Recent Discoveries of Tetrarchic Hoards from Roman Britain and their Wider Context (original) (raw)
2024
This volume was prompted by the recent discovery in Britain of two large coin hoards dating from the first decade of the fourth century AD – Wold Newton and Rauceby. Coins of this early Tetrarchic period are relatively uncommon finds in Britain and elsewhere, due mainly to the brevity of their periods of issue followed by successive reductions in the weight of the coinage. The book also republishes the 1944 Fyfield hoard within the context of these more recent finds and contains preliminary reports on two very large hoards of coins of the same period that have been found in recent years in France (Juillac) and Spain (Tomares).
Related papers
Roman Coin Hoards from Wiltshire
Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, 2022
This paper considers a corpus of 127 Roman coin hoards from Wiltshire discovered between 1653 and 2019. The major peaks in hoarding in Wiltshire occur in the mid to late 3rd century and the late 4th century. The corpus is grouped to enable statistical and spatial analysis which demonstrates changing patterns of deposition over time within both the settlement hierarchy and geographically across the county. These changing patterns are set against the chronological changes in the county in the Roman period and numismatic reforms with an exploration of various themes. Finally, there is a consideration of hoarding in the last decades of the 4th and early 5th centuries in order to evaluate hoards deposited at the very end of the Roman administration in Britain
A Roman Coin Hoard From Barway, South of Ely, Cambridgeshire
British Numismatic Journal Vol 84, 2014, 2014
The discovery of twelve denarii found individually between 1985 and 1991 at New Fordey Farm, Barway, Soham in Cambridgeshire complements finds of aurei and denarrii at the same location reported in 1958, 1979, 1981 and 1984. The presence of associated pottery sherds, and progressively decreasing wear from oldest to youngest coin, identify this as a disturbed hoard of at least 451 coins (the total found to date) with a closing date of AD 180 in the reign of Commodus (AD 180–92). This paper describes the most recent finds and places them in the context of the earlier reports and what is known of Roman activity in the immediate vicinity, before considering possible reasons for their deposition.
Late Roman Coin Hoards in the West: Trash or Treasure,
RBN, 2007
The late third century AD yielded many Roman coin hoards in the west, and especially the hoards closing after 274 AD stand out. Traditionally, these hoards have been linked to raids and invasions during this period: the ‘troubles hypothesis’. This hypothesis presents a problem: numerous hoards are found in Britain, an area not suffering from invasions at the time. The ‘troubles’ hypothesis fails to explain the accumulation of these hoards and their geographical distribution. An alternative explanation, the ‘monetary’ hypothesis, stating that the hoarded coins were abandoned because they had been demonetized or had otherwise lost their value is also tested and rejected. Coins similar to those hoarded circulated until the beginning of the fourth century AD. The present survey proposes that the hyperinflation of the period was the main cause of the high number of hoards. The huge number of low value coins in circulation meant that more individuals had to conceal more units of coins more often. Leaving aside all possible external causes for non-recovery (invasions, war, plague etc) a certain more or less fixed percentage of non-recovery due to unexpected natural death, forgetfulness etc should always be expected. The ‘inflation hypothesis’ proposed in this survey seems to be a more probable explanation of the post-274 AD peak of hoards than the ‘monetary’ and ‘troubles’ hypotheses discussed here.
Roman coins finds: Britain, France, Germany and Italy
This paper is a reworking and extension of the work first started 50 years ago in the south of France in an attempt to understand the distribution of Roman coin finds in Britain and the West of Europe. Further work was done in Italy and the north of France and sites were included from early volumes of FMRD. The paper re-examines the earlier material with extra sites added for comparison.
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Related papers
Mairat, J., Wilson, A. I., and Howgego, C. (eds) (2022). Coin Hoards and Hoarding in the Roman World (Oxford Studies on the Roman Economy). Oxford., 2022