A hoard of Roman bronze items from Viminacium (original) (raw)
Related papers
Re-opening the question of the use of a rare Roman artefact: the ivory object from Viminacium
Archaeology and Science, 2024
Ivory objects from Viminacium are few (nine pieces) and are generally simple in design and utilitarian in purpose. However, one find stands out due to its specific function. It is currently the only known example from Viminacium and is among the thirty-five finds known from literature, among which twenty-five are from graves. A flat ivory object – a plaque in the shape of a pelta, was found with two bone rods in the grave of a deceased person, interred in a lead coffin, along with other items that date the burial to between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The unusual appearance and rarity of similar objects has long been the subject of debate among scientists. It was believed that they were elements of a small cabinet, a stringed instrument, a papyrus-scroll winder, an implement used for fine embroidery or a miniature weaving loom. This paper presents three of these interpretations, and stands by one of them, thus recognising the Viminacium find as a loom. Based on the grave goods, among which is the one we present in this paper, it was concluded that the deceased person was a woman. This rare item belongs to the luxury products that could not be afforded by everyone, but only members of high society.
2024
The collections held by the Royal Museum of Mariemont in Belgium include a bronze assemblage said to have belonged to a Roman ship found in the Bay of Naples. This group consists of a prow ornament with representation of the goddess Minerva and six appliques, four of which are decorated with gorgon heads and “phalli”. These artefacts were bought in Naples in 1908 by Raoul Warocqué (1870-1917), the founder of the collection of Mariemont. The purchase was made from the Canessa brothers, with whom Warocqué has worked in building up his collection of antiquities. Research in the archives of the Museum and in old publications relating to private excavations in the Vesuvian region shed new light on the archaeological context of these objects. Descriptions and photographs allow us to link the seven bronzes to the excavations carried out between 1899 and 1902 by Gennaro Matrone in the so-called “Fondo Bottaro”, about one kilometre south-west of Pompeii. Published in three booklets (1901, 1903, 1909) and two papers among the Notizie degli scavi di antichità, excavations have identified a series of small rooms in a row, which may correspond to shops installed in a harbour site, near either the river Sarno or the coastline. The assemblage was found in two separate rooms, where several human bodies were discovered, some of them carrying high-quality jewellery and coins. The archaeological material from these excavations is now scattered across several public and private collections in Europe and the United States. Photographs of artefacts from the “Fondo Bottaro” have been identified in auction catalogues of the first half of the 20th century but the present location of these archaeological objects remains unknown. By studying the seven bronzes held in Mariemont from an archaeological and historical approach, this paper aims at opening new research perspectives to recontextualize objects in collections and museum storerooms which come from the same site and have experienced the same pathway.
A Hoard of Late Roman and Visigothic Gold. Cuna, Seville, 1972
The Numismatic Chronicle, 2016
Although found in 1972 this hoard of 41 late Roman solidi and 36 Visigothic tremisses has never been properly published. This paper presents the first catalogue of these coins which will be analysed in depth by the author in a forthcoming work. The hoard is believed to have being concealed around the middle of sixth century, probably at the time of the war between Agila and Athanagild between 552 and 555.
Finds in the Late Iron Age tradition from the Roman graves of Viminacium
The former Roman city and the legionary fort Viminacium lie under the fields of the modern villages of Stari Kostolac and Drmno, at the right Mlava bank, some 15 km to the north of Požarevac in Eastern Serbia. Viminacium was the capital of the Roman province of Upper Moesia (Moesia Superior) and also an important military stronghold at the northern border of the empire. During pre-Roman times, this area was inhabited by a mixed population, consisting of Celts and of a native Illyrian ethnic group, called by a common name of Scordisci. During the 1 st century AD, the Dacians also inhabited this area. Until now, among numerous Viminacium graves (some 14,000), nineteen graves were specified as carriers of either Celtic-Scordiscian or Dacian Late Iron Age tradition. This number is surely bigger but by now, only about a thousand graves were published. " S "-profiled bowls were considered main features of graves with a Celtic-Scordiscian tradition, while Dacian pots were considered main features of graves with a Dacian Late Iron Age tradition. The paper deals with the finds themselves, but also with possible gender determinations of the deceased buried in these graves and with their social and economic status within the Roman society of Viminacium. Rezumat. Autoarele analizează descoperirile din mormintele de epocă romană de la Viminacium, capitala Moesiei Superior și important castru militar în același timp. Acest lucru este important în vederea observării persistenței unor tradiții pre-romane în fabricarea materialelor, având în vedere faptul că zona fusese locuită de scordisci și daci înaintea cuceririi romane. Totodată, se urmărește determinarea sexului defuncților din aceste morminte, precum și statutul lor economic și social în cadrul societății romane din Viminacium.
A hoard of bronze coins of the 3rd century BC found at Pratica di mare (Rome)
The excavations at Pratica di Mare (ancient Lavinium) have yielded 118 coins altogether; 36 of these coins were found near the Sanctuary of the XIII altars. 2 This short paper aims at illustrating a small hoard published in 1990 with a description of the context of retrieval, namely a large building inside the Forum 'with rooms opening onto a central courtyard with a porch shaded by a wooden veranda'. 3 This building was probably razed by a fi re in the third century BC and never rebuilt. Actually, during the third century BC the town experienced a moment of severe decline, before being abandoned in the following century. 4 . The building where the hoard was found.
Starinar, 2017
In 2014, a group of silver objects was sold with the accompanying data ?from Serbia, from the area of Macvanska Mitrovica?, which, based on their composition, belonged to a hoard of the Early Roman period. The hoard of silver objects contains a total of 21 pieces that can be divided into 10 different types: emblemata, belt plates, tubuli, torques, wire jewellery - a bracelet and rings, necklaces of the chain type, rings, pendants of lunula, rhomboidal and omega shape, bracelet and rings with pendants in the form of miniature axes. The composition of the silver objects in the Macvanska Mitrovica (?) hoard show surprising similarities with the rich hoards of silver jewellery of Bare, Tekija and the find from Radenkovic-Crkvine and also with the distant hoard from Oltenia in the site of Rovinari (once Poiana, county Gorj). Therefore, we have named this group the Tekija - Bare hoards horizon, after two well-known most representative hoard-contents and their position in the middle of thi...
One of the most important, or even maybe the most important, assemblages of bronze finds came to light in the territory of Aquincum-Viziváros in 2001. The importance of this assemblage is due to two facts. The first is that this site is the oldest part of the Roman settlement, that is it can be regarded as the " ancestral " part of the later prosperous town, Aquincum. The other fact is that these finds are imported objects which were excavated from an intact layer and their documentation met up-to-date requirements. Their metallographic study makes possible to compare them with other objects originated from the same workshops. Also we hope that later, by comparing them with other bronze objects the identification of workshops, too, could be possible. Conditions of finding and the assemblage of bronze objects The earliest Roman camp of mounted troops (castrum) in the territory of Budapest-Aquincum was established in the middle of the 1 st century A.D. to the south of the amphitheatre of the military town at a distance of about three kilometres (Fig. 1). The remains of the civil settlement (vicus) around the castrum had come to light at several places during the excavations of the last 15 years (Fig. 2). In the early period the houses of the settlement had a timber and adobe structure. The clay floors of rooms were observed at several places. Though unfortunately we had no opportunity to excavate a single building in its full extension, several remarkable parts of buildings came to light. One of them, a buliding part burned down has a special importance. There below the daub debris of the dividing walls fallen on the yellow clay floor, valuable bronze objects came to light (Figs. 2-4). They are: a strigilis with niello decoration and with the workshop stamp VRBANVS, a cart mount(?), representing a griffin, a strainer with a handle lost, a hook belonging to the breast part of a chain-mail (Fig. 5). They were found together with three coins from the 1 st century B.C. [2] Description and dating of the objects. Analogous finds 1. Strigilis (Figs. 6—8.) Dimensions: l: 20,5 cm, length of the handle: 11 cm, w: 1,1-1,2 cm, thickness: 0,5 cm Description: A bronze strigilis with traces of acanthus decoration on its frontal part. It was made with niello technique, though the inlay had already fallen out of it. The upper part is decorated with a longitudinal channel. There is a 1,2 cm long, 0,2-0,4 cm wide lentil-shaped hole on the handle, with a rivet inside in the lower part of it. The hole served to lead a leather strap through it by which one could suspend the object. The strigilis was welded on by two parts. At the annex in the inner side there is a master stamp VRBAN(VS). The form of the handle is identical with SIVEC 2000 131, Fig. 1.6. The scraping part and the decoration of he handle, as well as the master are identical with RIHA 1986 121 Tafel 6. 59-60. Variante A. [3] HOME