Ancient wall may be earliest Gallic remains of Paris

Ancient

The remains of an ancient Gallic stone and wood wall have been discovered beneath a the 19th century Hôtel-Dieu hospital on the Île de la Cité, the island in the Seine River that is in the heart of the modern city of Paris. Île de la Cité has long been hypothesized to have been the site of Lutetia, the first Gallic oppidum that would become Paris. Before this discovery, no traces of a pre-Roman settlement had been found on the island, and scholars have debated other possible locations as the original Lutetia.

The 65-foot section of wall was discovered in an archaeological survey during construction work in the courtyard of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital. The wall is made of stone blocks with horizontal wooden beams, a technique typical of fortifications of late Iron Age Gallic oppida. Behind the wall was a platform created with piled sand and gravel almost seven feet thick. Archaeologists found a Gallic spearhead and a coin at the base of the platform.

Traces of severe burning were discovered on the wall cladding. There were also charred seeds found near the wall, and the remains of a burned wooden structure right in front of it. Carbon-14 testing of the charred wooden elements date them to between 200 B.C. and 10 B.C., a range which comfortably includes 52 B.C., the year when according to Julius Caesar, the Gallic Parisii tribe set fire to their oppidum to keep it out of the hands of the invading Romans.

The first written account of Lutetia is in the seventh commentary of Julius Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War, and it is bare bones: “This is a stronghold of the Parisii, situated on an island in the River Seine.” Caesar describes how while he took his legions to fight the Aedui and rescue his supplies by fording the Loire River, his lieutenant Titus Labienus took four legions to Lutetia. When they heard how he’d defeated Senones in Metiosedum by making a bridge out of ships, the Parisii burned Lutetia and broke up its bridges before he arrived.

There are several islands in the Seine, so this description didn’t really narrow down the location of the original Gallic settlement that would become Paris, and while Île de la Cité was a likely candidate, other possibilities caught scholars’ eyes, most recently the Parisian suburb of Nanterre at a bend in the Seine where a large Gallo-Roman necropolis was excavated between 1994 and 2005.

After the Roman conquest, Lutetia regrew mostly on the Left Bank of the Seine where some of the most ancient finds in Parisian history have been made. After the town was sacked by Germanic tribespeople in the late 3rd century, Île de la Cité was fortified and became a bulwark of defense against invasion. The Roman governor lived there in the 4th century. The first Frankish king, Clovis I, established his capital in Paris in 508 A.D., and built his palace on Île de la Cité.

The first hospital was built on the island in 651 A.D., so while the current Hôtel-Dieu building was completed in 1877, it has ancient antecedents, but nobody expected to find a structure 800 years older than the first hospital under its courtyard.

Because of the exceptional significance of the find, excavations will continue to unearth the entire complex of structures that remain. Archaeologists will study the wall to establish its purpose, the construction date, the circumstances of the destructive fire and what the connection between the wall and the sand and gravel platform behind it is.

The wall is not likely to be preserved in situ. It is deep below ground level and in an exceptionally fragile condition due to the fire. The plan is to make a mold of the wall so that it can be reconstructed after conservation in a museum. It will be thoroughly documented, scanned, photographed with thousands of HD pictures to create a digital photogrammetry composite.

Metal detectorist finds Germany’s largest Hadrianic silver coin hoard

Ancient, Treasures

Germany’s largest coin hoard from the reign of the emperor Hadrian has been discovered near Wesseling, on the Rhine river just south of Cologne.

The first silver denarii were discovered by metal detectorist Oliver Riedl. After recovering 15 coins, Riedl realized there was something much bigger underground when his machine kept beeping. He stopped what he was doing and notified the Rhineland Regional Association’s Office for Archaeological Heritage Management (LVR-ABR).

Archaeologists from the Nideggen branch of the LVR-ABR were immediately dispatched to excavate the find site. The team unearthed more than 900 additional denarii, for a total of 934 coins weighing 3.1 kilos (6.8 lbs) of silver. In terms of buying power, that’s more than three times the yearly pay of a Roman legionary. Since half of their salary was deducted to pay for their food and equipment, however, a legionary would have had to save every denarius for six years to amass a hoard of this size.

The most recent coin in the hoard was minted in 124/125 A.D., which marks the likely date of its burial as during the reign of Emperor Hadrian (117–138 A.D.). Almost all of the coins pre-date his reign, however. They were minted during the Flavian dynasty (69-96 A.D.), so archaeologists believe the hoard was largely collected around 100 A.D. and then buried two or three decades later with that one contemporary coin.

The oldest coin in the hoard was minted by the Roman Republic in 148 B.C., so it was almost 300 years old when it was buried. Even the oldest and most heavily worn coins were still valid when they went underground. One bears a countermark confirming that it retained the value of a silver denarius despite its many decades in circulation.

During the excavations, a concentration of numerous coins quickly became apparent. To better examine the find, it was recovered as a block and transported to the restoration workshop of the LVR State Museum in Bonn. There, the block of earth containing the coins was first X-rayed. This allowed valuable insights to be gained before the coins were unearthed. Fragments of a ceramic pot and remnants of straw were also found. “The coins were probably originally buried in a pot lined with straw,” says Rahel Otte. However, years of agricultural activity destroyed the container, and the coins were scattered in the soil. “But we were able to find and recover all the coins during our investigations.”

The hoard has now gone on display at the LVR State Museum in Bonn where it is being presented to the 300 archaeologists from all over Germany who are currently in town for the annual conference of the West and South German Association for Archaeological Research.

Roman silver coin hoard found on Gotland

Ancient, Treasures

A hoard of Roman silver coins has been discovered in Tofta on the Swedish island of Gotland. They range in date from the late 1st century to the late 2nd century A.D., but likely didn’t reach Gotland until the 4th century. The deposit includes one gold finger ring in a style typical of the mid-5th century.

Gotland’s location in the middle of the Baltic Sea made it strategically important for trade and military purposes. The earliest known fortifications on Gotland date back to 3rd century B.C., and since the 19th century the Swedish Armed Forces have had a significant presence in Gotland. The find site is next to the Tofta Shooting Range, a vast area of 2,700 hectares used for field exercises and weapons testing.

Archaeologists have been investigating the site in advance of planned expansion of the Gotland Regiment. Previous excavations uncovered the remains of four ancient farm buildings. The current dig revealed remains of two more structures within the same complex. The coins were found outside one of the two buildings.

The hoard consists of 45 silver denarii coins in the hoard were minted during the reigns of five emperors — Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus — and four empresses — Sabina, Faustina I, Faustina II and Lucilla. They are heavily worn from centuries of use, evidence they had been in active circulation for more than a century before they made their way to Gotland.

Bones found in one of the houses were radiocarbon dated and the results found they date to the 5th century. Between the carbon-14 dates and the dating of the gold ring type, archaeologist believe the hoard was buried around 450 A.D.

Iconic winter sport landscape acquired by Rijksmuseum and Mauritshuis

Modern(ish), Museums

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum and The Hague’s Mauritshuis have jointly acquired one of the most important winter landscape scenes from the Dutch Golden Age: Colf Players on the Ice, painted around 1625 by Hendrick Avercamp. To celebrate its homecoming, the masterpiece will first go on display in a special exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Kampen, Avercamp’s birthplace, from October 3rd to January 10th, 2027. After that, the two museums will split custody. This is the first time the Netherland’s two greatest museums, respectively home of Rembrandt’s The Night Watch and Vermeer’s Girl With a Pearl Earring, are sharing an artwork.

Between 1575 and 1625, northern Europe experienced a period of severe winters known as “The Little Ice Age.” The rivers, canals, lakes and ports of below-sea-level Holland froze over for months. Avercamp was the first Dutch artist to specialize in depicting winter scenes, capturing people enjoying the cold in sports like ice skating, sledding and colf, and experiencing the harshness of having to work and live in such conditions.

Colf Players on the Ice is regarded as a highlight of Avercamp’s oeuvre. Unlike in his earlier winter landscape teeming with human figures, the artist focuses here on a small group in the foreground. The low vantage point makes us feel that we too are on the ice, and part of the scene. The focus is on two men playing colf – one of the oldest ball games in the Low Countries, and a forerunner of golf – as fishers, passers-by and other spectators watch the game. The painting is therefore not only a fabulous wintry scene, it is also the earliest known depiction of colf.

Colf was a popular year-round game in the Netherlands, played in the squares, church yards and the streets of town. Like golf, it was played by hitting a ball with a club, but unlike golf, the target was a vertical stick rather than a hole. Walloping balls through the streets of small, densely-inhabited towns had the unfortunate side-effect of breaking a lot of windows, and many towns passed ordinances prohibiting the game. The icy surfaces away from windows made the ideal colfing pitch.

Avercamp’s winter scenes are filled with details, capturing people from all walks of life. In Colf Players on the Ice, the gentleman in kuitbroek (knee breeches) wields the colf club while commoners like an ice fishermen and the little boy with a net helping him watch the game. The clothes are a snapshot of fashions followed by the merchants and burghers, as well as the rugged winterwear of the working classes.

For many years, the painting was on long-term loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, from the collection of British art dealers Edward and Sally Speelman. Speelman is an expert in Dutch old master paintings, and has amassed a significant private collection. They sold Colf Players on the Ice for a hefty price tag of $13 million.

The acquisition is very important for the Netherlands. Although several paintings by Avercamp are in Dutch public collections, almost all of them are early works. Colf Players on the Ice , on the other hand, shows the innovative nature of his mature style, and is thus an essential addition to the Dutch national collection.

Remains of Roman structure found in Switzlerland

Ancient

The remains of a previously unknown Roman structure have been discovered in Ligornetto, in the southern Swiss canton of Ticino. Archaeologists have uncovered a structure from the 2nd-3rd century A.D., a road and evidence of metalwork in the area. They also found a bronze bird fibula, probably a peacock, from the second or third century A.D.

Evidence of occupation in the Ligornetto area goes back to the beginning of the 2nd century B.C. and continued uninterrupted through the 10th century. We know from surviving inscriptions that in the Roman era, important families from the nearby urban centers of Mediolanum (Milan) and Novum Comum (Como) are known to have lived there, and a luxury villa from the period has been unearthed a half mile from the find site.

Excavations at the site began in June before new residential construction. Over about 5,380 square feet of area, the excavation uncovered remnants of a wooden structure from the final decades of the 1st century B.C., the oldest remains at the site. In the 2nd century A.D., the wooden structure was demolished, the ground leveled and a new masonry structure erected.

While there is more of the structure to be excavated, the parts of the building that have been unearthed so far are 26 feet wide and 36 feet long. It had at least six rooms. A portico about 10 feet wide was on the southern side overlooking a small road.

The building was altered again between 2nd and 3rd centuries. Additional walls were added to the interior and a platform was built of recycled bricks. The structure was permanently abandoned when it was destroyed in a fire in the 3rd century. Charcoal and remains of the collapsed roof were left untouched, so there was no further attempt to modify the building or salvage surviving materials.

While the southern portico overlooked a small road, a large strip of land behind the building extended for artisanal and agricultural activities. Postholes (indicating the presence of lightweight structures or temporary roofs) and a small path made of reused bricks, likely serving as a path and demarcating the plot, were discovered in this area.

The precise function of the building is still unclear, but the absence of fireplaces and other structures associated with domestic life seems to rule out residential use. A particularly noteworthy element, however, is the exceptional abundance of ferrous slag and bronze-working waste in the 2nd and 3rd century AD layers. These finds suggest the presence of significant metalworking activity in the immediate vicinity.