#archaeologists

Hundreds of Roman Gold Coins, dating to 4th or 5th Century AD, were found in an archaeological dig in Como, Italy 🇮🇹.

In September 2018; Italian Minister for Culture, announced, an exciting archaeological find in Como; just north of Milan, during the renovation of a theatre, workers stumbled upon what they thought was a large soapstone jar that, after examination from scientists, turned out to be amphora filled with stacked gold coins from the Roman Empire worth perhaps millions of dollars.

The coins were a surprise to the experts as large jugs with handles on either side, amphora, usually held wines and foodstuffs for the Romans. The coins show the images of emperors Honorius, Valentinian III, Leon I, Antonio and Libio Severo all before 474 AD. The images of the emperors will help to correct any modern assumptions as to how they looked and help scientists to learn more about this turbulent time in Italy. Because of the way the coins were so nicely stacked, coin expert Maria Grazia Facchinetti believes the cache was not the property of a common citizen but possibly a public bank although at the time Germanic invaders were closing in on Italy and a wealthy person or group of people may have hidden the gold for safekeeping.

During the first phase of excavation, excavators leaving the amphora in the dirt and removed 27 Coins representative of cache for examination by Milan’s Mibac restoration laboratory until everything can be done in a proper archeological fashion. Local archaeology superintendent Luca Rinaldi remarked, “We are talking about an exceptional discovery…It’s practically an entire collection unlike anything else ever found in northern Italy; coins that are found are stuck together but these are all separate, it was like opening a wallet.”

A gold bar was found in the same location as the 300 coins and was also taken to Milan to be examined. The coins were found in exceptional condition with a weight of 4g of pure gold each but depending on the emperor’s likeness, as coins from the reign of Valentinian III are worth much more than a coin from the reign of Libus Severus, value of the find can be more or less than is actually thought.

The Como theatre in which the discovery was made, Teatro Cressoni, was built in 1870 AD, and saw life as a residential home and a cinema before it was abandoned in 1997. Theatre was being renovated to turn the building into apartments.

Como (Cuomo) was originally an old Roman town that went by the name of Novum Comum and was founded by Julius Caesar in 59 BC. Roman presence was significant here for the next 600 years. By the 3rd Century BC, the town had almost 40,000 residents. The foundation of the over 26ft tall wall built by Cesare’s legions is still visible and remains of a double arched gateway, Porta Pretoria, are accessible to visitors. Town would have had temples to gods, artisan workshops, homes, a forum and a theatre.

Outside the walls a bath house, cemetery, and the very best villas would have been found. Paolo Giovio Archaeological Museum in Como inside the Palazzo Giovio houses a number of local Roman artifacts including paintings, mosaics, marble reliefs, frescos and statues as well as relics from pre-history to the present. Pliny the Younger, a famous Roman historian who documented the eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii was from Como and wrote fondly of the town and the nearby lake.

Bound in a blue cloth with black and gold stamped designs of squids and geometric designs, Mycenæ; A Narrative of Researches and Discoveries at Mycenæ and Tiryns by influential German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1899), published in New York by Scribner, Armstrong, & Co. in 1878, is a personal account of the excavation of the Bronze-Age Greek settlements of Mycenae and Tiryns by the businessman-turned-archaeologist.

The book contains dozens of detailed wood-engraved and lithographic depictions of artifacts discovered, as well as details of the sites and ground plans themselves. There are a handful of color images, produced by the Major and Knapp Lithograph Company, of hand-painted artifacts. Schliemann explains in the text accompanying these lithographs what inspired him to undertake this dig, his methods, as well as relevant excerpts from the Iliad and the Odyssey relevant to his discussion.

Fascinated in his youth by the legendary tales of the Iliad and the Odyssey, Schliemann set out in 1870 from Germany to Greece and, later, Asia Minor, to begin his quest for the Trojan world that would continue for just over twenty years to prove the historicity of the ancient epics. While Heinrich Schliemann remains one of the most influential figures in modern archaeology, he did much damage to the sites and artifacts he encountered. Ancient burials and cities were desecrated and ransacked, artifacts were plundered and distributed to many different individuals and groups in Schliemann’s life, and some of the most important pieces of history that remain from the pre-Classical era were lost to rudimentary and barbaric excavation and preservation methods. He even smuggled priceless artifacts out of the then-Ottoman Empire, the most famous being what he dubbed “Priam’s Treasure”, which have been in Russia since the Soviet invasion of Germany in 1945.

-- Gabby, Undergraduate Classics Special Collections Fieldworker

Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954, Jack Arnold)