Posted on 02/25/2008 5:38:08 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
France’s biggest trove of Gaulish coins has been unearthed in Brittany. Archeologists found them while searching along the route of a bypass under construction in the Côtes d’Armor. The coins are in the hands of specialist restorers and will go on display in the département.
The trove consists of 545 gold-silver-copper coins: 58 staters and 487 quarterstaters. ‘Stater’ is the generic term for antique coins. They lay a foot beneath the earth’s surface near Laniscat, 64km south of Saint-Brieuc, at a known Iron Age manor house or farm site, and date to 75- 50BC. They are very well preserved.
Inrap, the national institute for preventive archeological research, which has the right to investigate sites ahead of infrastructure work, reports similar finds in the 1930s at Guingamp and Perros-Guirec, but says the latest trove is the biggest yet. Searching ahead of construction work, an Inrapled team found a single coin about 30cm down, then began a systematic search. They found another 50 coins the same day, then brought in metal detectors and found the rest. They believe the coins were all buried together but were disturbed over the centuries by ploughing.
The hoard represents a fortune for its period and is priceless to archeologists. Most deals in Gaulish times were by barter: coins were for the mega-rich.
The farm where the coins were found is thought to have belonged to the Osisme people, a Celtic tribe living in the far west of Brittany. Inrap quotes Pytheas of Marseille, a Greek seafarer who left Marseille in about 300BC for Great Britain, as mentioning the tribe living at the tip of the peninsula.
Inrap cites Léon Fleuriot, 1923-87, a specialist in old Celtic languages and Breton history, as stating that the word Osisme meant “the people farthest away”. Latest archeological finds, says Inrap, show that the Osisme people ruled a territory comprising today’s Finistère, Morbihan and Côtes d’Armor, controlling the overland trade route between the Atlantic and the Channel. The coins are made from an alloy called electrum and, like all Gaulish coins, are copies of early Greek money.
Greeks served as mercenaries in the armies of Alexander the Great and used the money they brought home as a model for coins of their own. Some of the coins show a horse on one side and a man’s head on the reverse, a familiar Celtic monetary pattern. Other coins have previously unknown designs, such as horses with human heads. Others again show riders and wild boars.
Much of the importance of the find, Inrap says, is that it was discovered close to where it was buried. The manor house site, dating to the third century BC, includes an enclosure marked off by a ditch and rampart, less for defence than as boundary markers, with six entrance porches. Part of the enclosure holds a grain store raised above ground.
One mystery remains. No one yet has come up with a solution as to why the coin hoard was buried – or why it was never retrieved.
Alex, What is fear of robbery or theft?
or why it was never retrieved.
What is -- the guy who buried it died without telling anyone (or gave lousy directions).
I’ll take “gave lousy directions” for $100, Deacon.
ping
Don’t forget to ping Axenolith.
Ka-CHING! PING!............
GGG ping.
The more things change, the more they stay the same..........
Here is a likely for instance.
Gaulish noble buries coin horde, goes off to war, gets killed in battle or captured and enslaved. Family enslaved or driven off land so cannot recover coins.
“like all Gaulish coins, are copies of early Greek money.
Greeks served as mercenaries in the armies of Alexander the Great and used the money they brought home as a model for coins of their own.”
So which is it? [Probably a bit of both...]
Lets see: the Zinn/political correct version would read: Greeks, who traveled around to opress and steal from native cultures, stole their ideas for “money” and claimed it as their own idea.[sarc]
The Original Tax Shelter.
Hey, these HAVE TO ALL BE FAKES. None have Obama’s mug shot on them. Gotta be fakes. Have to be.
My family has been looking for those coins for a long time.
You've got a lot of gaul! They're mine!
Actually, I can get things done for cash for a lot less than I can with a check. I think its called the “hip money” principle.
Cash, under normal circumstances isn’t traceable. That’s why the government doesn’t want you to have any.......
Hello, I am bank manager in Nigeria. My name is Buhari Tijani. I need your help! I am having 2,000,000 of these coins in a deposit box. I I need to pay the fees, and cannot, due to the death of my Uncle’s brother, my Father. If you send me a cashier’s check for $100,000 for the fees, I will send you 1,000,000 of these rare coins.
Thankyou my friend, and you won’t be sorry!
Buhari
The gold is buried under the big double-ya, under the big double-ya,
WOW! What a fabulous find. I wish there was a picture of the ancient manor house where it was found.
Hey this guy was MY ancestor, all the coins belong to ME.....
re: #19 it’s said that all people of European descent are ‘related’ to Charlemagne (800 AD), so I assume there’s a darned good chance that going back to 50 BC this guy must be in my lineage somewhere....... too bad I have to share the fortune with a few hundred million other people......
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