Nazi Loot Found?

Posted August 20, 2015:

Men claim to find Nazi train loaded with treasure in Poland

AP
7 hours ago

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — According to Polish lore, a Nazi train loaded with gold, artworks and weapons vanished into a mountain at the end of World War II, as the Germans fled the Soviet advance. Now two men claim they know the location of the mystery train and are demanding 10 percent of its value in exchange for revealing its location.

Historians say the existence of the train has never been conclusively proven, but authorities are not passing up this chance at possibly recovering treasures that locals and the government have sought for 70 years.

"We believe that a train has been found. We are taking this information seriously," Marika Tokarska, an official in the southwestern Polish district of Walbrzych, told The Associated Press on Thursday.

She said her office received two letters this month from a law firm representing the men, a Pole and a German who have chosen to remain anonymous, saying they are seeking 10 percent of the value of the train's contents for revealing its location. The documents from the lawyers say the train is 150-meters (490-feet) long and loaded with guns, valuables and precious metals, but do not specify where it is. Authorities say they are willing to pay the reward if the information pans out.

A lawyer for the men, Jaroslaw Chmielewski, compared the find to the "wreck of the Titanic" in an interview on a local radio station.

Tokarska said that hiring a law firm gives a degree of credibility to the two men's claims, as do indications that they are familiar with the train's contents. But there are also reasons for caution: The first letter included some references to the area's topography that indicated they might not know the area very well.

Joanna Lamparska, an author who has written about the train and the region's history, says she believes it could be a scam.  "We have had a lot of stories like that in the last few years with people claiming they know where the train is," Lamparska told The AP. "But nothing was ever found."

Local stories say a German train left from the German city of Breslau (today the Polish city of Wroclaw) in April 1945 and headed westward toward Waldenburg (now Walbrzych.) At some point in the 60-kilometer (40-mile) journey it vanished.

During the war, Adolf Hitler had started creating a secret underground system in the area under the Owl Mountains, a project called "Riese," or "Giant." The region still belonged to Germany at the time and the project included seven separate tunnel systems. It was probably intended to be a military headquarters, though the project remains shrouded in mystery to this day.

Lamparska describes the area as one filled with meadows and mountains where the Nazis had secret rail lines and tunnels with camouflaged openings that went under the mountains.

The source of the train legend was a Polish miner who claimed he was told about it just after the war by German miners; he said they saw it being pushed into one of the tunnels. The miner has spent his life since trying to find the train, Lamparska said.

Already, the district governor has convened a meeting of firefighters, police, military and others to explore how they can safely handle the train if it is finally found. Not only could it be armed with explosives, but methane gas underground could add to the risk of an explosion.

The mystery is now compounded by questions about who the two men are.  "It could either be nonsense or they got the information directly from the Germans," local rescuer Krzysztof Szpalkowski told the private broadcaster TVN24. "Maybe one of these men is a descendant of people who took part in this action."

Love Me Another Treasure Trove Story!

Hola darlings!  Happy New Year to all of you, wherever you are.  May the Goddess bring you good health and good fortune in this year 2015.

It's snowing here today.  We had a mild December, for which I am grateful.  Now January is coming roaring in like a lion.  I've shoveled 2x in 2 days and I'm already worn out, LOL!  We're to get at least another 4 inches of snow over the next 24 hours.  Great, just great (NOT).  I won't have time to shovel tomorrow morning before I leave for work so that probably means more shoveling tonight before my favorite t.v. shows come on, and then shoveling more when I get home from the office tomorrow night.  YECH!  I did manage to capture snow actually falling in this photo taken from my patio door this morning:

It's already much deeper out there.  If you take a close look at the top "U-verse" wire running across the back of the yard, you'll see some of the snow is missing.  That thick wire is used by the squirrels as a highway, and as they traveled across and back today, the snow was knocked off.

Now you know I just love me treasure trove stories, and here's a new one for you:

From the Daily Record and Sunday Mail:

Ancient coins worth more than £1MILLION found buried in lead bucket in farmer's field

• Jan 01, 2015 19:42
• By Jack Evans

A HOARD of ancient coins worth more than £1MILLION has been found buried in a bucket in a farmer's field.  Amateur treasure hunters armed with metal detectors unearthed the rare Anglo Saxon coins near Aylesbury, Bucks., during a Christmas dig.

The stunning find is one of the most significant in Britain in recent years, say experts.  Over 100 people turned out to take part in the festive hunt and they were stunned to find the collection of more than 5000 silver coins, thought to be more than 1000 years old.

The perfectly preserved pieces, which feature the faces of Anglo Saxon kings, were in a lead bucket which was buried two feet underground.  The extremely rare coins could be worth more than £1million and Weekend Wanderers Detecting Club leader Pete Welch said the find was "very significant".

The recovered coins, all wrapped up and ready to be hauled off for inspection and valuation by
the experts.

Pete, 56, said: "They're like mirrors, no scratching, and buried really carefully in a lead container, deep down.  It looks like only two people have handled these coins. The person who made them and the person who buried them.

"Metal detecting is a bit random but most farms have a bit of history so you have a chance of finding something.  I think this was a case of you either move to the right or move to the left and on this case our member moved the right way. I'm just hoping that these coins will end up in a museum for the public to see. I wouldn't want to see them go to a private collector."

The discovery of a total of 5251 coins was made during the annual dig on December 21 on rural farmland the group had visited before. After they were found archaeologist Ros Tyrrell was called to help excavate them.

The coins are in "superb condition" and show the faces of some of the kings of England dating back 1000 years.  They include coins from the reigns of Ethelred the Unready (978-1016 AD) and Canute, or Cnut (1016-1035 AD).  Mr Welch believes the hoard is equal in importance to the Staffordshire Hoard of gold and garnets found by a metal detectorist in 2009.

He added: "We don't know how many variations of the coins there are and when we do we will know how significant the find is.  This would have been a huge amount of money in its day. One coin alone would have been a lot back then.

"Everyone dreams of a pot of gold. The reality is you spend most of your time digging up bits of junk.  This is the first of its kind since I've been running the club, which is 23 years."

A Bucks County Museum spokesman said: "This is one of the largest hoards of Anglo Saxon coins ever found in Britain.  When the coins have been properly identified and dated, we may be able to guess at why such a great treasure was buried."

He added that as the coins are precious metal over 300 years old they fall within the remit of the Treasure Act.

They will now be taken to the British Museum for conservation and identification before a coroner will decide whether they are legally treasure.  A museum will then be able to bid for the coins with the money from the sale being split between the land owner and the individual who made the discovery.

Moved Into New Digs At Last! And - Mini-Treasure Trove Discovered!

Hola darlings!

Bear with me, please.  It has been a chaotic and traumatic three months, but about 95% of my possessions are here at the new, smaller, house and I am in the process of unpacking dozens of boxes and trying to figure out where the hell to put everything!

I just wanted to let you all know that yes, I am still alive and feeling quite well, actually, despite all the stress and horrors of packing up and moving from a big house to a small house.  Right now I must put on my shoes and gas-up the lawn mower and mow my much smaller front and back yards :)  The grass here grows half a foot tall in one week, I swear! 

I promise to be back tomorrow and do some posting.  There is no way I can catch up with all the news, of course, but I will be posting on a more regular basis now that I have a space cleared in the midst of the chaos that is presently my new household, to hold my trusty old Toshiba laptop. 

The mini-treasure trove discovered was not, alas, any buried and forgotten money or gold of mine (neither of which I own in abundance, alas).  It's a story I emailed myself the link to on July 14th, so I present it here, because I just love stories like this one.  They serve as continuing proof that we certainly do NOT know everything there is to know about the world around us or even what is buried a few feet underneath our feet :)  Enjoy and I'll be back tomorrow:

Ancient Coins Found Buried in British Cave

By Kelly Dickerson, Staff WriterJuly 14, 2014 8:18 AM

 

Digging through a cave in central Britain, archaeologists uncovered 26 ancient gold and silver coins belonging to the Corieltauvi tribe, a group of people that lived in Britain before the Roman conquest.

Archaeologists previously found collections of coins like these in other parts of Britain, but this is the first time they have ever been discovered buried in a cave. The discovery of the coins was a surprise, because they were found at a site called Reynard's Kitchen Cave, which is located outside the Corieltauvi's usual turf.

"It might be that we have a member of the tribe living beyond the boundary that is more usually associated with the territory," Rachael Hall, an archaeologist at the National Trust who led the excavation, told Live Science in an email.

Back in 2000, a group of almost 5,000 Corieltauvi coins were discovered in Leicestershire. This more recent find at Reynard's Kitchen Cave might be additional evidence that members of the tribe once hoarded coins. Hall and the team speculate that the coins were hidden to ensure they weren't stolen, and whoever buried them may have planned on returning to the site to dig the coins up again.

The discovery included 20 Iron Age coins, three Roman coins and three coins from much later eras, according to a treasury report prepared by Ian Leins, curator of Iron Age and Roman coins at the British Museum. While the coins are not all from the same time period, Hall and the team of archaeologists said it's common to find collections of coins from different times, in the same way that, for example, U.S. coins from earlier decades are still circulating among newer coins.

Archaeologists are still unsure how Iron Age coins were used, but it is unlikely they were used as money to purchase items. They were more likely used as a means for storing wealth, given as gifts or offered as sacrifice. The three Roman coins discovered predate the Roman invasion, so archaeologists believe the coins may have been given as gifts.

A climber seeking shelter in the cave first discovered four of the coins, which prompted a full-scale excavation by the National Trust and Operation Nightingale, a group that helps injured military members recuperate by having them perform field archaeology.

The monetary value today of the coins discovered is around two thousand pounds (about $3,400 USD). The collection of coins officially qualifies as "treasure" under the United Kingdom's 1996 Treasure Act, which means it is valuable enough that it needs to be reported to authorities and offered up to museums.

Earlier excavation of Reynard's Kitchen Cave revealed animal bones and pieces of pottery. The coins will be put on display later this year at the Buxton Museum in Derbyshire.

**********************************************

Were the Corieltauvi followers of the ancient goddess Kore (Car, Cor, Car, Kar, Kali, etc.)?  Don't know, would certainly be interesting to find out.  Meanwhile, here is what Wikipedia has to say about this ancient tribe that lived in the English Midlands well before the Roman conquest. 

Treasure Trove! Roman Gold Hoard Uncovered in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany

So he doesn't give a damn that he dug it up illegally and ruined a priceless antiquity in the process, but the authorities sure do.  Guess he won't be seeing any Euros out of this discovery anytime soon.  Too bad, so sad.  NOT!

Article at The Local

Amateur treasure hunter finds Roman gold hoard

ADVERTISEMENT

Published: 19 Feb 2014 11:18 GMT+01:00

Updated: 19 Feb 2014 11:18 GMT+01:00

German archaeologists have recovered a find of over a million euros worth of Roman gold and silver jewellery from an amateur treasure hunter who dug it up illegally in a forest.

The unnamed treasure seeker came across the buried treasure, estimated to be worth more than €1 million, while searching a wooded area in southern Rhineland-Palatinate with a metal detector.

The trove includes a number of leaf-shaped solid gold brooches which are thought to have formed part of the decorations from a coat of high office which once belonged a very important Roman ruler. They date from the late antiquity period - around the time of the fall of the Roman Empire.

Part of the hoard of gold and silver uncovered illegally by a treasure hunter.  The destruction of the silver-decorated
chair grieves me.  For that alone the asshole should be put in jail for 20 years.  Source. 

Experts say the find could be the largest and most magnificent collection of late antiquity pieces ever found in Germany. It also includes a solid silver bowl set with gold and stones and a set of gold and silver plated statuettes which formed part of a military commander's portable chair.

Treasure Trove! Backworth Hoard on Display

Absolutely incredible.  To think these beautiful pieces had survived 1800 years buried in the ground!

The Backworth Hoard: Roman Treasure On Display In North East For The First Time

By Ruth Holliday Location: Wallsend
Wednesday, May 29, 2013

The Backworth Hoard, a stash of exquisite Roman treasure buried on Tyneside 1,900 years ago, has gone on display in the North East for the very first time.

The collection is on loan from the British Museum and can be seen at Segedunum Roman Fort in Wallsend between May 24 and September 15.

The hoard was found in 1812 and is a personal collection of jewellery and precious ornaments, buried on the Roman-Barbarian frontier by a mysterious, wealthy owner.

Geoff Woodward, Manager of North Tyneside Museums at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums said: "It's very exciting that these beautiful precious objects are going to be returning to the area where they were buried nearly 1,900 years ago.

"They are high status objects that demonstrate the wealth and power of an individual living at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall.

"The circumstances of their burial give us a connection, albeit shrouded in mystery, with that individual and a glimpse into the murky overlap of cultures on this key frontier of the Roman Empire.

"We're delighted to have been able to work in partnership with the British Museum to create this fascinating exhibition."

Dr Ralph Jackson, Senior Keeper of Romano-British Collections at the British Museum, said: "The Backworth Hoard, purchased by the British Museum in 1850, was one of the first acquisitions made specifically to build up the National Collections and exhibit British antiquities.

"As a probable temple treasure, dedicated to the shadowy Mother-Goddesses, it is not only of great rarity but also enigmatic, beautiful and fascinating.

"The Treasure is still a key part of the British Museum's Roman Britain display, and we are extremely pleased to collaborate with our partners at Segedunum Roman Fort to display it temporarily for the benefit of those living in the region where it was buried so long ago."

The Backworth Hoard is of national significance, and features gold and silver artefacts such as a silver pan, spoons and gilded silver brooches that were believed to be treasure deposits from a pagan shrine.

It forms the centrepiece of an exhibition that examines the complex relationship between the Romans and their environment, the native people and the indigenous deities of northern Britain.

2000 Year Old Caucasus Burial Yields Treasure

Story from Live Science

Treasure-Filled Warrior's Grave Found in Russia

Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor

Date: 20 February 2013 Time: 01:36 PM ET

 

 

 

Hidden in a necropolis situated high in the mountains of the Caucasus in Russia, researchers have discovered the grave of a male warrior laid to rest with gold jewelry, iron chain mail and numerous weapons, including a 36-inch (91 centimeters) iron sword set between his legs.

 

That is just one amazing find among a wealth of ancient treasures dating back more than 2,000 years that scientists have uncovered there.

 

Among their finds are two bronze helmets, discovered on the surface of the necropolis. One helmet (found in fragments and restored) has relief carvings of curled sheep horns while the other has ridges, zigzags and other odd shapes.

 

Although looters had been through the necropolis before, the warrior's grave appears to have been untouched. The tip of the sword he was buried with points toward his pelvis, and researchers found "a round gold plaque with a polychrome inlay" near the tip, they write in a paper published in the most recent edition of the journal Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia.

 

The remains of three horses, a cow and the skull of a wild boar were also found buried near the warrior.

"These animals were particularly valuable among barbarian peoples of the ancient world. It was [a] sign of [the] great importance of the buried person, which was shown by his relatives and his tribe," wrote team member Valentina Mordvintseva, a researcher at the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences Institute of Archaeology, in an email to LiveScience. The animal bones and pottery remains suggest that a funeral feast was held in his honor.

Without written records it is difficult to say exactly who the warrior was, but rather than ruling a city or town, "he was rather a chief of a people," Mordvintseva said.

The necropolis is located near the town of Mezmay. Grave robbers discovered the site in 2004 and rescue excavations began in 2005.

Who used the necropolis?

Based on the artifacts, researchers believe the warrior's burial dates back around 2,200 years, to a time when Greek culture was popular in west Asia, while the necropolis itself appears to have been in use between the third century B.C. and the beginning of the second century A.D.

Researchers were careful to note that the artifacts cannot be linked to a specific archaeological culture. Mordvintseva points out that "this region is very big, and not sufficiently excavated," particularly in the area where the necropolis is located. "[I]t is situated high in mountains. Perhaps the population of this area [had] trade routes/passes with Caucasian countries — Georgia, Armenia etc.," Mordvintseva writes in the email.

While the people who used the necropolis were clearly influenced by Greek culture, they maintained their own way of life, said Mordvintseva. "Their material culture shows that they were rather very proud of themselves and kept their culture for centuries."

Gold treasures

This way of life includes a fondness for gold-working. The warrior's burial included more than a dozen artifacts made of the material. Perhaps the most spectacular find was a gold fibula-brooch with a rock crystal at its center. Although the brooch was only 2.3 by 1.9 inches (5.8 by 4.8 centimeters), it had several layers of intricately carved decorations leading toward the mount.

"Inside the mount a rock-crystal bead has been placed with a channel drilled through it from both ends," the researchers write.

The team was surprised to find that two of the warrior's swords (including the one pointing toward his pelvis) had gold decorations meant to be attached. In one case a short 19-inch (48.5-cm)-long iron sword had a gold plate, with inlayed agate, that was meant to adorn its sheath. Until now, scholars had never seen this type of golden sword decorations in this part of the ancient world, the researchers write. The "actual fact that these articles were used to decorate weapons sets them apart in a category all of their own, which has so far not been recorded anywhere else ..."

 

3,500 Kg of Coins Discovered in China

3,500 kilograms?  What were they made of?  Precious metals?  Just plain metal (bronze, for instance?)  If the coins weren't valuable, why were people evidently stealing them???  I wonder how many were stolen, and where those coins ended up! 

Reported at The Times of India

Huge quantity of ancient coins found in China

IANS Dec 30, 2012, 06.11PM IST

 

BEIJING: Archaeologists have excavated about 3,500kg of ancient coins in China's Inner Mongolia Region, Xinhua reported on Sunday. Most of these coins were in prevalence during the Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD).

 

According to Lian Jilin, a researcher with the regional Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the coins were found in three millennia-old coin pits in the ancient town of Huoluochaideng after police cracked three theft cases.

 

Most of the coins were "Huoquan", the coins commonly used in the Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD), said Lian.

 

Archaeologists also excavated over 100 casting moulds from the relics of a coin workshop. The moulds are believed to date back to the rule of Emperor Wudi (156 BC-87 BC) of the Western Han Dynasty and the short-lived Xin Dynasty (45 BC-23 AD) founded by Wang Mang.

 

Based on its size and cultural relics uncovered there, Huoluochaideng town is believed to have been a major town in northern China during the Han Dynasty, said Lian.

 

The findings are significant in the study of the ancient monetary system and casting technology, he added.

 

 

See also a report at Portable Antiquity Collecting and Heritage Issues December 31, 2012. 

Thracian Treasure Trove!

I have come across a good treasure trove story for awhile.  Happy to see there's still treasure around, but you know the looters will now descend (if they haven't been there already!)

From Novinite.com

Bulgarian Archaeologists Find Unique Gold Thracian Treasure
November 8, 2012

Bulgarian archaeologists have found a unique gold Thracian treasure in the famous Sveshtari tomb.

The team, led by one of the most prominent Bulgarian experts on Thracian archaeology, Prof. Diana Gergova, from the National Archaeology Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BAS, made the discovery during excavations at the so-called Omurtag mount.

The researchers found fragments of a wooden box, containing charred bones and ashes, along with a number of extremely well-preserved golden objects, dated from the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd century B. C.. They include four spiral gold bracelets, and a number of intricate applications like one which shows the head of a female goddess adorned with beads, applications on horse riding gear and a forehead covering in the shape of a horse head with a base shaped like a lion head. The objects weigh 1.5 kg, but the excavations continue.

The precious find also contains a ring, buttons and beads. Gergova explains that it seemed the treasure was wrapped in a gold-woven cloth because a number of gold threads were discovered nearby.

The Professor says these were, most likely, remnants from a ritual burial, adding the team expects to discover a huge burial ground, probably related to the funeral of the Gath ruler Kotela, one of the father-in-laws of Philip II of Macedon. She notes this is a unique find, never before discovered in Bulgaria.

According to her, the Omurtag mount is the biggest one in the Gath center, which was their religious and political capital while the Gath were the tribe that influenced the most western tribes such as the Celts.

Gergova expects the treasure will entice the Culture Ministry to finally fund in full this emblematic Thracian site, part of the archaeological reserve Sboryanovo with the Sveshtari tomb, which is on the world cultural-historical heritage list of UNESCO.

The Professor says the Omurtag mount must be turned into a museum where the excavated segment could become an exhibit hall.

Gotland Treasure Trove!

I don't believe I've posted a good treasure trove story in a while, so here's one for you - from Gotland!  Good ol' Gotland!  Story at The Local.

Medieval silver treasure found on Gotland

Published: 4 Aug 12 12:53 CET

“This is an amazing find. It’s unbelievable that treasures of this scale exist here on Gotland,” Marie Louise Hellquist of Gotland’s County Administrative Board (Länsstyrelsen) told local newspaper Hela Gotland.

The medieval treasure was uncovered last Monday, as the landowner was moving soil. Some 500 pieces of coin were discovered in the field, and following further searches conducted once archaeologists arrived on Wednesday, that figure has swollen considerably.

“In total we’ve reached 650 pieces, so far,” Hellquist said.

Silver coins were not the only items discovered, as both jewellery and a raw silver artefact, which archaeologists believe to be part of an ancient axe, have been found at the site.

All the items are believed to be from the 12th century.

“We’ve found coins dated 1130,” Hellquist said.

It’s still too soon to say what the treasure may be worth, she pointed out.

“First the coin specialists have to go through the coins and see how unusual they are,” she said to Hela Gotland, noting that she hoped the find will remain on the island, in Gotland’s museum.

Clara Guibourg

Treasure Trove!

From The Star:

Treasure hunter finds ancient gold jewellery in bog in Northern Ireland
Published On Fri Mar 30 2012

Lesley Ciarula Taylor
Staff Reporter



Photo by Sean Barden.

A treasure hunter with a metal detector has unearthed a 3,000-year-old piece of ornate gold jewellery from a bog in Northern Ireland.

Ronald Johnston first thought the Bronze Age torc was an old car spring, he told the BBC.

The coiled metal, typically worn around the neck or waist, would actually have belonged to a Celt who had “access to extreme wealth,” said Armagh County Museum’s Andrea Kennedy.

Johnston had cleaned the mysterious metal and stuffed it in a drawer in his home in Enniskillen until he saw a photograph of another Celtic torc in a magazine. His brother Charlie Johnson took it to the museum.

“I really can’t believe it’s a valuable and ancient object. We didn’t know what it was,” Charlie Johnston told the BBC.

The torc would date from 1300 to 1100 B.C., Kennedy said.

A symbol of the Celts’ “delight in gaudy ostentation,” according to the ancient Greek philosopher Poseidonius, torcs carried distinctive designs created by local blacksmiths. The word torc comes from the Latin for “to twist” or torque.

Ribbon torcs such as the one found by Johnston were typical of north Ulster and north Connaught.
It is only the second one discovered on the Irish isle that is coiled like a spring as well as carrying the distinctive ribbon twist design, said Kennedy. Stretched out, it’s unusually large — 47 inches or 119 centimetres — so it would likely have been worn around the waist rather than the neck.

“Perhaps it was buried when the owner died and the coiling was a type of decommissioning so that it could no longer be worn,” she said.  “Alternatively it could have been an offering to the gods.”

The Treasure Valuation Committee at the British Museum in London will determine how much the ancient artifact is worth.

Treasure Trove!

From The Telegraph

Hoard of 30,000 silver Roman coins discovered in Bath

One of the largest hoards of Roman coins discovered in Britain has been uncovered during an archaeological dig in Bath, experts have said.

By Andrew Hough

8:30PM GMT 22 Mar 2012

More than 30,000 silver coins have been found by archaeologists working at the site of a new city-centre hotel. The hoard, believed to date from the third-century, was unearthed about 450 feet from the historic Roman Baths.

Experts believe the “treasure trove” is the fifth largest hoard ever discovered in Britain and the largest from a Roman settlement. The coins, which have now been sent to the British Museum for further analysis, are fused together in a large block. This makes identification and counting difficult and conservators at central London Museum expect the task of analysing the coins to take up to 12 months. The Roman Baths has launched an appeal to raise about £150,000 to acquire, conserve and display the coins, believed to date from about 270AD.

The dig, known as the “Beau Street Hoard”, began in 2008 at the site of work on the Gainsborough Hotel in Beau Street. On Thursday night, Stephen Clews, manager of the Roman Baths and Pump Room, said the find had been declared a “treasure trove”.

"We've put in a request for a formal valuation and then hope to buy the coins to display them at the baths,” he told the BBC. "At the time there was a lot of unrest in the Roman Empire so there may be some explanation for why the coins were hidden away.

"The find is also unusual as it was discovered by professional archaeologists as opposed to an amateur using a metal detector.”

The largest collection of Roman coins ever unearthed in a single container was found in April 2010 by Dave Crisp, a hospital chef, with the help of a metal detector at the edge of a field near a Roman road near Frome, in Somerset. The stash of 52,503 coins, known as the "Frome hoard" and dating between 253AD and 293AD, was valued at £320,250. The haul is now at the Museum of Somerset thanks to a grant of almost £300,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Treasure Trove at Tell Megiddo

From Dig Megiddo 2012 blog:

A Unique Hoard Was Found At Tel Megiddo

The Megiddo Expedition have recently discovered a collection of gold, silver and bronze jewelry, wrapped in fabric, hidden in a vessel at Tel Megiddo. The vessel was found in a domestic context that was dated to the Iron Age I (around 1100 B.C.). This vessel was actually excavated during the 2010 season, but remained uncleaned while awaiting for a molecular analysis of it's content (soil). When it was finally emptied during the summer of 2011, the pieces of jewelry appeared.

Both the textile and the jewelry itself were sent to analysis that should tell us more about the origins of this exceptional collection.

A few of the photos (visit the blog to view all photos):

Looks like a fish (a whale??? -- see post below)  Is this made out of gold?  What is it - a seal?  An icon of some sort?

When I saw this I said "Whoa!  What is that?  My first thought was "lizard."  But perhaps it is meant to be a crocodile?  Looks like it was made out of gold and the workmanship looks exquisite even though it's now bent out of what I assume it's original shape was meant to be.

On the other hand, could it possibly be a representation of a scorpion???  Scorpions were often depicted with that sort of "braiding" down their spines/centers -- but scorpions don't have only four "legs" -- these actually look like feet!  So, who knows what it could be...

"The Golden Chiefs" Civilization of Panama

A re-visit to a previously excavated site reveals amazing treasures and new knowledge of a fabulous but unnamed civilization in Panama.

From National Geogrpahic Online

"Golden Chief" Tomb Treasure Yields Clues to Unnamed Civilization

"Spectacular find" includes gold, jewels, and a small army of likely sacrifices.

James Owen

for National Geographic News

Published December 21, 2011

Newfound tombs in Central America are yielding thousand-year-old gold, gems, and even hints of murder by pufferfish. But the real treasure is the excavation's clues to the unnamed civilization of the so-called golden chiefs of Panama, archaeologists say.
(Also see National Geographic magazine's new "Golden Chiefs of Panama.")

A seahorse pendant is among gold ornaments found in a chief's grave at El Caño, Panama.

Photograph by David Coventry, National Geographic

"It's really a very spectacular find. ... probably the most significant" for this culture since the 1930s, when the nearby Sitio Conte site, also in central Panama, yielded a wealth of gold artifacts, anthropologist John Hoopes said.

Until now, Sitio Conte provided the only major evidence of the golden-chiefs culture, which can be traced from about A.D. 250 to the 16th century, when Spanish conquerors arrived on the scene.
Dating to between A.D. 700 and 1000, the new artifacts were excavated about two miles (three kilometers) from Sitio Conte, at a site called El Caño.

Striking Gold, Second Time Around
El Caño's field of stone monoliths and sculptures had drawn treasure seekers in the early 20th century, but as luck would have it, they dug up only artifact-poor graves of common people.
A few years ago, after having worked at Sitio Conte—also marked by ancient monoliths—archaeologist Julia Mayo of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute decided to reinvestigate El Caño.

Mayo's ground surveys, beginning in 2005, traced the circular outline of a series of burials, about 260 feet (80 meters) wide.

Not long after digging had begun, in 2008, the team uncovered the skeleton of a high-ranking chief, clad in circular breastplates embossed with ghoulish faces, patterned arm cuffs, and a belt of large golden beads—a taste of the bounty to come.

Stones, Bones, and Gold
The most recent dig, in early 2011, uncovered a similarly adorned chief in a multilevel burial pit once sheltered by a wooden roof. Surrounding this golden chief are at least 25 carefully arranged bodies, making the assemblage the largest of the six El Caño burials revealed to date, according to Mayo, who received funding from the Panamanian government as well as the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration and Expeditions Council. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)

Among the corpses golden attire for a child, possibly the chief's son: tiny gold plates, bracelets, earrings, and a necklace of semiprecious stones.

At the bottom of the pit, the chief himself was supported by a sort of platform created from the tight arrangement of 15 bodies.

Mayo believes those individuals could be war captives or slaves who were sacrificed or committed suicide—a potential link to Sitio Conte, where similar burial arrangements have been found.


Murder by Pufferfish?
The team also uncovered a grisly clue as to how the apparent sacrifices might have met their fates, though forensic analysis is still underway.

"A vessel full of bones of a blowfish [pufferfish], Guentheridia formosa, was found near the bodies—it is a very poisonous fish," added Mayo, who also serves as president of the El Caño Foundation.

In another curious detail, the bodies surrounding the chiefs were covered in pieces of ceramic plates. Though the plates' significance is not yet clear, Mayo said they appear to have been made specifically to cover the corpses. The plates, she noted, are decorated only on what would normally be there undersides and were placed facedown on the bodies.

Hoopes, of the University of Kansas, noted similar ceramic finds at Sitio Conte.

"They would take the [plates] that were used during the feasts, which had been specially prepared, and they would place those in the graves," said Hoopes, who wasn't part of the El Caño excavations.
"What's not clear is whether [the ceramics were] intentionally smashed or whether they were placed in the graves intact and broke over time due to shifting of the earth."

Vampires, Werewolves, and Mascots
Among other El Caño mysteries are the half-human beings and mythological creatures in the designs of the gold jewelry and other burial finery.

"We are still working on the iconographic analysis," project leader Mayo said. "According to some experts, these designs could represent the ancestors of clans or kinship groups."

Hoopes said, "I think they're analogous to werewolves and vampires in Western culture, in that you have fangs and transform into animals or part-animals."

The idea of being represented by an animal spirit was widespread among pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas, he added.

A person might have had "a corresponding animal spirit that can inhabit them and change their personality and make them more effective in warfare"—not unlike the use of fierce mascots to inspire football teams, Hoopes said.

Who Were They?
Project leader Mayo hopes the treasure trove of material emerging from El Caño—including axes, packets of stingray spines, and a belt made of whale and jaguar teeth—can shed new light on the golden chiefs and their people.

The civilization, after all, left precious little historical record, at least that we know of.
"Part of the issue," Kansas's Hoopes said, "is that the devastation of the area by the Spanish happened so early and so completely that we still don't know what language they spoke."

He believes the Sitio Conte/El Caño people are "best regarded as a separate and distinct culture that flourished in central Panama." But, he added, apparent trade items—including likely Colombian emeralds found at El Caño—suggest the culture had some connections to other groups.

Little remains of the golden chiefs' built world either, hewn as it was from thatch and bamboo—in contrast to, say, the stony pyramids of the Maya.

Luckily the gold has proved more persistent, and more may await in up to 20 unexplored tombs at El Caño, according to Mayo—which gives Hoopes pause.

Despite the scope of Mayo's discoveries, he said, "this is just a tiny part of an enormous complex. ... It's absolutely essential that sites like this are protected from looters."

More images of the treasures.

Treasure Trove! And Evidence for an Unknown King!

From the Guardian

Evidence for unknown Viking king Airdeconut found in Lancashire

201-piece silver hoard from AD900 discovered by a metal detectorist in Silverdale, Lancashire

Maeve Kennedy

Evidence of a previously unknown Viking king has been discovered in a hoard of silver found by a metal detectorist, stashed in a lead box in a field in Lancashire.

The 201 pieces of silver including beautiful arm rings, worn by Viking warriors, were found on the outskirts of Silverdale, a village near the coast in north Lancashire, by Darren Webster, using the metal detector his wife gave him as a Christmas present. It adds up to more than 1kg of silver, probably stashed for safe keeping around AD900 at a time of wars and power struggles among the Vikings of northern England, and never recovered.

Airdeconut – thought to be the Anglo Saxon coin maker's struggle to get to grips with the Viking name Harthacnut – was found on one of the coins in the hoard.

The Airdeconut coin also reveals that within a generation of the Vikings starting to colonise permanent settlements in Britain in the 870s – instead of coming as summer raiders – their kings had allied themselves to the Christian god. The reverse of the coin has the words DNS – for Dominus – Rex, arranged as a cross.

The hoard is regarded as among the best found this century, and the fact that it was never recovered suggests its owner came to an untimely end.

"It was a considerable sum of money, the price of a reasonable herd of cattle, or a very good herd of sheep," Gareth Williams, a coins expert at the British Museum where the hoard is being studied, said. "One arm ring alone would just buy you an ox."

Webster had collected his son from school, and was heading back to work – but he decided to allow himself a few hours in a field where he had been several times before, but never found anything more exciting than a Tudor half groat.

He hit a strong signal almost immediately, and uncovered a sheet of lead only a few inches down – and was slightly disappointed with his find. The lead proved to be crudely folded into a container, and when he lifted it he released a shower of pieces of silver.

"I knew when I saw the bracelets it had to be Viking," he said. "When I heard later there was one coin that nobody had ever seen before, that was a strange feeling."

The find will go through a treasure inquest next week to determine its value. The reward will be shared between Webster and the land owner. The Museum of Lancaster hopes to raise funds to buy the hoard.

The hoard also had coins minted for Alwaldus, who defected to the Vikings in Northumbria after an unsuccessful attempt to claim the English crown from his considerably better known uncle, Alfred the Great. The Vikings allowed him to call himself a king, but he only survived a few years before dying in battle.

There are also Frankish and Islamic coins, but one of the more intriguing would have been worthless to the original owner. Williams explained that silver coins are often found in Viking hoards, which have been tested by clipping or bending: the scruffy little fake, of copper with the thinnest film of silver almost worn away, shows what they were wary of.

One of the arm rings – usually given by leaders to their warriors in return for services rendered and expected – is particularly unusual, combining Irish, Anglo Saxon and Carolingian style ornament.
Another Viking hoard was found in the next parish in the 1990s, and the site is only about 97km (60 miles) from one of the most famous Viking hoards ever uncovered, the 8,600 pieces of silver, 40kg in total, of the Cuerdale hoard. Staff at the British Museum have been working on the definitive account of its discovery by workmen in 1840, and the contents of the treasure – some closely resembling pieces from the Silverdale hoard – are now within months of publication after a mere 130 years devoted to the task.

The British Museum also announced the most recent results for the treasure finds scheme and the portable antiquities scheme , which encourages voluntary reporting by amateurs of less valuable – but historically priceless – finds. A total of 157,188 antiquities finds were reported, and 1,638 treasure finds in 2009 and 2010, up from 19 reported treasure finds in 1988, an indication of the spectacular increase in reporting since a network of finds officers was established across the country. Treasure finds included a bronze age hoard found near Lewes in East Sussex, evidence of the complex trading networks 3,500 years ago: the objects included gold-foil decoration from northern France, amber beads, which may have come from the Baltic, along with "Sussex loop" bracelets, which have only ever been found within an 80km (50-mile) radius of Brighton.

Follow-up:

See Art Daily from December 18, 2011 for photograph of one of the coins from the "Silverdale Hoard" and further information. 

Forgotten Treasure Trove of Coins and Medals

A fantastic story!

ABC News
Forgotten Treasurer: Library Janitor Discovers Silver Coin Cache
By Spiegel
December 7, 2011

A curious library caretaker in the Bavarian city of Passau has discovered a treasure trove of ancient silver coins and medals that went overlooked for more than two centuries. The surprise find is reportedly worth as much as six figures.

Janitor Tanja Höls had often passed by an unassuming wooden box stowed away in an archive in Passau's historic state library, but it wasn't until about two weeks ago that curiosity got the best of her and she was decided take a look inside.

What she found were dozens of coins, most of them made of silver. "I had no idea that I'd found a treasure," the 43-year-old told the German news agency DAPD on Wednesday. But when she told the head of the library in the Bavarian city what she had seen, he soon realized their value.

"This find is a real bonanza," Markus Wennerhold said, adding that it happened to coincide with preparations for the library's 400th anniversary.

The library believes that the collection of 172 well-preserved coins likely belonged to Passau's prince-bishops. Wennerhold suspects that they were hidden there around 1803 during Germany's secularization, when such church assets were transferred to the state. They may have wanted to keep them out of the hands of tax officials.

Old Furniture and a Stuffed Crocodile
Dating back from the years between the Roman Empire and Napoleon's rule, initial Internet research has revealed that the coins are worth a "low six-figure sum," Wennerhold said. Experts must now determine their exact value. The most valuable pieces will likely turn out to be decorative medals from the Baroque era, Wennerhold estimated.

The coins were probably forgotten because their value was underestimated by past library workers, Wennerhold told DAPD. "None of the current workers here knew that these coins existed," he said.
Library janitor Höls said she frequently goes to the fourth-floor archive -- where old furniture and even a stuffed crocodile are also stored -- in order to retrieve books for library patrons. The wooden box containing the coins was even periodically dusted by library employees without an inkling as to what was inside, Wennerhold said.

This week the Passau state library plans to release photos of each coin on its homepage. Next year they will be put on display as part of the library's anniversary celebration. Founded in 1612 as part of a Jesuit college, the library claims to be home to one of the oldest book collections in Germany.

Treasure Trove!

The find of a lifetime: Treasure hunter digs up 200-piece haul of Viking jewellery and coins
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:32 PM on 27th October 2011

Antique jewellery: The bracelets, engraved with serpents,
could have been worn by a wealthy Viking leader
(There are more photos in the article at The Daily Mail)

A metal detecting enthusiast unearthed 'the find of a lifetime' when he discovered a Viking treasure hoard including 200 pieces of silver jewellery.  Darren Webster dug up a 1,000-year-old casket that also held coins, hacksilver and ingots while scouring at an undisclosed location on the border between Cumbria and North Lancashire.

Experts at the British Museum in London say the find is of 'national significance'. 'It's a find of a lifetime,' said Mr Webster, from Carnforth, Cumbria. 'It's a long process having the find assessed. Neither me or the landowner know what will happen with it. There has been a lot of interest. I want everybody to know about the find.

'I got a good signal on my detector so I dug about 18 inches and then I saw a lead pot. It was slightly open. I could see all the coins and jewellery inside. It was a great feeling.'

Bracelets elaborately engraved with serpents, which could have been worn by a wealthy Viking leader, make up part of the discovery along with rings and an impressive stash of coins.

The haul is now being studied by experts at the British Museum who will reveal their findings in December.

Brian Randall, chairman of the Lune Valley Metal Detecting Club, said: 'We are all thrilled for Darren and wish it was us. No one goes out looking for hoards but it's very nice if you do find one.'

Sabine Skae, the curator of Barrow's Dock Museum, said the new hoard will help put Cumbria and South Lakeland on the map as having an important Viking heritage.

'Over the past ten years there has been an increase in small finds and now some larger finds which is really forcing people to look at Cumbria in a new way,' said Mrs Skae.

Oxford University anthropology lecturer, Stephen Oppenheimer, said big hoards such as this paint a new picture of what Vikings were doing in England.

The discovery of big hoards break down the stereotype of Vikings just coming over here to raid our churches and take valuables back to their own country.

'Burying large amounts like this indicates they were settling here,' said Mr Oppenheimer.

Local archaeologist Steve Dickinson, of Ulverston, said the hoard was 'extremely important nationally'. He said: 'Any hoard is always rare and therefore of national importance but because of its size and detail this is particularly exciting.'

A spokesman for the British Museum confirmed that Darren's discovery was 'a significant Viking hoard'.  He said: 'Research on the hoard is ongoing and more information and images will be revealed at the time of the coroner's inquest in mid-December.'

A spokesperson for Carlisle's Tullie House Museum, where the hoard was originally taken, compared Mr Webster's find to that of the Cuerdale Hoard found on the southern bank of a bend of the River Ribble in 1840, the largest Viking silver hoard in north-western Europe.

Blast from the Past: Russians to Raise Treasure Ship

No kidding, this came up in a news search today at Archaeologica:

What the hell is taking Putin so long to broadcast on Russian public television the recovery of Catherine the Great's treasures?  Should we not by now have been deluged with images of  Putin from 2008 (ahem) diving beneath the frigid waters, not even in a "bell" suit, just holding his breath down 135 plus feet and feeling around for treasure with a flashlight attached to his head with a rubberband...

Article from the telegraph.co.uk

Russia to raise shipwreck containing Catherine the Great's treasures

Russia plans to raise a schooner that sank off the coast of Finland in 1771 with gold, precious porcelain and Dutch paintings for Empress Catherine the Great aboard.

10:23PM GMT 18 Nov 2008
[Is this like Russian April Fools' Day???]

The Frau Maria was commissioned by Catherine the Great to transport precious porcelain, gold, silver, bronze and 27 paintings by Dutch masters for her art collection, which became the basis for the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg.

But the ship was struck by a storm in October 1771 and sank 41 metres (135 feet) off the coast of what was then Sweden, Tarasov said.

Artem Tarasov, head of the Rescue of National Cultural and Historic Valuables fund, said the project would take two years.

"We would like to say that within two years all necessary measures will be taken and in 2010 we will be able to finally see what secrets this ship holds." There is hope that the paintings have not been ruined, he said. [Yeah, right.]

Catherine herself sent off several expeditions in vain efforts to raise the schooner, which may indicate that the paintings, whose total cost could be up to 100 million euros, were packed into leaden boxes sealed with wax and could yet be salvaged, Tarasov said.

Experts from Russia, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands determined that soft ropes would be slipped beneath the well-preserved schooner, which would then be brought to dry dock to avoid unnecessary danger during the treasure hunt.  Hermitage deputy director Georgy Vilinbakhov said the museum was ready to welcome the precious cargo, which would arrive nearly 240 years late.  "We will work throughout 2009 to understand what we may face if that cargo is found and there is something to restore," he said.

It was not immediately clear, however, if Russia would be able to claim the entire cargo, even though it is technically the legal successor to all property of the Russian empire.

Treasure Trove! Another Hoard Reportedly Found!

Details are scare, but it's already being compared to one of the biggest hauls of all time for the landowner and the "metalist" who detected and found the trove in 2009.  Here's the current news on the latest discovery - stay tuned!

From the Telegraph (UK)
Biggest haul of Roman gold in Britain could have been found
Britain's biggest haul of Roman gold, worth millions of pounds, could have been found in Worcestershire by a treasure hunter.
9:38AM BST 16 Oct 2011

Details of the treasure remained sketchy and the identity of the lucky metal detecting enthusiast has not been revealed.

But it is understood Worcestershire County Council and the county coroner have been informed because of the potential archaeological significance.

The treasure, found at Bredon Hill, the site of an Iron Age fort in Worcestershire, is already being compared with the Staffordshire Hoard, the country's biggest ever find of Anglo Saxon gold.  It netted lucky Terry and local farmer Fred Johnson a whopping £1.6 million each after being unearthed in a muddy field at Hammerwich, near Brownhills, West Midlands.

Dr Roger White, an expert in Roman archaeology from the University of Birmingham, described the possibility of a new find in Bredon as "exciting."

"As well as potentially valuable pieces, these coins are historic documents, and they can tell a story on their own," he said.

"Bredon Hill is not a major hub of Roman activity, but it does sit between the settled areas of two tribes, while Worcester has a Roman foundation, and was a major focus of iron production.  Hoards like this potential one in Bredon are always intriguing and the whole buried treasure thing captures the imagination.

"And from an historical point of view, it is exciting. This could give us enormous amounts of information."

Excitement was spreading amongst Britain's metal detecting community this week as people tried to find more details of the find.

"Very few people know about this find at Bredon Hill, even in the metal detecting community," said a fellow enthusiast.  But the rumours are that this could be a really huge haul of Roman coins and there could be an official announcement about it soon.''

Nearby Worcester is a hotspot for Roman artefacts and evidence of settlements from the period has been discovered in villages scattered around the area.

Dr White said there could be a wide variety of reasons why the coins were buried at Bredon Hill.

"Sometimes large burials of coins are evidence of a religious ritual, an offering to the gods," he explained. In other cases, someone who was under threat could have buried them because they wanted to hide their wealth.

"Another regular occurrence was coins being recalled, so they could be melted down to produce more currency. When that happened, Romans would head into the garden, and bury their money to keep it safe for the future. It will be fascinating to find out what is there in terms of coins, but also why, and how, it came to be buried there. Every hoard is different, and the bigger the number of coins, the more we can find out about the history of the area."

A spokeswoman for Worcester shire County Council refused to comment, but it is understood that the coin find has been reported to the coroner.

Metal detector enthusiasts have been hunting for the next big find since the Staffordshire Hoard was uncovered in 2009. The treasure, which included hundreds of bejeweled battlefield items, added up to 5kg of the purest gold and 2.5kg of silver. Some of the jewels were eventually put on display at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, after a huge fundraising campaign to keep the Anglo Saxon artefacts in the region.

Treasure Trove!

Hmmmm, it doesn't sound like the finder of this treasure trove had a good time once the authorities got wind of his discovery.  I wonder how much he was able to salt away elsewhere or sell before he got caught?  And I wonder, did someone turn him in, or was he very stupid about how he handled the discovery he made?  To quote a line from the X Files, TRUST NO ONE.

Jobless Bulgarian stumbles across ancient treasure worth $2 million
September 24, 2011 02:01 AM

SOFIA: A jobless Bulgarian man scraping a living by hunting for scrap metal has uncovered a haul of Bronze Age treasure worth 1.5 million euros, about $2 million.
The 42-year-old discovered the trove of jewellery, coins and tools potentially dating back 4,000 years among the roots of a tree in the northern town of Svichtov.

He initially kept quiet about the find but handed it over to authorities after being questioned by police. Under Bulgaria law such relics are the property of the state. It’s not known how long the lucky man underwent interrogation.

“This major discovery significantly enhances our knowledge of the Bronze Age,” archaeologist Pavlina Vladkova told Bulgaria’s 24 Hours newspaper.

“During this era,” said the expert from the Veliko Tarnovo province’s regional museum, “gold, silver and copper were already known, but use of bronze allowed the crafting of tools.”

Two bronze axes, seven pieces of gold jewellery and six golden coins make up the haul discovered earlier this month.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on September 24, 2011, on page 15.
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

A "Date Palm" Bezel Ring Found in England???

My first reaction is - what?  My second reaction is - what?  My current reaction is - what? What the hell is such a ring doing in England?  What does medieval England know about date palms?  What is this kind of bezel doing in England?  Was it a common motif of the period?  A date palm with two 'horns of plenty?' 

Honestly, when I look at this admittedly poor image, all I see is an Egyptian scorpion!

September 13, 2011
Medieval ‘treasure’ found near Ripon           

Published on Thursday 8 September 2011 06:00

AN intricately-carved medieval ring discovered near Ripon is an important archaeological find which qualifies as “treasure”, a coroner has ruled.

The piece was found by metal detectorist Lindsey Holland close to Ripon on May 16, 2010 and sent to the British Museum.

In a report to North Yorkshire coroner Rob Turnbull, experts from the museum described the find as an oval silver-gilt seal matrix which would have formed the bezel, or top part, of a finger-ring dating from the 13th or 14th centuries.

Because the ring is more than 300 years old and contains precious metals the coroner ruled it counts as “treasure” which public museums must be given a chance to purchase.

The ring, which measures only 17mm long, is also set with a carnelian, a red semi-precious gem, carved with a picture of two cornucopaie or “horns of plenty” flanking a date palm. The silver around the gem is inscribed with three words translated as “live”, “be well” or “farewell” and “fear”.

A museum has already shown an interest in buying the ring, Mr Turnbull said at the hearing at Harrogate Magistrates Court on Tuesday, September 6.