Elisa Posted July 2, 2022 Report Share Posted July 2, 2022 Source: BBC news Quote A hoard of Roman gold coins hidden in the decades before the Roman invasion of Britain has been discovered. Eleven coins have been found so far, scattered near Norwich in Iceni tribe territory. Their queen Boudica would later rebel against Roman rule. Numismatist Adrian Marsden said and more coins might be unearthed. Mr Marsden, from the Norfolk Historic Environment Service, said: "In the last two or three years, they've said, 'There won't be any more,' and I've said, 'There will be,' and sure enough they pull another one out. "Hoards get dispersed by tractors and ploughs or planting, so coins get moved about fields and can travel quite some distances." Quote They were struck at Lugdunum, now Lyon, in France, between the last years of the 1st Century BC and the first years of the 1st Century AD - a generation before the Roman invasion in AD43. They are hardly worn and each has a tiny peck mark by the emperor Augustus' head, which Mr Marsden believes was done by Iceni craftsmen to check their quality. "These are really high purity gold, whereas the Iron Age gold coins circulating at that time is quite debased - they knew good Roman gold when they saw it," he said. Mr Marsden believes an Iceni goldsmith might have intended to use them to create gold torcs, similar to the ones found at Ken Hill at Snettisham between 1948 and 1990. He said: "To have a hoard where the coins in it are all from or before the Roman invasion - and we have good cause to believe they are going into the ground before the Roman invasion - is really quite exceptional." The British Museum has acquired the first nine coins and is expected to acquire the latest finds. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guy Posted July 2, 2022 Report Share Posted July 2, 2022 (edited) Those are beautiful coins with significant images. The reverse of the coins are portraits of Augustus’ two grandchildren and heirs who would later die (Gaius and Lucius). The lituus was a crooked wand and is used as a symbol of the augurs who used the lituus to mark out the sky for divination by the flight of birds. The simpulum was a vessel or ladle with a long handle that was used at sacrifices to make libations. Quote Augustus AV Aureus, Lyons, 2 BC-4 AD, approx. 7.8 g. CAESAR AVGVSTVS DIVI F PATER PATRIAE, laureate head right. / AVGVSTI F COS DESIG PRINC IVVENT C L CAESARES around and beneath Gaius and Lucius, both togate, standing facing and resting hands on shield; behind each, a shield and spear. Lituus on the left and simpulum on the right in "Pd" formation in upper centre. Edited July 2, 2022 by guy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brady2007us Posted July 2, 2022 Report Share Posted July 2, 2022 what a nice find. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Novosedoff Posted July 6, 2022 Report Share Posted July 6, 2022 I am in the process of reading Sansom's last novel Tombland from the Shardlake series, the events of the novel take place in Norwich too 🙂 Couldn't find the novel in the original English, but the Russian translation's turned out to be pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Novosedoff Posted July 6, 2022 Report Share Posted July 6, 2022 Is it true that Norfolk had the biggest area of enclosures out of all English counties? or does this hold true only for the 16th century? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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