Via the History Blog, we learn that the massive hoard of Celtic coins that was raised in a single block from a field on the Channel Island of Jersey in 2012 is proving to be even more precious a treasure trove than was immediately obvious, and that’s saying a lot since the Le Catillon II treasure is the largest Celtic coin hoard ever discovered. The original estimate of the number of coins by volume was 30,000 to 50,000. As the Jersey Museum’s conservator Neil Mahrer has worked his way down the hoard, unsticking the corroded coin cluster, the estimated number has increased to 70,000.
The hoard comes out of the ground in one big lump. That red faced guy on the right is perfect - his florid complexion is so Celtic!
The story of how this pile came to be found is interesting as well.
Finders Richard Miles and Reg Mead first began to search for the hoard when a woman told them a story 30 years ago about a pot of silver coins found when her father uprooted a tree on their farm in Grouville parish. She didn’t know exactly where this fabled discovery had happened but she knew the general area and Miles and Mead secured permission from the current landowner to search the field with metal detectors during the brief window between harvest and planting. Over the decades they scanned the property with no success until in February of 2012 they found 60 Celtic coins. They dug a little deeper and encountered a large solid object. Mead grabbed a handful of the soil on top and found a few silver coins inside. Being extremely responsible and awesome people, they immediately filled in the hole and alerted Jersey Heritage to the find.
What if this pile isn't the same one that the woman described? Who knows now why the Celts buried this here, but who's to say it isn't a coin hoard cemetery, and there are others just waiting patiently to be uncovered?
The investigators found that, as expected, most of the coins in the hoard were staters and quarter staters of the Coriosolitae tribe. Unexpectedly, they regularly encountered petit billons, a small denomination that is so rare a few tens of them were known before this hoard. They’re so rare that nobody knows what tribe made them or when. Other numismatic surprises are two coins from the Osismii tribe, the Coriosolitae’s western neighbors: one a five-sided stater that contains some gold, one is a solid gold quarter stater of the Bull Standard type.
In November, they reached the torc area. The solid gold torc was first revealed to have a join in the back, a hole through which a pin would be inserted to close the piece around the neck. Then they found another much larger torc.
In the same way that the investigators found the large torc while clearing around another one, they have continued to find more new pieces as they worked their way through the treasure mass. They now can see another of the sheet gold objects on the hoard’s side. This new one seems very similar but is possibly in better condition. They have also partially uncovered two other smaller diameter possibly solid gold torc sections, one towards the rear of the hoard and another towards its center. And it isn't known how far the rich area of jewellery extends throughout the hoard’s body, but it’s certainly further than initially thought. What the investigators are going to do over the next few months therefore is to extend the coin removal out from the torc area to a 5cm depth over the whole surface and.
That makes a total of six torcs — five solid gold, and one plated gold.
What a great job! And to think these lucky folk are getting paid to do this!
It makes you want to go to the "old country" and look for the end of a rainbow (bring your shovel).
ReplyDeleteShovel and metal detector. Imagine all of the labor of ancient folk that that pile of coins and gold represents, because that's what it is. Years and years of toil, objectified into gold and silver, then buried, unused and beyond recall by the people who earned it. Surpassing strange.
DeleteBoggles the mind ! The history and mystery of it all !
ReplyDelete