Mushroom picker finds Bronze Age helmets

A forager gathering mushrooms near the village of Trhovište in the Kosice Region of eastern Slovakia last year found a Bronze Age deposit so rare that even that distinguished archaeological treasure hound Monty couldn’t help but be impressed: two Bronze Age helmets plus accessories. The helmets, discovered stuck to each by thousands of years of corrosion, were buried with a matched pair of cheek protectors and two spiral arm guards.

The objects are made of bronze and based on the style are around 3,200 years old. The helmets were constructed from two sheets of bronze fashioned into curved plates slightly flattened on the top of the head. The plates are joined down the middle of the head by a central trident crest that has a hole through which a plume could be threaded. The sides are decorated with concentric circles, a shape also seen on the cheek pads. There are also holes on the bottom side through which the cheek pads were attached.

The finder, who wishes to remain anonymous, brought the helmets and associated gear to the Eastern Slovakia Museum in Košice this January. The museum reported the discover to the regional authorities. Museum archaeologist Dárius Gašaj and a regional heritage official searched the find site for any information the context could provide and any other artifacts that may have still been there. The pieces had been buried together at one time in a single hole. There were no other objects found.

Bronze Age helmets are rare in Europe and vanishingly so in Slovakia. Only three examples in this style of manufacture are known, all of them discovered in the Eastern Alps significantly to the west of Slovakia. Archaeologists believe they may have been made in a workshop in the northern Apennines and then wound their way through the Alpine passes eventually reaching the Carpathian basin. The spiral arm guards were likely produced locally. They are of a type that has been found before in Slovakia.

The armature will be studied and conserved further by experts at the Eastern Slovakia Museum where it has made its public debut as part of a display on ancient armour.

The origin of the helmets from Trhovište remains unclear. They were probably traded objects imported for the highest society elite – military chiefs. The helmets were used and repaired. They were more a symbol of the status of the bearer, a symbol of his position and power than protective equipment.

The display also includes the back part of some plate armour plate that was found long ago in Čierna nad Tisou and also some fragments discovered in Šarišské Michaľany.

Similar helmets have been found in Lúčky, Spišská Belá and Žaškov but they were made only from one sheet of bronze. They originated between the 12th and 10th century BC.

Very good boy discovers Bronze Age hoard

Very good boy Monty was enjoying the many sights and scents of the Orlické mountains on a walk with his owner near the northern Bohemian village of Kostelecké Horky this March when something caught his nose. He began digging frenetically to get to it. Monty’s owner, Mr. Frankona, watched as the pup unearthed a sickle-shaped artifact. By the time the two of them were done, they had picked up 13 bronze sickles, three axes, two spear points and several bracelets.

Frankona handed them in to the Museum and Gallery of Orlické Mountains in the nearby town of Rychnov. Experts examined the group and determined the objects are more than 3,000 years old. Made of bronze, they are in excellent condition despite their advanced age. They are intact with no damage from extensive use or from the millennia spent underground.

“In addition to its professional value, the discovery has a high aesthetic value. It is a find of whole tools and jewels, it is beautiful and there are several stories behind it. Most likely, it is a sacrifice and leads us into a world that is only rarely opened on the basis of material finds. The other level of his knowledge is indicative of intense contacts and acceptance of patterns from southern neighbors – there is a habit of storing all objects. Equally important is the evidence of technological excellence and aesthetic feelings of local craftsmen, ” explains Martina Bekova, archeologist at the Museum and Gallery of the Orlické Mountains.

In the vicinity of the find, archaeologists carried out another survey using a metal detector. The discovery is really unique. The surrounding terrain has been greatly changed in the past, and it can not be ruled out that something has already been destroyed or that the layers still conceal some surprises. The vast majority of treasures will be found by amateurs. The explanation is quite simple – depots, whether they were meant as hidden treasures, reserves, warehouses, sacrifices – were practically always deposited outside commonly populated sites and outside the burial ground. Only rarely will there be a common archaeological research, which is dedicated to housing estates and burial grounds.

This kind of find is very rare in the region. The last time anything similar was found in Eastern Bohemia was in 1953. Mr. Frankona received a reward of 7860 Czech koruna ($360) from the government of the Hradec Králové Region. No word on whether he cut Monty in on the deal.

The artifacts went on display in the Journey to the Beginning of Time exhibition at the New Castle museum in Kostelec nad Orlicí on September 13th for a week. September 21st is their last day as part of the show. After that, the bronze objects will be studied and conserved. Once they are stabilized, they will go on permanent display at the New Castle.

Late Roman gold coin hoard found in Como

A unique hoard of gold coins from the late Imperial era has been discovered in downtown Como, Lombardy, northern Italy. The coins were unearthed on Wednesday, September 5th, in an archaeological excavation at the site of the former Cressoni Theater which is being redeveloped. They were contained in a soapstone amphora which has a big chunk missing so the pile of glimmering coin within was clearly visible at first sight.

The amphora was transported to the conservation laboratory of the regional archaeological Superintendency where it is currently being excavated. The coins were tightly packed in little stacks. It will take a long time to complete the job because the contents have to be removed one piece at a time paying close attention to stratigraphy. Layer analysis will be key to determining if the coins were deposited in the same era or over a period of time.

So far 27 gold coins have been recovered and examined. They all date to the 5th century. Coins from this period are very rare because currency didn’t flow as efficiently through the imperial economic system. The quantity and quality of the coins are exceptional, especially for the late empire. The 27 were minted in the reigns of the Emperors Honorius (r. 384–423), Valentinian III (r. 425-455), Leo I the Thracian (r. 457-474) and his short-lived co-emperor Libius Severus (r. 461-465).

No such hoard has even been unearthed in northern Italy before. The gold is in an excellent state of preservation making the images and engravings on the coins and thus the engraver, year and sponsor relatively easily to discern.

There are an estimated 300 coins in the amphora (which is itself of major significance because it is of a previously unknown design), and not just coins. Archaeologists have reason to believe there may be other precious objects deep in the amphora hidden amidst the dense coin clusters, small pieces like pins, figurines and ingots. One gold bar has already been found and two other objects yet to be identified.

Whoever placed the jar in that place “buried it in such a way that in case of danger they could go and retrieve it,” said Maria Grazia Facchinetti, a numismatist — or expert in rare coins — at a Monday press conference.

“They were stacked in rolls similar to those seen in the bank today,” she said, adding the coins have engravings about emperors Honorius (r. 384–423), Valentinian III, Leon I, Antonio, and Libio Severo “so they don’t go beyond 474 AD.”

“All of this makes us think that the owner is not a private subject, rather it could be a public bank or deposit,” Facchinetti added.

The find site is just a few feet away from the forum of the Roman city where merchants, banks and temples would have done brisk cash business. It was also an elite residential neighborhood, however, so it’s not out of the question that a private individual rolled up his own wealth.

14th c. hoard found in clay pot in Bulgaria

An excavation of the Kaliakra Fortress on the coast of the Black Sea in northern Bulgaria has unearthed a small clay pot full of coins, jewelry and other valuables hidden under a floor in the Middle Ages. A team of archaeologists headed by Bonnie Petrunova, director of the National History Museum (NHM) in Sofia, discovered the pot on August 17th, 2018, in a room that was burned in the 14th century, conveniently providing the outside date range for the burial of the hoard.

The pot, filled with soil as well as treasure, was moved to the NHM to be excavated in laboratory conditions. After painstaking removal of the soil, archaeologists found a total of 957 objects: 873 gold and silver coins, 11 fittings and buckles, 28 silver and bronze buttons, 11 gold earrings, one gold ring, a second metal ring and four gold beads studded with gems.

The coins include both Ottoman and Bulgarian silver issues. A majority of them, about 60% of them are Ottoman. Most of that 60% date to the reign of Sultan Bayazid Yildirum (1389-1402). A fraction of them are older, dating to the reign of his predecessor Murad I (1362-1389). Of the Bulgarian coins, 25% were minted under the reign of Ivan Alexander (1331-1371). They are very small, a symptom of the economic crisis in Bulgaria at the time. There are nine coins minted in Vidin by governor John Sratsimir. A few Byzantine silver pieces are also in the mix, including several very rare hyperpyroni.

The gold coins, much fewer in number, include 20 gold hyperpyroni of the Byzantine Empire, one the last gold coins issued of the empire. They are so debased and flimsy that it’s hard to identify them. Experts have been able to spot John V Palaiologos and his mother Anna of Savoy (regent during the minority of her son from 1341 until 1347), John VII Palaiologos, Andronikos II Palaiologos and Andronikos III Palaiologos on the obverse of some of them. There are also eight high quality Venetian gold coins, the classic Zecchino d’Oro, each made of 3.5 grams of 24-carat gold. Most of them were issued by Doges Marco Cornaro (1365-1368) and Andrea Dandolo (1343-1354).

The date range of the coins coincides with the evidence of the torching of the space to confirm the treasure pot was hidden under the floorboards at the end of the 14th century, a turbulent period in the history of the fortress who political fortunes are reflected in the coinage. The area was part of the Despotate of Dobruja, an autonomous principality in the fractured Bulgarian Empire. Under the control of Dobrotitsa, who gave himself the title “Despot,” the principality achieved its greatest power and territorial extent. Dobrotitsa made Kaliakra his capital and deployed his navy on the Black Sea in alliance with Venice against Genoa. He fought Murad I, who by the end of his reign would conquer much of modern-day Bulgaria. Dobrotitsa’s son Ivanko changed his father’s policy as soon as he ascended the throne in 1386, signing a peace agreement with the Ottoman sultan, another with Genoa and moving the capital from Kaliakra to Varna. The changes did not lead to stability and in 1388 Ivanko was killed fighting the Ottomans at Varna. Mircea I of Wallachia stepped into the vacuum of power and Wallachia, former vassal state of Dobruja, ruled the principality off and on until the Byzantine Empire took over in 1413.

To all this political instability and conflict, the Tartar invasions added yet more. A chronicler of the late 14th century records how the Tartars invaded Varna in 1399. Other Black Sea coastal towns also suffered their wroth, Kaliakra among them. It’s possible that the hoard was actually buried by a Tartar, in fact. The objects appear to have been collected from different people in one event rather than accumulated by a single individual over time. The Tartars of Aktav held the fortress in 1401 when they were defeated and dispatched. As the house in which the treasure was buried is a high-end one, it’s conceivable that a Tartar commander sequestered it for himself and was living there when the 1401 attack drove him out and burned down his dwelling.

Irish farmer finds prehistoric gold digging a drain

A farmer in Ireland has discovered four solid gold bracelets dating to at least as far back as the Bronze Age. A mechanical digger operator hired by farmer Norman Witherow was digging a drain in a field near Convoy, County Donegal, on Saturday, June 23rd, when he found four ring-shaped object encrusted with thick clay. They were about two feet beneath the surface, hidden under a rock that had thankfully protected them from being damaged by the digger.

Witherow, not having any idea what they were other than that their shape and size suggested they might be bracelets, took them home and rinsed them off in his kitchen. They were gold in color, but he couldn’t tell if they were made of gold or copper or another yellow metal. The tubular shapes had a smooth surface and looped around, the closed terminal ends overlapping each other. Witherow put them on a scale and found they weighed 1.7 ounces.

He showed the pieces to a friend in the jewelry business and she responded with enthusiasm that they were something special and should be reported to the authorities. Witherow called the Donegal County Museum and reported the find to Assistant Curator Caroline Carr. She did an initial examination of the find site and on Tuesday, June 26th, called the National Museum of Ireland. The next day Maeve Sikora, the museum’s Keeper of Irish Antiquities, met Witherow in Dublin and took possession of the bracelets. National Museum experts also surveyed the find site for evidence of how, when and potentially why the objects were deposited.

Sikora’s initial examination of the gold objects suggests they may be from the Bronze Age (2500-500 B.C.), but they could be even older. As far as their use, they could be jewelry — bracelets, arm bands — but they could also have been used as a form of currency. It’s all hypothetical at this early stage of the investigation.

The National Museum will continue to study them, assess their gold content and seek more information about their origin and deposition. It is keen, however, to put them on display as quickly as possible, so expect some (maybe even all) to be on view as soon as the initial analyses are completed. The research will proceed after they’re on display.