Latest news with #Cunobelinus
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Over 400 gold and silver Roman-era coins unearthed in the Netherlands depict rulers from Rome, Britain and Africa
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Two metal detectorists in the Netherlands have found a hoard of first-century gold and silver coins. The rare mix of Roman and British money features portraits of emperors and kings who ruled from Rome, England and Africa. The 404 coins were discovered in the fall of 2023 in the town of Bunnik, about 24 miles (39 kilometers) southeast of Amsterdam. The hoard was purchased by the National Museum of Antiquities of the Netherlands, which recently placed them on display in an exhibition called "The Netherlands in Roman Times," according to a translated statement published Monday (Jan. 27). Many of the coins were minted between A.D. 46 and 47, during the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius. During this period, the northern limit of the Roman Empire was the Rhine River, where Roman troops were set up to fend off attacks from Germanic tribes and to launch forays into Great Britain. Of the more than 400 coins, 116 were gold. These gold coins included 72 Roman aurei dating from 19 B.C. to A.D. 47, as well as 44 gold alloy coins, called staters, that were minted in Britain. The staters included the name of the Celtic king Cunobeline (known in Latin as "Cunobelinus"), who ruled from A.D. 9 to 42. The Roman historian Suetonius called Cunobelinus — whose name literally means "strong as a dog" in the Celtic language — the king of the Britons, and the Greek geographer Strabo wrote that Cunobelinus traded precious metals, grain and dogs with the Romans. Also in the hoard were 288 silver coins, all struck between 200 B.C. and A.D. 47. One depicts Julius Caesar, and there is also a rare example of a coin with Juba, king of Numidia (present-day Algeria), on it. Related: More than 1,300 coins buried during Roman emperor Nero's reign found in England RELATED STORIES —1,700-year-old Roman hoard includes gold coins depicting illegitimate emperor —Rare gold 'Brutus' coin minted after Julius Caesar's murder is up for auction —15th-century hoard of gold and silver coins discovered in Israel near Sea of Galilee Dutch archaeologists who studied the coins and the spot of discovery think the hoard was likely buried in A.D. 47, according to the statement. A Roman soldier returning from Britain may have collected the Roman coins as his pay and the British coins as war booty. The soldier may have planned to dig the coins up later, or perhaps he buried them as an offering of gratitude to the gods who allowed him to return safely from battle. This coin hoard is the largest from the Roman period ever discovered in the Dutch province of Utrecht, according to the statement, as well as the first on the European mainland to have a mixed Romano-British composition. The coins have been added to the National Museum of Antiquities' National Archaeology Collection and are available for further research.
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.
