A metal detector operator unearthed a hoard of nearly 3,000 Roman-era coins in an unlikely spot – in the northern part of the empire’s defensive lines. Experts don’t know how or why the huge hoard ended up there.
The operator of the machine was licensed and authorized and when he found the coins he immediately notified government archaeologists in Koblenz, a city on the Rhine River. The excavation that followed revealed some 2,940 coins as well as more than 200 fine silver fragments decorated with geometric designs, buried in a now broken ceramic vessel, which was hidden between two rocks.
The discovery was made outside the ancient borders of the Roman Empire and far from any known Germanic settlement of the time.
“Most of the coins are called Antoniniani, and they were the official silver coins in the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. It was, however, mainly made of copper with a thin silver coating”explains the head of the city’s regional archeology office in Rhineland-Palatinate, Timo Lang, who is supervising the excavation.
Rare silver fragment, found among the coins (Photo: GDKE RLP, Landesarchäologie Koblenz).
The origin of coins
The poor state of preservation of the coins has so far allowed only 100 of the pieces to be identified. Most of them depict the figure of either a Roman or a Gaul emperor on one side, and on the reverse they have other representations, such as Hercules and Ares.
The oldest coins depict the Roman emperor Gordian III, who ruled from 238 to 244 and the newest ones represent the Gallic emperor Victorinus, who ruled from 238 AD. to 271. Archaeologists are unsure of the origin of the silver fragments, but the shape of the ceramic vessel corresponds to Roman ceramic traditions of the third century AD.
The coins date from 241 – 243 AD. and to 269 – 271 AD, so the treasure was buried around 270, Lang explains.
The discovery was made near the town of Herschbach in the Westerwald mountain range, 18 km from the Upper Germanic Limes, the defensive line marking the Roman Empire’s front with the Germanic Peoples. While Roman coins of the 3rd century are often discovered within the boundaries of the empire, the discovery of this particular hoard outside the borders of Roman territory is extremely rare.
«Usually, coin hoards outside the Roman Empire consist of a few dozen, or possibly a few hundred coins.” says Lang. He explains that he knew of only one of the hoards outside the empire that had more coins from this period – a cache of coins found in Poland.
The place where the coins were discovered is a mystery
Archaeologists have concluded that some of the newly discovered coins originate from Rome, but some were minted in Cologne, which was then part of the Gallic Empire – an area that includes present-day France, Belgium, Spain and other parts of of Germany and Italy that broke away from the Roman Empire during a period of political instability from about AD 260 to 274, Lang explained.
The area where the treasure was discovered, however, was not part of the Gallic Empire.
So how did the coins get into enemy territory? The possibilities are many. One of them is that the Gallic Empire attempted to bribe the Germanic elites so that they would not attack, or attack, the Roman Empire. Why the coins were hidden in the Westerwald Mountains, where there are no other known German settlements, remains a mystery.
Lang’s team hopes to analyze silver fragments using CT scans to reconstruct their original shape. Archaeologists plan to work with other researchers to identify the remaining coins.
Source: www.enikos.gr
