Gold Christian amulet, Bronze Age stone seal found in Turkey

Ancient

A Christian amulet from the 4th or 5th century A.D. has been discovered at the Turkmen Karahoyuk archaeological site in Konya, central Turkey. The small copper cylinder contained a sheet of gold just 0.1 millimeter thick rolled up. It has not been opened yet, but archaeologists believe a passage from the Bible was engraved on the gold.

Known as philacteria, amulets of this type were worn as a protective talismans in Late Antiquity. They are rare, especially in gold, and the closest comparable example was found in Germany. The size of the copper container indicates this one was probably worn by a child.

Karahoyuk was a settlement on a mound that today is 115 feet high. When it was founded, it was on the shore of a lake. It was first identified in a surface survey in 2017, and subsequent surveys examined the mound and surrounding area, finding ceramics and hieroglyphic Luwian language inscriptions that revealed its occupation dated back to the Bronze Age and continued to Late Antiquity.

Türkmen Karahöyük has actually been one of the most noteworthy sites in Anatolian archaeology for several years. The mound gained international attention in 2019 when the same research team discovered a stele inscribed in Luwian hieroglyphs. This stele, dedicated to King Hartapu, suggested that the mound may have been the capital of a great kingdom during the Iron Age, indicating that the region was the center of an unknown political power.

Excavations began in 2024 and having continued yearly. We are now in the third season of field excavations, and in addition to the amulet, archaeologists also found a stone seal with an inscription in Luwian hieroglyphics, two copper seals, and a clay seal impression. The stone seal dates back 3,500 years and the inscription includes a personal name and title of an official.

The stone seal bears the name “Kurunti-ziti.” According to [excavation co-director Assoc. Prof. Dr.] Massa, this name is linked to the god Kurunta, who held an important place in the Hittite world. Kurunta (Runtiya) was a protective deity associated with deer in Luwian and Hittite beliefs; his name frequently appears in both personal names and within royal circles. The clay seal impression, however, bears a different name. Massa states that these were seals used by administrative personnel in the region to seal documents, thus reflecting traces of an organized state bureaucracy at the mound.

King Hartapu ruled in the early 8th century B.C. The discovery of the seal reveals that the Karahoyuk settlement was already a regionally important administrative center far earlier than that, around 1500/1400 B.C.

Switzerland returns trafficked gold mask to Egypt

Ancient, Looting

Switzerland has returned a 2,000-year-old gold funerary mask to Egypt believed to have been looted from Fayoum. Swiss Federal Councilor Elisabeth Baume-Schneider formally handed over the mask to Mohamed Negm, Egypt’s ambassador to Switzerland, in a ceremony in Bern.

The Ptolemaic-era mask was seized by officials from the Swiss Federal Office for Customs and Border Security in mid-September 2022 when an individual attempted to transport it through a border crossing in Bardonnex on the road between France and Switzerland. The destination was an art collector in Geneva, Stéphane Barbier-Muller, who claimed he wanted the mask to decorate his home.

This raised red flags for the customs agents who had serious suspicions the alleged Egyptian documents accompanying the artifact were fraudulent. Customs forwarded the mask and ostensible documentation to the Federal Office of Culture where it was subjected to a thorough scientific examination by certified archaeologists.

Swiss authorities enlisted the aid of a British Museum Egyptologist who was able to confirm it is an authentic gold funerary mask dating to the 2nd century B.C., the middle of the Ptolemaic period. He believes it was taken from one of the tombs in southeastern Fayoum, looted in a clandestine excavation. Lending credence to this hypothesis is the complete absence of publication. This is an exceptional piece that would certainly have been mentioned in scientific literature.

This recovered funerary mask possesses high artistic and architectural value and belongs to the category of gilded cartonnage masks, constructed from layers of linen and treated plaster, painted in multiple colors. Its exceptional state of preservation makes it a perfect example of Ptolemaic funerary art. Designed to cover and protect the deceased’s face according to ancient Egyptian beliefs, it features an idealized facial structure that highlights delicate gilded features alongside Baroque details and colorful geometric motifs. These elements reflect a fusion of Egyptian artistic traditions and classical influences, showcasing the ancient Egyptian craftsman’s skill in manipulating materials to convey solemnity and funerary symbolism.

A year after the confiscation, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Geneva opened a criminal investigations on charges of money laundering, receiving stolen property and violating laws on the transfer of cultural property. The case concluded with a final confiscation order in February 2026 after the Geneva art dealer named as the recipient of the shipment waived all claims to delivery.

Ancient Celtic coin hoard found in Germany

Ancient, Treasures

A group of 11 Celtic silver coins has been discovered under a playing field in Singen, central Germany. The coins are about 2,000 years old and exceptionally rare. The barely double-digits hoard is the largest one of from the period ever discovered in Thuringia.

The coins emerged in an archaeological survey of the former sports field in advance of construction of a new fire station. The first individual finds were unearthed in July and August of last year when construction was being overseen by archaeologists. A targeted excavation at the site last month uncovered the rest. The excavation revealed that the 11 coins were a single deposit that had been scattered by later agricultural work.

The original container has vanished. Researchers found no pottery fragments, leading them to believe the coins were probably kept in something made from organic material, perhaps a small pouch or another container that decayed long ago.

The coins were no longer lying where their owner had placed them. Centuries of ploughing had dragged them across an area measuring roughly 5.8 by 1.5 meters. Careful documentation nevertheless allowed archaeologists to reconstruct their relationship and distinguish the hoard from later objects found nearby.

The 11 coins are all silver quinarii of the Prague type. Only around 80 of them are known to have been found in Thuringia, so this single deposit is not only the largest, but contains more than 10% of the total Prague-type quinarii in the state.

Numismatists believe the quinarii may have been locally produced in the Gotha region just northwest of Singen. The find site is located between Gotha and a concentration of Celtic settlements, including Steinsburg which was one of the most important Celtic settlements in the region and was known for its craft production.

That makes the Singen hoard more than an isolated cache of silver. Its location adds another point to the archaeological map, helping researchers trace possible connections between production centers, settlements and the routes along which coins and other goods moved through Iron Age Thuringia.

The Thuringian State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology says the discovery has significantly expanded what is known about these regional connections.

Ancient bronze bracelets found in Uzbekistan

Ancient

An ancient grave containing bronze bracelets, jewelry and beads has been discovered in the Samarkand Region of Uzbekistan.

Human skeletal remains and bronze objects were found by a local resident of the village of Darvozagaz when he was digging in his yard. He reported the find to Y. Gulyamov Samarkand Institute of Archaeology and they dispatched archaeologists to investigate. They recovered all of the human bones and bronze artifacts for examination and conservation.

“According to preliminary observations, some of the found bronze bracelets are distinguished by their conical ends and spiral decorations,” says Mominkhon Saidov, director of the Samarkand Institute of Archaeology. “Their shape and decorative features are similar to jewelry typical of the culture of steppe pastoral tribes living in the last stage of the Bronze Age. Archaeological materials related to the culture of the steppe pastoral population of the Bronze Age have also been discovered in a number of settlements and cemeteries in the Zarafshan Valley.”

Objects of this kind are associated with the Andronovo-Tozabogyob culture and typically date to between the 13th and 10th centuries B.C. and circle. None of the finds have been conclusively dated yet, however. Further excavations are planned to clarify the period and cultural context, as well as osteological investigations and metallurgical analysis of the recovered remains.

If the preliminary conclusions confirm that this was a burial from the Late Bronze Age, the discovery will add important new information to the archaeological record of the ancient pastoral communities of Samarkand’s Zarafshan Valley.

Update on Roman gold coin hoard found in Luxembourg

Ancient, Treasures

The first detailed study of the unique hoard of 141 gold coins from Late Antiquity discovered in Holzthum, Luxembourg, in 2019 has revealed the likely burial date — 395 A.D. — and an unusually large concentration of coins minted in Anatolia. The study has been published in the journal Schweizer Münzblätter and can be read here.

The first 39 coins were found by metal detectorists who reported the finds without attempting to excavate them. Luxembourg’s National Institute for Archaeological Research (INRA) excavated the find site for four years. The process was so slow because the field was full of unexploded ordnance and munitions from World War II. The archaeologists worked side-by-side with explosives experts from the Luxembourg Army Mine Action Service (SEDAL).

When the excavation was complete and the coins safely recovered, it was the end of 2024. Since then, the coins have been conserved, documented and analyzed. Numismatists compared the hoard to others from the same period found in the Benelux countries and western Germany.

Seventeen of the Holzthum coins were struck between AD 364 and 367 at Nicomedia, the major Roman mint on the Sea of Marmara in northwestern Anatolia. They account for 12.2 percent of the 139 regular coins included in the study’s mint-distribution table; the remaining two pieces are fragmentary plated coins.

That concentration is unusual. According to David Wigg-Wolf, David Weis, and Lynn Stoffel, who published the analysis in Schweizer Münzblätter, the Coin Hoards of the Roman Empire database contains no comparable regional hoard with such a strong representation from Nicomedia. […]

Emperor Valentinian I was proclaimed Augustus at Ancyra, modern Ankara, in AD 364. The researchers suggest that eastern solidi could have travelled west with Valentinian and his army as they moved first toward Italy and later into Gaul. The Holzthum coins therefore offer a possible material trace of money moving thousands of kilometres with the machinery of the Roman state.

Coins struck in Constantinople between 383 and 388 A.D., and at Sirmium between 394-395 A.D. may have also have moved west with Roman troops after Theodosius I’s defeat of Eugenius at the Battle of the Frigidus on the border between what are now Italy and Slovenia in 394 A.D. There are three Eugenius coins in the hoard, which are very rare because he only ruled the West for two years.

The two plated coins were also investigated. Researchers identified them as the RESTITVTOR REIPVBLICAE type. One was an ancient imitation, the other has a dark surface that suggests high quantities of solver or tin. Based on the portrait style, one was probably an ancient imitation. Another coin has an unusually dark surface and may contain substantial quantities of silver or tin rather than fine gold, although researchers have not yet carried out the metal analysis required to confirm its composition.