Latest news with #Cunobelin
BBC News
30-01-2025
- General
- BBC News
Ancient British coins taken by Roman soldiers as 'spoils of war'
Imagine using a metal detector in a field, only to discover an extremely rare stash of coins. That's what happened to two people in the Netherlands, who found hundreds of ancient coins that were buried 2,000 years ago in the northern border region of the Roman Empire. The hoard contains 44 British coins that bear the name of British Celtic King Cunobelin, who reigned from around AD5 to AD40 in the south-east of Britain. It's believed they were taken by soldier as "spoils of war". There were also 360 Roman coins discovered, and it's the first time a Roman-British coin hoard of this kind has been found in mainland Europe. The coins were found in 2023 in a place called Bunnik, near the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. After the find was reported, the hoard was examined by an archaeologist and professionally cleaned. A dig was carried out at the site to understand why they were buried there. What do we know about the Bunnik coins? The most recent of the Roman coins were made in the years 46-47, during the rein of the Emperor Claudius. It was during this time that Roman troops crossed the North Sea to conquer the land they called 'Britannia', or Great Britain as we now know it today. Experts believe the 44 British gold coins were probably brought to Bunnik after the first conquests by Roman soldiers. The coins are not pure gold, but were also mixed with silver and copper. There were 72 gold Roman coins and 288 silver coins, which are believed to have been the soldier's pay. There is not a clear reason why they were buried, but the National Museum of Antiquities in the Netherlands, where the coins are now kept, says: "They may have been hidden with the idea of digging them up later. "It could also be an offering, for example an expression of gratitude to the gods for a safe return from battle."
The Guardian
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Hoard of coins dating from Roman conquest of Britain found near Utrecht
A hoard of British coins bearing the inscription of King Cunobelin and found in a Dutch field have been identified to very likely be the spoils of war of a Roman soldier from the conquest of Britain. The 44 gold coins, known as staters, were discovered alongside 360 Roman coins, which are believed to have been given as military pay, by two amateur archaeologists with metal detectors in a field in Bunnik, near Utrecht. The staters bear the name of the British Celtic king also known as Cunobelinus, immortalised by Shakespeare as Cymbeline in the play of that name, who reigned between 5 and 40AD in the south-east of Britain. Analysis of what is the first mixed composition collection found on mainland Europe suggests the coins were deliberately buried in a shallow pit and stored in a cloth or leather pouch. The coins, which were found at a depth of less than 30cm below the surface of the soil, are said to amount to 11 years in wages for an ordinary Roman soldier. Four of the British staters are regarded as posthumous issues, probably struck by Cunobelinus's successors as ruler of the Catuvellauni tribe, the brothers Togodumnus and Caratacus, at around 43AD. The wide chronological range of the coins suggests they were not selected based on quality, gold content or weight but removed from circulation in a single event, consistent with being spoils from the early Roman conquest of Britain under the general Aulus Plautius (43-47AD). The coins may have been distributed to the army as a donativum, a monetary gift often given to soldiers in the Roman army as a reward after a successful campaign, according to the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, where they are on show. Of the Roman coins, 72 are gold aurei, a high value currency, and 288 are silver denarii. They date from approximately 200BC to 47AD. The most recent coins in the hoard, struck in 46-47AD, bear the portrait of the emperor Claudius. The identical marks of those coins suggest that they were minted as part of a single batch and probably distributed as military pay. Among the silver pieces are Roman coins from the time of Julius Caesar and one features Juba, the king of Numidia in north-west Africa, present-day Algeria. The find was made by Gert-Jan Messelaar and Reinier Koelink in October 2023. They discovered 381 coins and a second excavation by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands uncovered a further 23. 'We opened a bottle of champagne,' recalled Messelaar of the original discovery. 'You never find this.' The area where the coins were discovered was a site from which the Romans had prepared for first crossing to Britain. It now appears that it was also an area to which the conquering troops returned when back on the mainland. The pit in which the coins were probably buried would have been dug in a soggy area and close to a water-bearing channel that would have been unsuitable for habitation and agriculture. Anton Cruysheer, from the Utrecht Landscape and Heritage Foundation, said: 'This is the first time that physical evidence of the return of the troops has been found. Apparently they came back with all sorts of things. That is new information.' Britain consisted of several separate kingdoms before Claudius ordered Aulus Plautius to invade with a force of four legions reinforced by a further 20,000 auxiliary soldiers Caratacus and Togodumnus had been leading attacks on the Atrebates tribe, who had political and trading links with the Romans, extending the area of influence of the anti-Roman Catuvellauni further westwards from their homelands north of the Thames.
