Month: September 2018

Late Roman gold coin hoard found in Como

Ancient, Treasures

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.

More treasure from Yukon. Kinda.

Modern(ish)

Not as old nor as unique as the atlatl but in the category more traditionally held to be treasure is a cache of coins found in Dawson City, Yukon, by construction crews building a new recreational trail. The stack of 23 coins was found a foot under the ground. There are both Canadian and American coins ranging in date from 1864 to 1902.

“These are coins that would have been in common circulation during the [Klondike] Gold Rush,” said Christian Thomas, special projects archeologist from the Yukon government.

“You don’t find money usually, abandoned at some of these historic sites… people usually kept their money with them and wouldn’t abandon those kind of valuable objects,” he said.

It’s no treasure trove, though. The coins have a face value of about $9.50, which Thomas said would not have gone far in gold rush-era Dawson City, when a pound of butter was selling for about $5.

“They probably would have been worth more in Seattle,” Thomas said.

Apples were a dollar apiece in Dawson City in 1898. Eggs ran a whopping three bucks a pop. Thus proving the point so artfully articulated by Deadwood‘s Al Swearengen that the real money in a gold rush is to be made not by prospecting, but by selling crap to prospectors. Adjusted for inflation, the coins’ face value today totals about $243.

There’s no chance of identifying the owner. Anybody could have buried them in that spot. At the time of the gold rush, that area of town, known as the Menzies Addition, was in the bustling downtown where masses of people came and went all the time. They don’t call it a rush for nothing. The residents were largely transient folks with temporary gigs like day labourers and miners who had come to Dawson City with high hopes of striking it rich in an instant only to find nothing but drudgery and bare subsistence. Most of them would give up and leave within a year.

None of the buildings from that time have survived because they were largely transient too. There are no extant property records either, which means no surveyed plots, clear property lines, or real estate sale/lease contracts naming names. The documents that do exist are property tax records. They tell many a sad tale of foreclosure after foreclosure, indicating the transitory nature of settlement in Dawson City during the Yukon gold rush.

The coins are being kept in the Dawson City town safe for now while they await their final disposition. They may wind up at the Dawson City Museum.

Roman mosaic floor found in Switzerland

Ancient

Construction of a new water pipe in Avenches, Switzerland, has unearthed a Roman mosaic floor of high quality and technique. The mosaic is about five feet by five feet and consists of geometric, floral and animal designs surrounded by a border of yellow tesserae. The thick border is dotted with larger marble tiles of different colors cut into irregular shapes. In the center of the mosaic is a medallion featuring two birds perched on a kantharos (a drinking cup).

The Roman settlement of Aventicum was founded around 15 B.C. and became a provincial capital as was an official colonia. It was a trade hub whose prosperity shows in the remains of several large-scale public buildings including an amphitheater, a theater, a temple complex and baths. The area where the pipeline is being installed was an outlying neighborhood along the ancient road between the western gate and the city’s temple complex. Judging from the remains of dwellings that have been found there, it was a wealthy enclave.

It has been only archaeologically surveyed a few times before now. The area under the Avenches bypass road was first excavated in the 1960s when the old road was widened. The remains of a temple enclosure, a sanctuary portico and the ancient town’s main road were discovered then, as were the remains of several buildings along the Roman road. Four years ago there was a significant dig 500 feet away from the current site and a handful of trenches were dug in 2005 and 2008.

The new dig covers far more ground. Since work on the municipal project began in April, crews have dug a trench a third of a mile long and archaeologists from the Roman Site and Museum of Avenches (SMRA) have been on site the entire time to monitor the work. The mosaic floor was part of a building built on the side of the decumanus maximus (the main road through town).

The mosaic is still in situ for now. The pipes will continue to be installed there and any ancient remains left in place will be damaged or even destroyed. In this case, the mosaic will be cleaned and documented before it is moved to the Roman Museum of Avenches.

Complete atlatl found in Yukon’s melting ice

Ancient

A helicopter pilot who had just dropped off some researchers at the melting Yukon ice patches near Carcross, Canada, found an incredibly well-preserved atlatl at the base of one of those ice patches. It’s not just the spear tip, but the entire hurling weapon from pointy front to the butt of the shaft. It is the first complete atlatl ever found in Yukon, as far as we know.

A few moments after the researchers he had flown to the site set out to explore the area, the pilot spotted the spear. He called out to them that he’d found something they should look at.

At first, Jennifer Herkes didn’t realize what had been found — she thought it was a piece of an atlatl dart.

“I thought, ‘Oh yeah, that’s neat,'” she recalled.

Then she saw it wasn’t just a piece — it was the whole spear.

“My heart rate started increasing, and I got goose bumps all over. I’d never seen anything like that before, it was amazing,” said Herkes, who is the heritage manager for the Carcross/Tagish First Nation in Yukon.

“The feathers, the sinew, the sap they would have used as, like, a glue to attach the stone point to the wood shaft — all of it is completely intact.”

The find is of immense historical significance. It is at least 1,000 years old and because every element is present, it can shed unique light on how the Indigenous people of Yukon made and used weapons, how they hunted, what materials were available to them and more.

Then there’s the cultural significance.

“When you have a full complete spear like that, it really allows people to connect with their heritage and what their ancestors were doing on the land, thousands of years ago,” she said.

“Everybody gets really excited. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to pull my phone out to show pictures to different people. It’s a pretty great way to bring the community together.”

It’s a pretty great picture. The spear looks like it was made yesterday. In order to keep it looking so pristine, the atlatl has been placed in cold storage. That will keep it from decaying. It did thaw, however, when the ice patch it was embedded in melted, so it will require attention from conservators to ensure its long term preservation. The Carcross/Tagish First Nation and the Cultural Services Branch of Yukon’s Department of Tourism and Culture will study how best to conserve it.

“We’ll do our best to keep it as fully intact as possible, because I think that’s where the true value lies — in being able to have that fully intact piece of history,” she said.

Medieval game board brick found in Vybord

Medieval

Archaeologists excavation the Vyborg Castle in Russia’s Leningrad Oblast near the border with Finland have unearthed a brick that was used as a game board in the Middle Ages. It appears that the game grid was engraved on the brick before it was fired. The brick was discovered in an underground passage in the northern section of the castle that connected the storehouse to the moat, and may even have extended all the way in to the city of Vybord.

The game board is for a game named tablei, which translates to “mill,” was similar to a Nine Men’s Morris. Two players with nine pieces each, one side black, one white, faced off over a simple grid.

In the game, each player aims to claim the other’s men, much like the pieces in chess. When a player builds a “mill” — a row of three men—on the grid-like board, they are rewarded with an opponent’s game piece. Once a player is down to just two men, they are unable to form mills and their opponent claims victory.

Located on the Finnish border with Russia, Vyborg Castle was built in the 13th century and extensively renovated in the 16th. It began to fall into disrepair in the 17th century and switched hands between Russia and Finland several times before being annexed by the Soviet Union in 1944. Neither the USSR nor the Russian Federation did much in the way of upkeep of the once-vital strategic stronghold and its city. This is the first time a thorough, dedicated archaeological excavation has been done at Vyborg. Before then there were only small-scale surveys accompanying basic construction and repair work.

The dig has been exceptionally fruitful. Last month archaeologists found a bag full of 38 two-kopeck coins dating to the reign of Tsar Alexander I (1801-1825) under a parapet wall. They have also laser scanned the underground passage and made a 3D model of it.