individual. The necklace was in a burned layer from the 5th century.

The gold jewelry discovered in the baths illustrates the wealth of the city and its established trade relations with other parts of the Roman Empire. Women in what is now Bulgaria wore the same fashionable accessories as women in Roman Egypt and Italy.

Viking coin, hack silver hoard found on Man

A Viking-era mixed hoard of coins and hack silver has been discovered on the Isle of Man. The group of 87 coins and 13 pieces of cut up silver arm-rings were discovered in April by retired police officer Kath Giles who has redefined beginner’s luck by finding four, count’em, four hoards since she began metal detecting three years ago. Only last December she discovered a magnificent assemblage of braided gold arm ring, cut silver armband and giant ball-type thistle brooch.

The coins were minted between around 990 and 1030 A.D. in England, Dublin, Germany and the Isle of Man. Most of them are silver pennies and bear the faces of King Cnut of England, Denmark and Norway, King Aethelred II of England and Holy Roman Emperor Otto I. The coins struck in Dublin and Man bear the image of King Sigtrygg Silkbeard, the Hiberno-Norse King of Dublin from the 990s until his abdication in 1036. The dates of the coins indicate the hoard was deposited around 1035 A.D., so right at the end of Silkbeard’s reign and in the waning decades of Viking Age hoard depositions on the Isle of Man.

Located in the middle of the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man was at the intersected of active trade routes linking Ireland, England and northern Europe during the Viking Age. This is represented in the diversity of coinage found in hoards from this era, and in the prevalence of hack silver, old jewelry cut into pieces for use as currency based on the purity of the precious metal content.

A comparable albeit far larger mixed hoard was discovered in Glenfaba in 2003. It dates to the same period, around 1020 A.D., and also contains a combination of Hiberno-Norse and Anglo-Saxon coins with a hefty proportion of hack silver.

[Numismatist Dr. Kristin] Bornholdt Collins said:

“The Northern Mixed hoard is the fourth Viking-Age coin hoard to be found in the Isle of Man in the last fifty years. It may have been added to over time, like a piggybank, accounting for some of the older coins, though for the most part it is a direct reflection of what was circulating in and around Man in the late 1020s/c. 1030.

Like the similarly dated, but much larger, Glenfaba deposit, found in 2003, the new hoard might be compared to a wallet containing all kinds of credit cards, notes and coins, perhaps of different nationalities, such as when you prepare to travel overseas, and shows the variety of currencies available to an Irish Sea trader or inhabitant of Man in this period. The two hoards together provide a rare chance to study the contents side by side, right down to the detail of the dies used to strike the coins. Having this much closely dated comparative material from separate finds is highly unusual and essentially “doubles” the value of each find.

In addition to the array of coins, both hoards contain a significant hack-silver or bullion portion, which would have been weighed out and possibly tested for its quality in the course of transactions. This is generally expected in finds dating to the ninth- and tenth centuries from Viking regions, but appears to be a special feature of the later Manx hoards, too. This may be because bullion was especially convenient for international trade since it was practical for any size transaction and was decentralized, a currency without borders or political affiliation; in this sense, it was a modern-day equivalent to a cryptocurrency—we might even say it was something like the original ‘Bit-coin’! It seems only logical, then, that it was so popular in a cosmopolitan trading hub like Man, even several decades into the 11th century, when closely regulated minted silver was well on its way to becoming the norm across Northern Europe”.

The hoard has been declared Treasure by the Isle of Man Coroner of Inquests. It is temporarily on display at the new Viking Gallery of the Manx Museum before traveling to the British Museum where a valuation committee will determine its fair market value. The hoard will be offered to Manx National Heritage

Iron Age hoard found during highway construction

Archaeologists excavating the site of highway construction in the Hillingdon neighborhood of West London have unearthed a hoard of more than 300 rare coins from the late Iron Age. The Hillingdon Hoard was found after a rainstorm exposed a patch of greenish soil indicating the presence of oxidized metal. Upon closer examination, the team spotted slim metal discs packed in the soil which proved to potins from the 1st century B.C.

Potins are coins made of a mixture of copper, tin and lead cast in Britain but copying an earlier Celtic coin minted 2,175 years ago in what is now Marseille. They are about 1.2 inches in diameter A stylized profile of Apollo facing left is on the obverse. A bull charging to the right is on the reverse.

The first series of potins produced in Britain, are known as Kentish Primary or Thurrock types, and are likely to have been made no later than 150 BC. Sometime before 100 BC, these rather bulky coins were replaced by thinner coins with more degenerate designs, now called Flat Linear types. Over a period of several decades, the Flat Linear potins gradually evolved into a wide variety of forms, with the depiction of the bull and the head of Apollo becoming more and more stylised. The Hillingdon Hoard is late in the Flat Linear sequence.

A hoard of a similar size, the ‘Sunbury hoard’ was discovered in 2010 but the potins were dated much earlier in the Iron Age. Potins from late in the Iron Age, similar to the Hillingdon Hoard, have been found previously but in much smaller quantities, making this find very significant.

Hillingdon Hoard after discovery. Photo courtesy HS2.The coins have been removed to a lab for cleaning, conservation and assessment of condition. They will be catalogued and analyzed by experts to learn more about their origins. The find has been reported to the local coroner to initiate the process of determining whether the hoard qualifies as treasure. (It does, no question.)

Potin cleaned. Video by Drakonheritage.

“Nationally important” Roman ritual bronzes fall through Treasure Act loophole

A hoard of nationally important Roman ritual bronzes that includes a bust of Emperor Marcus Aurelius have sold at auction to an unknown buyer for £185,000 ($260,000) thanks to the still-open loophole in the 1996 Treasure Act.

The assemblage was discovered last May by metal detectorists James Spark and Mark Didlick in a field near the village of Ampleforth in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire. They first unearthed a figurine of a horse and rider. A foot away they dug up the bust and a conical plumb bob. They found the a key handle in the shape of the forequarters of a horse the next day. The hoard was then taken to York Museum and examined by archaeologists.

The bust is finely modelled, with detailed facial features and curled hair. There are rivet holes on the front of the chest plate indicating that it was originally mounted onto something, probably a priestly scepter. The features identify the bust as a portrait of Marcus Aurelius, which means the deposit dates to the 2nd century at the earliest.

Two comparable deposits found in the 19th century also included a scepter head bust of an emperor, horse and rider figurines and mounts and fittings. The plumb bob has no parallel in votive deposits. Archaeologists believe the inclusion of the key component of a surveyor’s tool may be an indication that the offering was related to construction, perhaps asking the sanction of the gods for the creation of a new town boundary (pomerium).

Despite the great archaeological significance of the assemblage, it does not qualify as treasure because it’s not two or more coins 300 years old or older, not made of precious metal and not prehistoric. This loophole springs from a ludicrously outdated definition of treasure established in medieval common law. The UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport finally addressed the problem and a revision of the act that would plug the loophole was written in 2019. Unfortunately the complexities of the legislative process — public consultation period, further research, the publication of said research, the official drafting of the legislation and its passage by Parliament — mean it won’t actually be law until 2022 at the earliest.

So now the Ryedale Ritual Bronzes join the Crosby Garret helmet, the Roman licking dog, the Allectus aureus and who knows how many other treasures of cultural patrimony that haven’t made the press. Let’s hope the buyer turns out to be a museum, or at least a generous donor.

Bronze Age jewelry depot found in Sweden

More than 50 pieces of bronze jewelry from the late Bronze Age have been discovered in Alingsås, southwestern Sweden. Dating to between 750 and 500 B.C., it is one of the largest Late Bronze Age ceremonial depositions ever found in Sweden, and one of the most spectacular in terms of quality and condition of the objects. It’s also the first time since the Fröslunda shields were unearthed in the 1980s that a Swedish Bronze Age votive find has been excavated by archaeologists.

The first objects were found by chance by Tomas Karlsson who was documenting the wooded terrain for an orienteering map. He spotted 10 pieces scattered on open ground in front of some boulders. At first he thought they were trash, random metal bits from a broken lamp, perhaps. When he leaned closer, he saw an intricate spiral and a necklace.

The find was reported and county officials commissioned an archaeological investigation to recover any other artifacts that might be at the site and to learn everything they could about their context. Last week, archaeologists and conservators from the regional cultural development administration teamed up with researchers from the University of Gothenburg to survey the find site. They found about 50 objects either intact or in large part extant, plus about 20 bronze fragments of indeterminate origin and 10 iron fragments.

About 20% of the objects were found inside a pot placed under a boulder. The other 80% were found outside the pot but in proximity to it. Archaeologists suspect the objects had been dislodged from under the pot by wild animals using the spaces between and beneath the boulders to burrow and/or nest.

They artifacts in such pristine condition that at first glance they were suspected of being modern copies, but closer inspection revealed that they were authentic Bronze Age pieces.

“Most of the finds consist of bronze objects that can be associated with a high-status woman from the Bronze Age. They have been used to decorate various body parts, such as necklaces, bracelets and foot rings, but also large needles and hoops that have been used to decorate and hold up various forms of clothing that were probably made of wool,” says Johan Ling professor of archeology at the University of Gothenburg .

In addition to necklaces, clothes pins, spirals, chains and a tutulus (clothing or belt ornament), a hollow ax and residual products from bronze casting were found. A rod that is believed to have been used to stimulate and spur horses was also found. It is a type of object that has been found in Denmark but not so far in Sweden.

The location alone is highly unusual for a Bronze Age deposition site. Bronze and Iron Age peoples sacrificed high-value metalwork for religious reasons. Usually these sacrifices were made in and around lakes and rivers, so the ritual offerings have been unearthed in the peat bogs and agricultural land the ancient bodies of water turned into over the centuries. This site is woodland, not wetland, and it was forested when the objects were deposited.

The objects are now being conserved and studied, with the immediate emphasis on ensuring their stability now that they’ve been removed from the protective cocoon and exposed to air. Eventually they will likely be put on public display in a museum close to the find site.