Far from the borders of the empire: a rare treasure trove of Roman coins found in the German mountains
Kyiv • UNN
A treasure trove of nearly 3,000 Roman coins from the third century AD has been discovered in Germany outside the borders of the empire. The discovery was made in the Westerwald Mountains, far from the known settlements of the time, which raises questions among scientists.
A rare treasure of almost 3000 coins was discovered in Germany. It was discovered outside the borders of the Roman Empire and far from the known settlements of Germanic tribes of the time. Scientists do not know why such a large treasure was there. This is reported by Live Science, according to UNN.
Details
The person who found the treasure reported it to state archaeologists in Koblenz, a city on the Rhine River. The excavations that followed revealed some 2,940 coins, as well as more than 200 fine silver fragments decorated with geometric patterns, buried in a now broken ceramic pot hidden between two stones.
Most of the coins are the so-called Antoninians, which were the official silver coinage in the Roman Empire in the third century (AD), but they were mostly made of bronze with a thin silver coating,
Due to the poor preservation of the coins, scientists have so far been able to identify only 100 of them. Most of them feature a portrait of a Roman or Gallic emperor on one side and other images on the reverse, such as the deities Hercules and Mars.
The oldest coins bear the image of the Roman Emperor Gordian III (ruled from 238 to 244 AD), and the youngest coins bear the image of the Gallic Emperor Victorinus (ruled from about 269 to 271 AD). Scientists do not yet know what the silver fragments were. But the shape of the pot in which they were found corresponds to Roman ceramic traditions of the third century AD.
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According to Lang, the coins date from between 241-243 AD and 269-271 AD, so the treasure was probably buried in the early 270s.
The discovery was made near the town of Herschbach in the Westerwald mountain range, 18 kilometers from the Upper Germanic Limes, a defensive line that marked the border of the Roman Empire with the Germanic peoples. The discovery of such a large treasure outside the empire is an extremely rare find.
Typically, coin hoardings outside the Roman Empire consist of a few dozen or perhaps a few hundred coins,
He added that he knew of only one hoard outside the empire that had more coins from this period-a hoard of coins found in Poland.
According to archaeologists, some of the coins found were from Rome. But most were minted in Cologne, which at the time was part of the Gaulish Empire. This is a region that included modern-day France, Belgium, Spain, and parts of Germany and Italy that broke away from the Roman Empire during a time of political instability from about 260 to 274 AD. But the region where the treasure was discovered was not part of the Gaulish Empire.
How the coins ended up here remains a mystery. One theory is that the Gaulish Empire was trying to bribe the German elite to either not attack it or to attack the Roman Empire. However, it is not known why the coins were hidden in the Westerwald mountains, where there were no known German settlements.
