Archaeologists excavating a centuries-old farmstead on the Swedish island of Gotland have uncovered a remarkable hoard of 45 Roman silver coins and a gold ring, with evidence suggesting the collection was buried around AD 450.
The discovery was made during archaeological investigations near the Tofta shooting range, where work is taking place as part of the expansion of the re-established Gotland Regiment.
Archaeologists from Gotland Museum and archaeological company Arendus had previously identified the remains of four buildings belonging to an old farmstead, probably known as Bar’s farm. Further excavations carried out this spring revealed another two buildings belonging to the same complex.
It was beside the gable end of one of these buildings that archaeologists encountered the unexpected concentration of precious objects.
“A silver deposit was found, or as it is popularly described, a silver treasure,” said Per Widerström, an archaeologist at Gotland Museum.
But this was not the type of silver hoard more commonly associated with Viking Age Gotland.
Coins of emperors and empresses
The deposit contained 45 Roman silver denarii and a gold finger ring, discovered outside one of the houses.
The coins span almost a century of Roman history, having been minted between AD 98 and 192. They were issued during the reigns of five emperors — Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius and Commodus — as well as four empresses: Sabina, Faustina I, Faustina II and Lucilla.
Roman coin specialist Lennart Lind examined and identified the collection for Gotland Museum.
Although the youngest coins date to the late second century, researchers believe they remained in circulation for considerably longer before eventually reaching Scandinavia.
Lind believes the denarii probably arrived on Gotland during the fourth century and continued to be used in trade on the island into the fifth century.
The gold ring provides an important clue to when the collection was finally deposited. Its design appears to belong to a type dating from around the middle of the fifth century.
Researchers therefore believe the coins and ring may have entered the ground at about AD 450, more than 250 years after some of the coins were originally minted.
Farmstead dates to the same period
Other finds from the two newly excavated buildings consisted mainly of pottery, but scientific dating has provided further evidence connecting the settlement with the period in which the treasure was deposited.
An initial radiocarbon analysis of bones recovered from one of the houses indicates that the building was in use during the fifth century.
The combination of the radiocarbon date and the gold ring therefore places activity at the farmstead at roughly the same time archaeologists believe the Roman silver was concealed.
Exactly why the coins and ring were placed beside the building — and whether their owner intended to retrieve them — remains uncertain.
The discovery nevertheless provides another striking example of Roman material reaching far beyond the empire’s frontiers and remaining valuable generations after the coins were first struck.
The excavation also benefited from metal-detecting work by Daniel Klintholm of the Swedish Armed Forces, whom Gotland Museum’s archaeologists credited with assisting the search of the investigation area.
Sources : Gotlands Museum
