I wasn’t officially working today, but I couldn’t resist going back to the site with my partner and his kids. On the way there Anna texted me a picture – it was the bottom of the pot! They had finally found it. It seems a little taller than it is wide – will it beat the Cunetio hoard to be the biggest coin hoard from the country? By the time we arrived at the site almost all the coins had been removed. Dave arrived shortly after – in the nick of time, having had to work that morning. Alan’s partner, son and dog were also there as well as two archaeologist friends of his, and the landowner’s sister and her husband. When finally the last piece of pot was lifted out we all cheered! It was pretty amazing to see the original pit that had been dug at the end of the 3rd century.
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As the hole was being backfilled (the kids were brilliantly enthusiastic with the shovels, then relayed and jumped up and down on the turf so it looked as if we’d never even been there!) Dave chucked a couple of modern coins into the hole. It felt really weird waving goodbye to everyone and driving away – for three days a field in Somerset has been all I could think about, and now it is time to share that story with the wider world.
I dreamt about coins and pots last night, unsurprisingly. Anna and I were on site just after 8am and began the exciting part of lifting the fragments of inverted vessel before Alan started on the main part of the pot. The fabric is black burnished ware and it really is a pot of beauty. Alan is half-sectioning the pot and taking the coins out in layers. As the
Layers (C) Somerset County Council
coins were coming out (it felt very strange and un-archaeological to be taking handfuls of coins and dumping them in bags!) Anna and I were checking which emperors we had – Gallienus, Claudius II, Tacitus, Maximian, Probus (there seemed a lot of him), but as yet no Carausius…
Naomi and her husband Simon called by (having had to miss the first day at a conference), and Simon swiftly pointed out our missing piece of pot from yesterday was actually not missing at all, it was just that a fragment had slipped downwards. Relief all round, especially from Alan who had been feeling very bad about losing a piece!
Steve Minnitt from the Somerset County Museum spent most of the afternoon with us, as well as the landowner’s brother-in-law.
My hands are stained brown/ green from the copper-infused clayey soil. While Anna and Alan took turns excavating
Bagging (C) Somerset County Council
the coins I bagged up the different layers and stored them in archive boxes. Each finds bag took maybe between 500 and 800 coins. The boxes could not hold more than four bags for fear of spinal damage! Dave and I spent a while guestimating how many coins per bag multiplied by the number of boxes but soon gave up. How could we possibly guess?
At the end of Day 2 it is clear there will be a Day 3 tomorrow. It is Saturday tomorrow and Anna and I are due to help the Avon & Gloucs FLO at a rally near Bristol on Sunday. We really hope the hoard will be out by then!
I was up bright and early to drive to the site this morning. We were off to a good start already – the sun was shining – meaning no worries about digging holes in the rain!
When I finally reached the field, Dave the finder introduced himself and his grandson Aaron, before describing his finds to me while we waited for Katie Hinds (the Wiltshire FLO) and Alan Graham (an independent archaeologist employed to excavate whatever we found) to arrive. He showed me the dispersed hoard of fourth century siliquae that he had found at the entrance to the field and then the pieces of pottery and loose coins that he had taken from the site of other potential hoard some distance away. The bits of pottery were odd because they seemed to be from the base of a vessel. What was going on? Were they from a pot that had been buried upside down? Or maybe there was a smaller pot upturned in the mouth of a lager one? When everyone was there we walked over to the site further inside the field to investigate further.
Dave began by revealing the carefully disguised (and amazingly small) hole that he had initially dug. We couldn’t help commending him once again for his restraint. It must have been so difficult to resist digging a deeper hole to investigate further! Luckily Alan immediately formulated a plan… he would dig a 1.5m trench around Dave’s original hole, lifting off the topsoil to begin with and take things from there depending on what we found.
The turf and some of the topsoil had been removed and we stool around the trench gawping at something sticking out in the middle. Katie and I had immediately recognised it as a Roman Black Burnished Ware dish turned upside down, as this is a type of pottery that we often record. Its centre was cracked and had caved in – just inside a few tantalising bronze coins could be spotted. In a rough circle around the dish was the outline of the top of a small pit, dug by whoever buried it originally.
(C) Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
Was that it? Dave would still have done the right thing asking for us to excavate the site to be on the safe side, but it would have been such as shame if this was all that had turned up as a result. However, Alan began to inspect the dish more closely and called us to have a look. It appeared that the dish was sitting within something wider – the rim of a much bigger vessel.
Alan got back to work immediately, following the line of the original pit, whilst the rest of us stood around speculating about what we might be dealing with (and wishing we could help more, if only the trench wasn’t so small…!). Did this mean that we might be dealing with a pot filled with coins, or maybe with coins only on the top? Perhaps the pot had something else inside and the coins had been placed above it as an offering before slipping inside when the top was cracked? The possibilities were endless.
Soon the shoulders of the pot began to emerge and for the first time we had some idea of what we were dealing with. The pot was getting bigger by the second as we dug further. In fact it was even bigger than we had initially guessed, as the neck was fairly narrow. If it was filled with coins then it could potentially be an enormous hoard.
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With this thought in my mind I rang Bob Croft, the County Archaeologist, and Stephen Minnitt, the Head of Museums (who had dealt with coin hoards from the county before) to ask for advice, while Katie rang the head of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Roger Bland, and our Roman Coins Advisor, Sam Moorhead. Everyone reacted with a mixture of shock and excitement and the views on what we should do were varied. Should we try to block lift the whole thing? A risky and expensive operation. Or should we excavate the coins in the ground?
Bob soon turned up on site after driving over specially and after lots of discussions and advice from Sam, Roger and Steve over the phone, we decided that excavation in situ would be preferable as we needed to get it out asap (to avoid leaving the site at risk). The main benefit of block lifting would have been the opportunity to carefully excavate the hoard in a lab to see if the coins we put in the pot in one go or in phases. Baring this in mind, we decided to half-section the pot and take the coins out in layers, to see if we could still achieve this.
Meanwhile, the landowner, Geoff, had arrived on site and we were able to explain why there was a big hole in the middle of his field! He was extremely interested and more than happy for us to continue with our plans. So with everyone on board we decided to begin this process the following day. Dave and Aaron kindly volunteered to camp out and protect the site overnight. A huge help as it meant we didn’t need to worry about security! And the rest of us went home to get some rest before another early start the next day…
What a day! Its 8pm and I’ve just got home. Anna and I met up with Dave and his grandson Aaron, and Alan Graham, the archaeologist Naomi had organised to excavate the hoard. We thought we would have a hoard in a pot by the end of today, but it soon became clear when Alan began clearing the soil from around the top of the pot that what Dave and we had thought was the rim of the pot, was in fact the base of an inverted vessel on top of the pot, and fitted neatly inside the rim. Which means it is one big pot! I made a quick phone call to Wiltshire Heritage Museum this afternoon when it became clear the pot was roughly 50cm in diameter. WHM houses the pot from the biggest coin hoard in the country (54,952 late 3rd century coins from the Roman town of Cunetio near Marlborough). Dianne, the Fundraising Officer, nipped off with a ruler and measured the Cunetio pot for me – 50cm in diameter!!! My mind is racing with visions of coins. I rang Sam Moorhead from the middle of the field – he sounded in shock and kept saying ‘can you see any Carausian coins?’ (the so-called rebel emperor AD 286-293).
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The difficult decision of the day however was how on earth to get these coins out of the ground. If we lifted en bloc, it would be a mammoth task (Sam guessed it would weigh a ton, no joke intended) and very expensive. Plus, as it would then have to be excavated in laboratory conditions, it could take a while before we knew what was in there. The decision was taken, with help from Bob Croft (Somerset County Archaeologist) who had called by and Roger Bland on the phone, that we would take the coins out in layers. Sam was keen to see whether there was any differentiation between the date of the coins at the top to those at the bottom. In other words, had this pot represented some sort of bank over the years. It was clear anyway that the pot could not have been lowered into the pit with the coins inside as it would have been far too heavy.
Another facinating discovery is that the pot was packed around with reeds of some kind. They are not weaved, but they are clearly placed. The pot is cracked and almost intact one small piece appears to be missing. Anna, Dave, Aaron and I spent a good hour hunting through the spoil but to no avail. Dave and Aaron are camping out tonight, right next to the pit. Can’t get better security than that!
Katie gave me a ring about the hoard as soon as she found out. When I heard her on the other end of the phone I at first assumed she was ringing about the rally we were attending in Wiltshire that weekend, so the news about the hoards came as a bit of a surprise!
“A local metal detectorist, Dave, has found a dispersed hoard of Roman silver coins in the entrance to a field. And you’ll never guess what… When he went further into the field he then found what he thinks is the top of a Roman bronze coin hoard in a pot!!!”.
“Two hoards in one field! Do we know anything about the size of the bronze one”, I asked?
“Not really, he’s been great and covered it straight up before calling me. We know that the coins are third century radiates though and he’s kept a few along with some bits of broken pot that were lying in the soil”.
I was amazed that the finder had acted so responsibly and promptly. What a challenge it must have been to leave his find lying in a field! Although he had covered it up really well to ensure the spot remained hidden, we knew that we had to investigate the site as soon as possible. So after saying goodbye to Katie I quickly called my colleagues at Somerset County Council’s Historic Environment Service (HES), Bob Croft (County Archaeologist) and Naomi Payne (Historic Environment Officer), to deliver the exciting news.
Luckily they were the position to help us by employing an independent archaeologist experienced in excavation, Alan Graham, to help us excavate the site if needs be. This was fantastic news as we knew that very few coin hoards had been properly excavated before, so we wanted to make the best of the opportunity that had been presented to us.
A time when Dave, Katie, Alan and I were all free was agreed upon and we arranged to meet at the site first thing the following Thursday…
How very exciting! I have just had a phone call from Dave, who is the secretary of the Trowbridge MDC and a fan of all things Roman, with some very exciting news! Last week I received an email from Dave to say he had found a few siliquae, was writing to the coroner, and would let me have them at the next club meeting. I have to admit I had half forgotten about them until Dave rang me today. The conversation went something like this:
‘Hi Katie, I have a few things to tell you’
‘Oh yes of course! How exciting about your siliquae hoard! Your first hoard! You must be so chuffed! How many have you got?’
‘About 30 I think…’
‘30!! I thought you had five or six! That’s fantastic, I really look forward to seeing them’
‘…but the real reason I’m ringing is to tell you that I’ve found another hoard, and its in a pot!’
Dave had always bemoaned the fact he had never found a hoard. He has made some super finds over the years but that hoard had eluded him – which is perhaps why he found another while searching for the dispersed coins of his first! Hoards are like buses maybe, you wait for one and two come along at once…
The really weird thing was that just yesterday I had been talking to the county archaeologist and her team about devising a plan of action if a hoard (or something that needed excavating) was discovered in Wiltshire. I have come to rely on the good will of Wessex Archaeology, the Wiltshire Archaeology Field Group and local independent archaeologists in these situations in the past. But Dave’s hoard was something for Somerset to deal with, as it had been found over the county boundary, and I was really pleased our very own Naomi Payne (ex-Somerset FLO and now HER Officer for Somerset) would be the first port of call. The first port of call that is, after I rang Anna (Booth, Somerset FLO) to tell her the exciting news!
And that is pretty much where we are now. Dave has two days off work next week so we are trying to arrange the best day to go and do the excavation. Anna, Naomi and I have spent the day emailing each other trying to arrange dates and swapping info. Naomi has searched the Somerset HER and discovered a record of a siliqua hoard found in the parish on the 19th century. Could the siliquae Dave found be part of this same hoard? Unfortunately there is no findspot on the HER, but siliquae hoards are sufficiently unusual for two to have been found in the same parish. But what am I saying – we have two hoards from the same field here which is really unusual, so anything could go!
Dave emailed through pictures of a few pieces of pot and coins that had been in the soil above the hoard (probably disturbed by the plough) and we can tell from this the coins are radiates and probably late 3rd century in date. So roughly a hundred years earlier than the siliqua. What is going on at this site? I can’t wait to get out on site next week!
Tony Williams, Coroner for Somerset, will hold an inquest on Thursday 22nd July on one of the largest Roman coin hoards ever found in Britain, the Portable Antiquities Scheme funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archive Council and Somerset County Council has reported.
Dave Crisp, found the hoard of some 52,500 coins dating to the 3rd century AD, while metal-detecting near Frome, and reported the find to his local Finds Liaison Officer. Initially Mr Crisp found 21 coins, but when he came across a pot filled with more knew he needed archaeological help to excavate them.
Anna Booth, Somerset County Council’s Finds Liaison Officer, said:
Because Mr Crisp resisted the temptation to dig up the coins it has allowed archaeologists from Somerset County Council to carefully excavate the pot and its contents, ensuring important evidence about the circumstances of its burial was preserved”.
Mr Crisp added :
I knew the find was important and I needed archaeological help, so I contacted my local Finds Liaison Officer. I have made many finds over the years, but this is my first coin hoard and it was a fascinating experience to take part in the excavation of it.”
Archaeologists believe the hoard, which sheds light on the economic crisis and coalition government in the 3rd century, will rewrite the history books. One of the most important aspects of the hoard is that it contains a large group of coins of Carausius, who ruled Britain independently from AD 286 to AD 293 and was the first Roman emperor to strike coins in Britain. The hoard contains over 760 of his coins, making it the largest group of his coins ever found. Amongst these coins are five rare examples of his silver denarii, the only coins of their type being struck anywhere in the Roman Empire at the time.
The coins span 40 years from AD 253 to 293 and the great majority are of the denomination known as ‘radiates’, made of debased silver or bronze.
The hoard is probably the equivalent of about four years’ pay for a legionary soldier.
Roger Bland, Head of Portable Antiquities and Treasure at the British Museum said:
This hoard, which is one of the largest ever found in Britain, has a huge amount to tell about the coinage and history of the period as we study over the next two years. The late 3rd century AD was a time when Britain suffered barbarian invasions, economic crises and civil wars. Roman rule was finally stabilised when the Emperor Diocletian formed a coalition with the Emperor Maximian, which lasted 20 years. This defeated the separatist régime which had been established in Britain by Carausius. This find presents us with an opportunity to put Carausius on the map. School children across the country have been studying Roman Britain for decades, but are never taught about Carausius – our lost British emperor”.
If the hoard is declared Treasure by the coroner, it is hoped it will be acquired by Somerset County Council’s Heritage Service. Stephen Minnitt, Head of Museums at Somerset County Council, said:
This is a find of great national importance and we are determined to raise the sum to acquire the hoard for public benefit. Hopefully it will be able to go on display in the new Museum of Somerset when it re-opens in 2011”.
Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said:
Once again this demonstrates how important the Treasure Act and the Portable Antiquities Scheme are in helping to preserve our heritage. I congratulate Mr Crisp on his prompt reporting of his find and especially in allowing archaeologists to excavate the hoard. If the hoard is declared Treasure, Somerset County Council Heritage Service will have the opportunity to acquire it at its full market value, as determined by an independent committee and that reward is shared by Mr Crisp and the owner of the land where the find was made. That way everyone is a winner.”
In the meantime the coins have been washed and stabilised by a team of conservators at the British Museum, led by Pippa Pearce, and they are being studied by Roger Bland and the Portable Antiquities Scheme’s Roman coins specialist, Sam Moorhead. The British Museum is actively seeking funds to clean the coins fully: this will be a year’s work for one conservator.
A selection of coins from the hoard will be on display in Gallery 68 at the British Museum from Thursday 22nd July until mid-August. The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a voluntary scheme managed by the British Museum on behalf of the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and is funded through Renaissance, a programme to transform England’s regional museums.
For further details, including a full account of the discovery, images of the excavation and of the coins and a video of the removal of the coins from the pot see: www.finds.org.uk/fromehoard
For further information please contact:
Rebecca Musto PR and Communications Officer on 01823 355585 or email rmusto@somerset.gov.uk.
Upon discovering the hoard Dave Crisp contacted Katie Hinds, Finds Liaison Officer for Wiltshire. MS Hinds then contacted Anna Booth, Somerset Finds Liaison Officer, who, with Somerset County Council archaeologists, set about the delicate task of excavating the pot and its contents. The hoard was then taken to the British Museum, so that the coins could be cleaned and recorded. This work was done within two months and represented about 400 hours’ work for the conservator team.
The coins all date from between AD 253 to AD 293 were found in a large, well-preserved pot – a type of container normally used for storing food – and weigh around 160kg. Since the pot containing the coins was found by the archaeologists to be already broken in the earth, the coins were removed from the pot in 12 layers, with each layer containing up to 16 separate bags of coins, a total of 67 separate groups in all.
Because of the weight of the coins and the fragility of the pot in which they were buried, the pot must have been buried in the ground before the coins were tipped into them. This suggests that this hoard is unlikely to have been buried because its owner (or owners) were concerned about the threat of invasion and, wishing to find a safe place to store their wealth, intended to come back and recover it later when the times were more peaceful. If that had been their intention, then they would have buried their coins in smaller containers which would have been easier to recover. The only way anyone could have recovered this hoard would have been by breaking the pot and scooping the coins out of it, which would have been awkward. It is thought therefore most likely that the person or persons who buried this hoard entrusted it to the earth without intending to come back and recover it later. Perhaps it was the offering of an agricultural community for a good harvest or favourable weather.
Each of the 67 groups of coins was washed and sorted separately and as a result we know that the great majority (85 per cent) of the coins of Carausius, the latest coins in the hoard, were contained within a single layer (Context 16). This gives us a fascinating insight into how the coins were placed in the pot, as a group of coins of Carausius must have been tipped into the pot separately from the rest of the coins.
About 570 coin hoards of this period are known from Britain, a greater concentration than from any other part of the Roman Empire. The largest hoard ever found in Britain contained 54,912 coins dating from AD 180 to 274 and was found in two containers at Cunetio, near Mildenhall in Wiltshire; another hoard of 47,912 coins of AD 251-90 was found at Normanby in Lincolnshire in 1983.
Summary of the coins found in the hoard (note: these quantities are provisional and the final figures will change once the illegible coins have been cleaned and identified):
Central Empire
The coins in the hoard from Central Empire
Emperor
Reign
Quantity
Valerian & Gallienus (joint reign)
253-60
46
Gallienus (sole reign)
260-8
6,091
Salonina (wife of Gallienus)
260-8
404
Claudius II
268-70
5,421
Divus Claudius
270-1
1,227
Quintillus
270
333
Aurelian
270-5
266
Severina (wife of Aurelian)
270-5
13
Tacitus
275-6
252
Florian
276
10
Probus
276-82
619
Carus
282-3
8
Divus Carus
283
5
Magnia Urbica (wife of Carus)
282-3
2
Carinus
282-5
19
Numerian
283-4
12
Diocletian
285-305
38
Maximian
286-305
22
Total
Central Empire
14,788
Gallic Empire
The coins in the hoard from Gallic Empire
Emperor
Reign
Quantity
Postumus
260-9
257
Laelian
269
4
Marius
269
35
Victorinus
269-71
7,494
Divus Victorinus
271
14
Tetricus I
271-4
12,416
Tetricus II
272-4
5,203
Gallic Empire
uncertain
2,954
Total
Gallic Empire
28,377
British Empire
The coins in the hoard from British Empire
Emperor
Reign
Quantity
Carausius
286-93
766
Breakdown by identification status
Identification class
Status
Quantity
Contemporary copies
314
Identifiable coins
44,245
Illegible coins
8,258
Total
52,503
The Portable Antiquities Scheme is a scheme to record archaeological objects found by the public, and to date over 570,000 finds have been recorded on its database (www.finds.org.uk). Its network of Finds Liaison Officers are the principal means by which new discoveries made by the public are reported to advance archaeological knowledge and our understanding of the past.
Under the 1996 Treasure Act, anyone who finds a group of coins buried together, or any artefact that is suspected to be 300 or more years old and has a 10 per cent gold or silver content, has a legal obligation to declare it to the local coroner within 14 days.
We arrived out on site first thing again. Dave and Aaron had survived the night in their tent and had disappeared to find breakfast.
When the protective wrapping was removed from the pot we were relieved to see that it looked exactly as we had left it the day before and We couldn’t wait to begin excavating it in earnest! However, first we had to take pictures of the pot in situ. Our intention was to photograph the excavation at every stage, allowing us to build up a sequence of images that would document our work and the evidence we were uncovering.
(C) Somerset County Council
We took a number of shots of the pot exactly as we had found it and then removed the dish from the top, exposing a small mound of coins. Those around the edges had settled on to their side over time, whilst those in the centre were lying on their faces. We realised that it would be interesting to record features like this as they may prove to be important pieces of the puzzle when further analysis of the hoard begins following the excavation.
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Interestingly, we had noticed on the first day that some organic material was emerging; packed closely against the edges of the vessel. We were unsure about what this was. Maybe grass or straw of some kind? We began to carefully
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clean the vessel, so that this material and the fine condition of the pottery would be visible in the photographs. Once we were happy that we had taken enough photographs of the complete pot – an iconic hoard image – we then had to brace ourselves to begin the delicate process of removing the shards of the vessel piece by piece, exposing the coins inside.
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In the meantime some visitors had arrived; Stephen Minnitt, who I had spoken to yesterday, and Naomi Payne, Somerset Historic Environment Officer, with her husband Simon Hughes (also an archaeologist). Having other archaeologists on site to offer advice was really useful, as this was the first time that anyone had been able to fully
Simon, Naomi, Anna, Steve, Katie, Dave & Aaron (C) Somerset County Council
excavate a hoard of this size, so it really was a learning experience for us all. Seeing the shocked expressions of those arriving was fantastic – despite our best efforts we hadn’t really been able to convey the sheer size of what we were dealing with over the phone! All stayed into the afternoon before reluctantly heading off.
News had also been spreading throughout the nearby village via the local pub and people began to tentatively appear at the entrance to the field hoping to catch a glimpse of the amazing discovery. We were more than happy for them to come and have a better look as everyone seemed really interested in the history of the surrounding area. Dave did an amazing job of keeping local visitors entertained, recounting the story of how he found it and explaining what we were doing. We also received periodic visits from the landowners, Mr and Mrs Sheppard, and several members of their family, amazed at what had remained hidden for so long in their field.
Meanwhile, Alan had begun to remove one side of the loose rim of the vessel. Half of the coins from the top layer, level with the rim, were then removed from the side that had been exposed and more photos were taken to show a cross-section through the mass of coins.
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We were surprised at the fine condition of the coins we had removed. They were covered with thick, gooey mud formed as water had washed the surrounding clay into the pot over time. The majority had a green-brown patina and some were stuck together in clumps. However, we quickly rinsed and examined some of the loose coins and were pleased to see that once cleaned enough detail was surviving to identify most.
We then proceeded to remove the remaining section of rim and the rest of the coins from the top layer, followed by shards from one side of the body of the vessel. This final stage had us all holding our breath as it would be the first time anyone had seen the full extent of the hoard for over 1,700 years. As the pieces of pottery were peeled away like the shell of an egg, we were rewarded with the breathtaking sight of literally thousands of coins still moulded into the rounded shape of the vessel.
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Continuing to take photos at every stage we began the laborious task of removing the coins in layers from one half of the vessel at a time. The sensation of removing handfuls of coins can be best described as ‘unique’! The mud surrounding the coins had taken on a greenish tint over time as the copper content of the coins had leached out, causing our hands and clothes to undergo an interesting colour change. The combination of gritty, slimy, green mud with cold, damp, corroded and often sharp coins, made the process of excavation fairly difficult and uncomfortable. We were also conscious of the need to excavate the hoard as quickly as possible, whilst at the same time taking care not to damage the coins, particularly those that were corroded together and could easily break. However, this was of course balanced with the excitement of working out ways of dealing with a fairly unique excavation.
As the coins were being removed Katie had devised a bagging system, which Dave was helping with. Naomi had kindly obtained a museum accession number for us (given to all objects/collections of objects to identify them as they are entered into a museum’s collection) from the County Museum and this, together with the layer number from which the coins were taken, was written on the plastic bags. Alan, with a little help from myself, was removing the coins, placing them in trays and then passing them to Katie to put in these bags. The bags were then quickly sealed and placed in the shade to prevent the coins drying out. It was hoped that they could then be sent to a conservator as soon as possible to be stabilised.
We were pleased with the amount we had achieved on the second day, but the sun was setting and eventually we had to down tools and secure the trench for the night. Alan had very kindly offered to camp out on this second night and we all had fingers crossed that we would be finished by the end of the following day.
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