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From Bronze Age Cups to Sou- Venirs from Hadrian's Wall to Coins Hidden

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From Bronze Age Cups to Sou- Venirs from Hadrian's Wall to Coins Hidden The 10 greatest discoveries Finds such as the Chew Valley Hoard, a collection of rare Conquest-era coins, have helped change our perception of Britain’s past Unburied treasures From Bronze Age cups to sou- ed, the PAS – run by the British venirs from Hadrian’s Wall to coins Museum and Amgueddfa Cymru- hidden at the height of the Viking National Museum Wales – has wars, the British public has dis- recorded more than 1.5 million covered hundreds of thousands finds. To mark that milestone, we of archaeological finds, many of asked six PAS archaeologists to which have been recorded with the nominate 10 discoveries that they Portable Antiquities Scheme. believe have done most to transform Now, 23 years after it was found- our knowledge of the past… COMPILED BY MICHAEL LEWIS PRESS ASSOCIATION IMAGES → 61 The 10 greatest discoveries The Chalgrove (II) Hoard consisted of a jar containing 1 A taste of the Bronze Age realms of speculation! 4,957 Roman coins, What we are more confident of including one bearing the The Ringlemere Cup gives us the rarest of glimpses is that the cup was deposited portrait of an emperor of life in Britain more than three millennia ago (perhaps ritually) within a barrow almost lost to history in a prehistoric complex that dates back to c2300 BC, but with activity We know very little about the originally 11cm high with corrugat- on the site going back even further people who occupied the ed sides. I say ‘originally’ because, in time. We also know that the south-east corner of the British when Bradshaw discovered the Ringlemere Cup is one of six Isles 3,500 years ago. Yet a little vessel, it was severely misshapen stylistically similar Bronze Age light was shone onto this distant – presumably after being hit by a vessels that have been discovered world on 4 November 2001, when farmer’s plough. Had Bradshaw across Europe – suggesting that, metal-detectorist Cliff Bradshaw not chanced across the object, it even at this distant point in history, started scanning the fields might have been lost forever. ideas and skills were transmitted of Ringlemere Farm, near So what was the cup used for across the continent. Sandwich in Kent. – and by whom? We can only Yet it is unlikely that the cup What Bradshaw found nestled guess. But a clue is provided by itself was created on the continent. beneath the surface that day is one the fact that it has a rounded base. Archaeologists believe that this of the oldest treasures ever discov- This means that the vessel could cup was probably made locally, ered in Britain. It was a Bronze Age not stand alone, suggesting it maybe fairly close to its findspot The Ringlemere Cup’s gold vessel dated to 1700–1500 might have had a ritual use – per- – all of which means that the rounded base suggests BC, and such was its age and haps it was held or passed around, metalworking expertise required to that it may have been passed MORE FROM US rarity (it is one of only two gold a bit like a modern-day commun- create a high-status object like around like a modern-day Bronze Age cups found in England) ion vessel. Maybe it was made to this almost certainly resided in communion vessel Michael Lewis will be discussing that it was acquired by the carry an alcoholic or herbed drink Bronze Age Britain. Britain’s greatest archaeological British Museum. as part of a ceremony – although Michael Lewis, Head, PAS & finds on ourpodcast . To listen, go to The Ringlemere Cup was that is, of course, firmly in the Treasure, British Museum historyextra.com/podcast 3 The face that didn’t fit 2 Following the money West (notably Wiltshire), East Few historians had heard of Domitianus – until a single Anglia and Yorkshire. That is coin suggested he may have been Roman emperor The discovery of thousands of coins perhaps surprising in itself. But, when combined with other suggests that Roman Britain may have forms of evidence, it has helped Back in 2003, a metal-detector- that Domitianus had appeared on very short-lived emperor of the been an agricultural powerhouse cast Roman Britain in a whole ist called Brian Malin was archaeologists’ radars. An identi- Gallic empire, a breakaway state new light. scouring farmland near Chal- cal coin, rediscovered in 2003, that existed north of the Alps The fourth century sees a grove, not far from Oxford, was found in a hoard in France in between AD 260 and 274. A ‘Grots’. It’s not the most Scheme had recorded just over growth of the rural landscape, when he discovered a jar 1900, yet some scholars rejected it general of the same name was glamorous of words. But to 34,000 Roman coins. In the villa construction, the fortifica- containing 4,957 Roman coins as a hoax because there was no involved in a failed revolt in historians of Roman Britain, intervening 15 years, the tion or reinforcement of rural dating to between AD 251 supporting evidence for Domi- Milan in AD 268, but it is unclear it’s a thing of beauty. numbers have grown to settlements like Mildenhall in and 279. The Chalgrove (II) tianus. We now have that evi- if this is the same individual. ‘Grots’ is a term sometimes 320,000 – the largest dataset Wiltshire, and the appearance hoard, as it’s known, was a dence, and it has enabled us to What we do know is that used to refer to the worn and of its kind worldwide. of other objects such as Late significant find but, seemingly, paint a partial picture of this Domitianus became emperor in corroded base-metal Roman But it is where these coins Roman military belt fittings. nothing out of the ordinary – af- little-known emperor. Gaul for a few days or weeks in coins discovered across Eng- have been discovered – every bit Meanwhile, literary sources ter all, more than 600 hoards are Domitianus was, it seems, a AD 271. It was, it appears, land and Wales in their thou- as much as their volume – that highlight the importance of grain known to have been discovered the shortest of reigns – but sands. Every Roman emperor has done most to shape our ships plying their trade between in Britain from this period. time enough, at least, to mint (not to mention almost all understanding of the province of Britain and the Rhine. But then the coins were a few coins! usurpers) issued their own Britannia. In short, the regions that This suggests that the rural taken to the British Museum Sam Moorhead, coinage. This makes Roman have yielded the highest numbers Roman landscape may have to be conserved and national finds adviser, coins a uniquely valuable source don’t necessarily correspond with SCHEME/FLICKR ANTIQUITIES PORTABLE been an important grain bowl in identified – and everything British Museum of information for the evolution those that traditionally come to the late fourth century for the changed. For staring out of Roman Britain from Claudi- mind when we think about Roman armies on the Rhine, a from one of the coins was us’s invasion in AD 43 through ‘Roman Britain’. conclusion almost unreachable an individual that no one to the collapse of the province Take what is known as the This map depicts the distribution of prior to the PAS – and had it not expected to see. He was Those who doubted that more than three centuries later. Valentinianic period (AD 364–378). all Roman coins recorded by the PAS been for the many ‘grotty’ a Roman emperor named there was a Roman What is perhaps most These 14 years in the second half – like those shown right – across Roman coins recorded. Domitianus – and, until emperor called Domitianus remarkable is the sheer number of the fourth century have yielded England and Wales; up to 2005 (in Andrew Brown, assistant then, many historians didn’t were forced into a rethink that have been identified. By high concentrations of coinage in blue) and to date (in red) finds adviser and treasure even believe he existed. when this coin emerged 2005, the Portable Antiquities the rural landscapes of the South SCHEME ANTIQUITIES MUSEUM-PORTABLE ALAMY/BRITISH curator, British Museum This wasn’t the first time from the Oxfordshire soil → 62 63 The 10 greatest discoveries Some of the Viking silver ingots, jewellery and Anglo-Saxon coins 4 Northern exposure buried near modern-day Watlington, probably by a The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan is a remarkable member of the Viking souvenir of life guarding Hadrian’s Wall Great Army For 300 years after its inception in AD 122, crafted to celebrate the wall’s Hadrian’s Wall was the most monumental existence. Around its rim are element of a grid of garrisons and roads that inscriptions naming the four forts on the formed Roman Britain’s northern frontier. western end of Hadrian’s Wall – Bow- This mighty piece of Roman engineering would ness-on-Solway, Drumburgh, Stanwix and have made quite an impression on the many Castlesteads – each of which is placed, we’re The pan name-checks four forts on the soldiers from across the empire who travelled told, “on the line of the Wall of Aelius”. The pan western end of Hadrian’s Wall, as well as north to man it. We know this from the letters even name-checks its likely owner, one Draco. its likely owner – a man named Draco and diary entries they wrote recording their To the veterans who took such items home – of experiences.
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