An Overview on Hoarding in Roman Sicily and the Evidence of a New Imperial Hoard from Tyndaris1
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AN OVERVIEW ON HOARDING IN ROMAN SICILY AND THE EVIDENCE OF A NEW IMPERIAL HOARD FROM TYNDARIS1 Abstract: This article aims at offering a general overview of Mariangela Puglisi the hoarding phenomenon of Roman Imperial coins in Sicily, of Università degli Studi di Messina, Italy which we still have a lacunary knowledge. [email protected] I have been collecting any available hoard data from Sicily in numismatic periodicals, scattered articles or notes in archaeological reports, data that I am presenting in general, not at the level of individual coins. DOI: 10.14795/j.v7i1_SI.492 Here are listed about fifty hoards, including a few uncertain ISSN 2360 – 266X cases which could be accidental deposits. ISSN–L 2360 – 266X Moreover, a new hoard from the urban area of the ancient city of Tyndaris, modern Tindari (Patti, Messina) is presented in detail, an important find - even if not conspicuous regarding the number of coins - which can shed a new light about the first Imperial age, so little documented so far in Sicily. Keywords: Coin hoards, Sicily, Roman Empire, Tyndaris, sestertii. GENERAL OVERVIEW OF HOARDING IN SICILY IN IMPERIAL TIMES1 ar from pretending to give interpretation keys to explain the patterns of hoarding in Sicily in Imperial times, I am undertaking an attempt of offering a Fgeneral overview of the hoarding phenomenon which is not equally known for each period for an irregular and lacunary knowledge. This is due to the frequent fortuity of findings, and the rarity of known contexts subjected to archeological investigation. In view of this publication I have been able to collect 1 I deeply thank Cristian Gazdac for the invitation to collaborate to this volume and Maria Caccamo Caltabiano, Professor Emeritus at the University of Messina, for fruitful discussions. 385 any available hoard data from Sicily browsing fifty hoards, including a few uncertain cases numismatic periodicals, scattered news or which could be accidental deposits. Not all of notes in archaeological reports2. them are known at the same level of detail; of The state of the art grounds on this some of them we have just scanty data, only information and only a little on single articles the place of the find and a vague summary of devoted to the study of specific hoards, as the contents. On the contrary, for some others we will see, mainly because, even if various we know the contents, but not the exact archaeological campaigns have been carried provenance, not recorded at the moment of on in the last decades all over the island, the the acquisition by the Museums where they general level of archaeological exploration is are now kept for inaccuracy in recording or still unequal. reticence of the finders or for being the result I am not going in deep detail, recording of donations or seizures. these findings at the level of individual coins, We are not considering archival even because such precise data are not always quotations of hoards of which no other traces available in the case of Sicilian hoards3. exist. Compared to the census of Roman For the sake of completeness, I am imperial coin hoards found in Sicily (18) presenting here the total list of Roman Imperial 4 presented in the online CHRE - on its way of hoards found in Sicily from the Augustean age implementation by the University of Messina to the end of the Roman Western Empire. 5 as far as it regards Sicily - I have listed about I will present all the hoards in a table (fig. 2 ‘Vite dei Medaglieri’ in the Annali dell’Istituto 1: Table of Roman Imperial hoards in Sicily) Italiano di Numismatica (AIIN), the synthetic where for each hoard is indicated (if known): surveys of Kokalos (Studi di storia antica pubblicati dall’Università di Palermo) or the bibliographic - the ‘site of finding’; references of the Survey of Numismatic Research - the ‘current disposition’, namely (since the Sixties), the section ‘Fonti Numismatiche’ of Museums and Antiquaria or other the Bibliografia Topografica della Colonizzazione Greca in Italia e nelle Isole Tirreniche (BTGCI, 2007-2012), collections, with the indication of the and the archaeological reports in Notizie degli Scavi di number of coins actually present, or by Antichità and in other periodicals reporting news about now totally or partly dispersed; archaeological excavations or occasional numismatic finds in Sicily. - the ‘type of finding/ type of 3 A worthy job in this direction has been carried out acquisition’: if in course of regular by Giuseppe Guzzetta and his scholars (Maria Agata excavations or from an occasional find or Vicari Sottosanti and Viviana Lo Monaco) for some Sicilian late Roman hoards in the Archaeological recorded in the inventory of the Museum Museum ‘P. Orsi’ of Syracuse. I thank Angela Maria (or other Institution) from acquisition or Manenti, Archaeologist in charge of the Medagliere of donation or seizure; the Museum of Syracuse, for the information about the hoards kept at the Institution. - the specific area‘ function’ or ‘land use’ 4 TheCoin Hoards of the Roman Empire Project (CHRE of the find, if identified; - https://chre.ashmus.ox.ac.uk) - directed by Chris - the total ‘number of coins’, when Howgego and Andrew Wilson - is a joint initiative of the Ashmolean Museum and the Oxford Roman Economy available; Project, aimed at digitalising coin hoards of all coinages - the grade of ‘reliability’ of the whole in use in the Roman Empire between approximately 30 composition of the hoard is also indicated: BC and AD 400: http://chre.ashmus.ox.ac.uk. 5 This commitment is planned to begin under my total (t), generally just in the case of regular supervision. The task of cataloguing in detail all the excavation, partial (p), usually when the data - at coin level - about Roman Imperial Sicilian group of coins come from occasional finds, hoards and of compiling the CHRE online files has been but in known circumstances, or when given, under my tutorship, to Ludovica Di Masi, PhD Student in the XXXV PhD Course of the University of there is uncertainty about the integrity of Messina (2019/20-2021/22), thesis in progress: “La the whole (as in the case of dismembered tesaurizzazione monetale di età romano-imperiale hoards) or doubtful (d), when too few data in Sicilia. Dati numismatici nel contesto storico- archeologico”. are known; 386 Mariangela Puglisi - the ‘date’, a generic attribution or a more frame, in which we have tried - dealing with precise indication of: data often contradictory in the various - the chronological ‘range’ of the bibliographic notes - to distinguish what is contents, the period covered from genuine and really useful to have a likely idea the most ancient issue to the most of the hoarding phenomenon. recent, expressed quoting the issuing The rest of the materials which can authorities, if identified; doubtfully considered ‘hoards’ can be taken - the hypothetical date of ‘burial’ or into account only for the sake of circulation ‘loss’, usually based on the last coins reconstruction. attested or on traumatic events close to them, SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF - the summary of its ‘contents’6, possibly IMPERIAL HOARDS IN SICILY with the indication of the issuing In Sicily we can distinguish six authorities attested and the list of the geomorphological macro areas delimited by ‘mints’ represented, if identified; natural borders8 which can be considered - the ‘bibliography’ including both main someway valid from the proto-historic editions or specific publications, but also age down to the Hellenistic times, as they reports and brief notes7. circumscribed regions with some difficulty Unfortunately the reliability of a large of terrestrial connections with the adjacent part of these hoards is not sure at the same ones, before the road system created by the level because the hoards recovered in the Romans. past century, or even earlier, were often not In this work, taking into account these integer as the competent authorities could geomorphological characteristics, I isolated give as ‘premio di rinvenimento’ a part of six areas more or less corresponding to the find (sometimes without any authority those geomorphological regions, besides the taking notes of the whole contents) to the two Archipelagos off Sicily (fig. 2: Map of discoverers. In some cases, the finders could geomorphological areas of Sicily). have autonomously and illegitimately kept for themselves the best-preserved coins to EASTERN SICILY: commercialise them with the most profit, A. north-eastern Sicily, corresponding altering the original composition of the to the area of the modern province of Messina: find before delivering it to the competent A.1. Tyrrhenian coast (north-east), authorities. from Peloro Cape to Halaesa; We have also to be careful in handling A.2. Ionian coast (east), from Peloro this material, as ‘donators’ sometimes Cape down to Naxos; polluted the actual contents of some hoards B. Aetnaean area (eastern Sicily), in their possession, adding intrusive material namely the modern province of Catania, they owned to get rid of anything they including Aetnean slopes, down to the Ionian irregularly had, delivering the whole bulk - coast, including the Catanaean plain: without making any distinction about the B.1. Ionian coast; circumstances of find - to the State officers. B.2. inland; The general result is a not totally reliable C. Hyblaean area (south-eastern Sicily): Syracuse with its inland and the 6 Lines in bold indicate the general composition of the hoard: metal/s, denomination/s, number of Hyblaean area, including the Ionian coast coins. The list of contents is not detailed at coin level, down to Portopalo di Capo Passero and the but mentions, where known, the issuing authorities attested. 8 Similarly as I did for my work on coin circulation in 7 An asterisk distinguishes specific works, provided by Sicily in Greek and Roman Republican times: PUGLISI a detailed catalogue of the contents and usually also by 2009, 71-72.