Grifter hermit’s treasure found in Poland

Modern(ish)

A treasure in coins associated with the notorious conman hermit Anthony Jaczewicz have been discovered in the Jeleniowskie mountain range of south-central Poland. The Świętokrzyska Exploration Group (ŚGE), a group of local metal detectorists searching by consent of the Świętokrzyskie Provincial Monument Conservator, set out seeking traces of the legendary hermit’s treasure in June 2022. They found several deposits of silver and gold coins which are now being recorded and conserved. They’ve kept their discovery quiet for two years to protect the site.

Antoni Jaczewski was one of many adventurers and grifters who suckered people in the late 17th and early 18th century when Poland was struck by another wave of plague. As happened when the Black Death first devastated Europe in the middle of the 14th century and in subsequent pandemic outbreaks, desperate people turned to religious figures and practices for healing. Jaczewski built a hermitage in the Swiętokrzyskie Mountains in May of 1708. He claimed to have received the power to heal the sick from the Virgin Mary who was living there in the hermitage with him.

The fraud was incredibly effective. Donations poured in and soon the hermitage was so flush with cash that Jaczewski needed to hire armed guards. That launched another lucrative sideline for the fake holy man: robbing pilgrims and raiding neighboring estates. The local nobility finally arrested him and he was imprisoned by the Bishop of Krakow, but he soon escaped and went right back to his mountain hermitage flogging phony healing. He was by no means in hiding, and it seems he had at least tacit approval from papal authorities. Eventually he made too much trouble for the wrong people again, and in 1712 he was arrested and put on trial at the Krakow episcopal court. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in the fortress of Częstochowa.

ŚGE managed to locate a large collection of coins from the first half of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century, including orts, sixes, krajcars, kopecks (so-called teardrops). and other. The Hamburg ducat from 1648 looks particularly interesting, with an image of Madonna and Child pierced at the edge of the coin, which suggests that it could have served as a medallion. It seems, therefore, that the coins may be part of the fees collected by the self-proclaimed hermit, donations or votive offerings, or perhaps also goods stolen from the local nobility. The deposit of coins, secured by the conservation services and members of ŚGE, was transferred to the Historical and Archaeological Museum in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. “Its conservation and detailed numismatic and historical analysis are planned this year, which we hope will provide more answers about the past of this deposit.” – said Wojciech Siudowski, from WUOZ in Kielce

Bronze Age wooden well found in Oxfordshire

Ancient

Road construction in Oxfordshire has uncovered a well-preserved wooden well that dates to the Bronze Age (2300–800 B.C.). Oxford Archaeology was excavating the site of a planned relief road when they discovered the remains of a wooden post planted vertically into the ground. Several more posts were unearthed as excavation continued and they were revealed to be the uprights of a wattle lining of a pit.

The wood survived in such good condition because it was in waterlogged soil. The soil is heavily waterlogged even today, which made it a challenging environment for excavation. The archaeologists nonetheless were able to excavate the whole well and digitally record it in situ. It was then dismantled piece by piece and transported to the Oxfordshire Museum Service for study and conservation.

Soil samples were taken from inside and around the well, and a sample of the wood has been sent for analysis. Archaeologists hope the samples will give them more information about the well itself and its environs: its landscape, how densely settled it was, what type of wood was used, what tools were used to harvest and shape the wood. Radiocarbon dating will be employed to narrow down the dates the well was in active use.

Councillor Judy Roberts, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Infrastructure and Development Strategy, said: “This find gives fantastic insight into the area’s past land use. It is thought the well may have been used for agricultural irrigation purposes for settlements nearby. Archaeological surveys like this are an important part of the process of delivering construction schemes. They help us identify and understand past residents of the area and record them for future generations.

“Other evidence of Bronze Age activity has previously been identified in and around Benson and as far as Wallingford. The excavations undertaken as part of the Benson Relief Road help to further our understanding of this rich landscape and demonstrate how widespread the activity was.”

Teacher pulling weeds pulls up ogham-inscribed stone

Ancient

A rare stone with an ancient ogham inscription was discovered by Coventry geography teacher while weeding his flowerbed. Graham Senior was digging up weeds and rocks in his garden on May 28th, 2020, when just four or five inches below the surface he encountered a quasi-rectangular stone with parallel and diagonal incisions. He washed it and sent a photograph of the stone to an archaeologist relative of his who thought it worth reporting to the Portable Antiquities Scheme. The finds liaison officer sent photos to a University of Glasgow professor who confirmed that the markings were ogham script.

Ogham is an early medieval alphabet used to write the Archaic Irish language from the 4th to the 6th century and Old Irish from the 6th to the 9th century. It was the first written language in Ireland and is typically found carved on stones in Ireland, Wales and western Britain. There are about 400 inscriptions from the Archaic Irish period known, and most of them are pillars with family names that were erected to broadcast ownership of land.

The rock found in Coventry is a small rectangle of sandstone with rounded ends 110 mm (4.3 inches) long, 38 mm (1.5 inches) wide and 19 mm (.75 inches) wide. It is inscribed on three of the long sides in  early ogham. The inscription therefore dates to the 5th or 6th century, but may have been engraved as early as the 4th century. It translates to MALDUMCAIL / S / LASS. The first side is a version of the personal name Mael Dumcail, but the meaning of the S and LASS is unclear. Given the usual purpose and significance of ogham stones, it may be a location reference.

   

Teresa Gilmore, am archaeologist and finds liaison officer for Staffordshire and West Midlands based at Birmingham Museums, said : “This is an amazing find. The beauty of the Portable Antiquities Scheme is that people are finding stuff that keeps rewriting our history.

“This particular find has given us a new insight into early medieval activity in Coventry, which we still need to make sense of. Each find like this helps in filling in our jigsaw puzzle and gives us a bit more information.” […]

Gilmore said such stones were “very rare and have generally been found in Ireland or Scotland … so to find them in the Midlands is actually unusual.”

She suggested it could be linked to people coming over from Ireland or to early medieval monasteries in the area. “You would have had monks and clerics moving between the different monasteries.”

Senior has donated to the rock to the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry where it will go on public display on Mary 11th in the new Collecting Coventry exhibition.

Massive Bronze Age torc stolen from Ely Museum

Ancient, Looting, Museums

One of the largest gold torcs ever discovered was stolen from the Ely Museum Tuesday. Thieves broke into the closed building in the wee hours on the morning of May 7th and stole the Bronze Age gold torc and a heavy gold bracelet from the same period. Only the two gold objects were taken.

Both of the stolen artifacts were found by metal detectorists in East Cambridgeshire. The solid gold bracelet was discovered in 2011. The torc was discovered in a recently ploughed field in September 2015. The four-flange spiral twisted bar torc is more than 4’10” long from trumpet terminal to trumpet terminal and weighs 732 grams (1.6 pounds). It dates to around 1300-1100 B.C. Not only is it exceptional for its size and weight, but also for its purity. Analysis found it is composed of 86-87% gold and 12-13% silver, which makes it 20-21 carat gold by today’s standards.

Dr Wilkin, who is responsible for the British Museum’s British and European Bronze Age Collection, described it as “one of the most important Bronze Age finds that’s ever been made in England”.

He said the torc is the “largest of its type in the whole of Europe” and its diameter is “larger than any adult male trousers that you can buy in a shop today”.

He speculated the torc could have been worn over bulky clothing or by a sacrificial animal but its use “remains a guessing game”.

At this time in the Bronze Age, people were no longer being buried with important objects – instead they deposited them at “important places in the landscape”.

Dr Wilkin said: “We don’t necessarily know why, but we think it was a gift to the gods, designed to secure good harvests or a healthy family. I’ve calculated you could probably make 10 smaller objects out of this one, so it’s a really big sacrifice of wealth and status.”

The Ely Museum acquired the torc in September 2017. After it was determined to be treasure at a coroner’s inquest, the British Museum’s valuation committee assessed its fair market value at £220,000 ($275,000). Local museums are given first crack at raising the sum, and the Ely Museum secured grants, including a large one of £138,600 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, and donations from the public to reach the goal. A month later, the torc was on display at the Ely Museum, the pride and joy of its permanent collection.

Elie Hughes, curator at Ely Museum, said: “We are devastated by the loss to the museum and to the local heritage of the region. It is a huge blow after the incredible support from the community in acquiring the torc in 2017. As a culturally significant object, it cannot be replaced. Our priority now is working with the police to locate the stolen objects.”

The museum is housed in Ely’s Old Gaol building since 1997.  The 700-year-old building was extensively redeveloped to improve access, display space and security in 2021, so it’s not like its systems are old junk. The break-in was just swift and targeted. The worst part of this is that the torc is obviously completely unsalable. It is far too famous and unique to be passed off on the sly, and the odds of this being a commissioned theft for an unscrupulous private collector are miniscule. The real danger is that the priceless archaeological artifacts will be melted down for their mere gold value.

The Cambridgeshire Constabulary are investigating the crime. They are currently looking for two people seen on e-scooters in the vicinity of the museum between midnight and 2:00 AM Tuesday. Anybody with information can contact the police by dialing 101 in the UK or through its online chat service.

Pre-Roman Iron Age necropolis unearthed near Naples

Ancient

An Iron Age necropolis that predates the rise of Rome has been discovered in the town of Amorosi, 30 miles northeast of Naples. A preventative archaeology excavation before construction of a power plant at a site near the Volturno river unearthed a large funerary area in use between the third quarter of the 8th century B.C. and the late 7th century B.C. Archaeologists excavated a total of 88 tombs, both cinerary and inhumation burials, replete with grave goods identifying them as belonging to the Culture of the Pit Tombs, a pre-Samnite people that inhabited the interior of the region that is today known as Campania.

The grave goods evince distinct gender differences. Males were buried with weapons, while women’s graves contained jewelry and ornaments made of bronze, amber and worked bone. Both men and women were buried with pottery of various shapes and sizes, usually placed at the feet of the deceased. Some burials were notable for the exceptional objects, for example a large, richly decorated bronze belt found in one grave. In addition to the pit tombs, two stand-out graves in the literal sense were large mound burials 50 feet in diameter that must have belonged to the highest ranking elites of the community at that time.

The archaeological team recovered several parts of the graves in soil blocks. The local Superintendency of Archaeology of Caserta has enlisted experts to carry out micro-excavations of the soil blocks in a warehouse laboratory specially set up for this task. The materials they recover will be analyzed, as will the bone remains and the soil itself.

The municipality of Amorosi has begun to plan a museum to exhibit the archaeological treasures found in the excavation (and future ones) in the hope of attracting cultural heritage tourism. Next year is a Jubilee year, and millions of visitors are expected to descend on Italy. The town is moving quickly to get a museum up and running to take advantage of the influx of Jubilee crowds.