Thetford treasure
Encyclopedia
The Thetford Hoard is a hoard
of Romano-British
metalwork found at Gallows Hill, near Thetford
in Norfolk
, England, in November 1979, and now in the British Museum
. Dating from the mid- to late-4th century AD, this hoard is a collection of thirty-three silver spoons and three silver strainers, twenty-two gold finger rings, four gold bracelets, four necklace pendants, five gold chain necklaces and two pairs of necklace-clasps, a gold amulet
designed as a pendant, an unmounted engraved gem, four beads (one emerald and three of glass), and a gold belt-buckle decorated with a dancing satyr
. A small cylindrical lidded box made from shale
also belonged to the hoard.
, a minor Roman
god who had many characteristics in common with the Greek
Pan
. There is no overtly Christian symbolism in the hoard, though one spoon is decorated with the figure of a fish
, which can often be an oblique reference to Christianity. Bacchic
iconography is obvious in the group, and was traditional in Roman culture, but in the late Roman period, many Bacchic motifs were adopted and given new interpretations by Christians. Nevertheless, at this date, the end of the 4th century AD, there was no obstacle to placing unequivocally Christian symbols and inscriptions on personal possessions, so that their absence here is noteworthy. The openly, and probably exclusively, pagan iconography
remains one of the most interesting and unusual aspects of the assemblage.
The dedications, such as DEIFAVNIAVSECI (RIB 2420.21) (literally, 'of the God Faunus Ausecus') are engraved in the bowls of both the cochlearia and cigni. The epithets or by-names applied to Faunus in the inscriptions have been identified as containing Celtic (Gaulish or British) linguistic elements, supporting the supposition that any cult of Faunus which they represent was Romano-British, not one that consisted of devotees from elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The inscriptions were discussed in the published catalogue by the late Kenneth Jackson.
It has been suggested that it is unlikely that these items were intended to be used for ordinary domestic dining, and that their eventual deposition may be interpreted as a ritual act rather than a practical one (See Religion in Ancient Rome
). However, since both pagan and Christian inscriptions are regularly found on Roman jewellery and domestic tableware, and as the actual motivation for the concealment of the Thetford material itself is unknown, this view is open to debate. The unusual composition of the group of gold objects is actually somewhat better evidence of a non-domestic background than the decoration and inscriptions of the silver assemblage (see comments on the range of finger-rings in the following section). The suspicion that the hoard is incomplete undermines any detailed analysis of these matters, but if the gold and silver objects were connected in any way with pagan cult practices, which is certainly a possibility, then the anti-pagan Theodosian
edicts of the 390s would have provided good practical (rather than ritual) reasons for the concealment of the material from the authorities.
The gold finger-rings could have been worn by either men or women, though the bracelets, and necklaces with pendants were chiefly feminine jewels at this date. Many of the rings display elaborate filigree
work, typical of late-Roman taste, and a few are of highly unusual design. The tiny horned, Pan-like head that forms the bezel
of ring no.23 appears to be unparalleled, and may well be intended as a reference to Faunus, while the design of no.7, two birds flanking a vase, is both a standard Bacchic image, eventually adopted in Christian iconography, and possibly something more specific in this instance. The birds, even though they are at a very small scale, have the appearance of woodpeckers, and picus, the Latin name for birds of this kind, was also the name of the father of Faunus in some sources (Virgil, Aeneid 7, 48).
Much of the jewellery will have been designed and selected for its talisman
ic, religious or personal significance. A gold amulet pendant, intended for suspension around the neck (and with parallels including one from York
), was filled with sulphur, possibly because of its apotropaic qualities. One ring is set with an engraved gem of brown chalcedony
13 x 9.5mm. Upon it is depicted a cock-headed, snake-legged deity known as an Anguipede
, holding a shield which is inscribed in Greek with ΩΑΙ, ΙΑΩ or 'Iao' in reverse - a powerful magical word often associated with this deity (see Voces mysticae). Although set in a closed-back setting, this gem was also inscribed on its reverse side with the Greek ΑΒΡΑCΞCΑΒΑΩΘ which translates as 'Abrasax Saboath' also a word of power and associated name of the deity. It is interesting that a Greek-inscribed charm appears in a hoard primarily associated with an Italian (Latin) minor deity (Faunus), though many other Greek inscriptions are known from Roman Britain, and other examples of late-Antique 'magical gems' have also been found in Latin-speaking provinces.
A matching pair of bracelets (nos. 24 and 25), which at the time of finding and publication could be paralleled only by similar bracelets from the 1841 Lyon jewellery hoard, which is of somewhat earlier date, have now been paralleled by a set of four matching bracelets from the Hoxne hoard
found in 1992, the date of which appears to be close to that of the deposition of the Thetford find.
It has been suggested that all the objects "may well have been commissioned by a group of intellectuals who fervently believed in the old values and who interred the objects when serious persecution of non-Christians began in the 390s".
Most of the gold objects appear to be in fresh, apparently unworn condition. Roman gold, which is of high purity (in this case, with a mean gold content of over 94 percent; is soft, and quickly shows signs of use. This pristine condition is one of the unusual features of the Thetford jewellery assemblage. Most of the rings have design and workmanship characteristics in common that suggest they may be the products of a single workshop, while the construction of the matching pair of bracelets is also paralleled in the form of two of the rings (nos. 10 and 12). It would be somewhat surprising for a single owner, or even a family, to possess such a comparatively large number of rings which seem to have been acquired from a single source at the same time. Personal collections of jewellery usually contain pieces of different ages and conditions.
Hoard
In archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards may be uncovered by...
of Romano-British
Romano-British
Romano-British culture describes the culture that arose in Britain under the Roman Empire following the Roman conquest of AD 43 and the creation of the province of Britannia. It arose as a fusion of the imported Roman culture with that of the indigenous Britons, a people of Celtic language and...
metalwork found at Gallows Hill, near Thetford
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
in Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, England, in November 1979, and now in the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
. Dating from the mid- to late-4th century AD, this hoard is a collection of thirty-three silver spoons and three silver strainers, twenty-two gold finger rings, four gold bracelets, four necklace pendants, five gold chain necklaces and two pairs of necklace-clasps, a gold amulet
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
designed as a pendant, an unmounted engraved gem, four beads (one emerald and three of glass), and a gold belt-buckle decorated with a dancing satyr
Satyr
In Greek mythology, satyrs are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus — "satyresses" were a late invention of poets — that roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are often associated with pipe-playing....
. A small cylindrical lidded box made from shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
also belonged to the hoard.
Discovery
The find was made under very unfortunate circumstances. The finder was metal-detecting without the knowledge and permission of the owners of the site, which had recently been cleared for building work, and made his discovery late on a November day, in failing light. He recovered the material in great haste, probably overlooking some small items, and because he knew he had no legal right to search in that area, he did not, as the law requires, report his discovery to the authorities. Instead, he unwisely attempted to sell the objects he had found to private buyers. By the time archaeologists learned of the find several months later, the findspot had been built over, making proper archaeological investigation impossible. It was not even possible to question the finder about the circumstances, because by the time the material arrived at the British Museum for study, he was terminally ill, and he died about a month later, in July 1980. Persistent rumours that the treasure originally included coins have never been confirmed or convincingly rejected, but even if there were no coins, it is quite likely that the group as we see it now is incomplete. The full account of the circumstances of the discovery is related in the standard catalogue. This lack of information makes it particularly difficult to speculate on the nature of the hoard and the purpose of its concealment in antiquity.Silver objects
The silver tableware in the hoard comprises three strainers and 33 spoons, of two types. Seventeen of the spoons are cochlearia , with long tapered handles, and the other sixteen are the larger ligulae or cigni, with bowls about the size of a modern dessert-spoon and short, coiled handles ending in birds' heads. Many of the spoons bear pagan inscriptions to FaunusFaunus
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Faunus was the horned god of the forest, plains and fields; when he made cattle fertile he was called Inuus. He came to be equated in literature with the Greek god Pan....
, a minor Roman
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the body of traditional stories pertaining to ancient Rome's legendary origins and religious system, as represented in the literature and visual arts of the Romans...
god who had many characteristics in common with the Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
Pan
Pan (mythology)
Pan , in Greek religion and mythology, is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein , meaning "to pasture." He has the hindquarters, legs,...
. There is no overtly Christian symbolism in the hoard, though one spoon is decorated with the figure of a fish
Ichthys
Ichthys, from Koine Greek: , is the Greek word for "fish"....
, which can often be an oblique reference to Christianity. Bacchic
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
iconography is obvious in the group, and was traditional in Roman culture, but in the late Roman period, many Bacchic motifs were adopted and given new interpretations by Christians. Nevertheless, at this date, the end of the 4th century AD, there was no obstacle to placing unequivocally Christian symbols and inscriptions on personal possessions, so that their absence here is noteworthy. The openly, and probably exclusively, pagan iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
remains one of the most interesting and unusual aspects of the assemblage.
The dedications, such as DEIFAVNIAVSECI (RIB 2420.21) (literally, 'of the God Faunus Ausecus') are engraved in the bowls of both the cochlearia and cigni. The epithets or by-names applied to Faunus in the inscriptions have been identified as containing Celtic (Gaulish or British) linguistic elements, supporting the supposition that any cult of Faunus which they represent was Romano-British, not one that consisted of devotees from elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The inscriptions were discussed in the published catalogue by the late Kenneth Jackson.
It has been suggested that it is unlikely that these items were intended to be used for ordinary domestic dining, and that their eventual deposition may be interpreted as a ritual act rather than a practical one (See Religion in Ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
). However, since both pagan and Christian inscriptions are regularly found on Roman jewellery and domestic tableware, and as the actual motivation for the concealment of the Thetford material itself is unknown, this view is open to debate. The unusual composition of the group of gold objects is actually somewhat better evidence of a non-domestic background than the decoration and inscriptions of the silver assemblage (see comments on the range of finger-rings in the following section). The suspicion that the hoard is incomplete undermines any detailed analysis of these matters, but if the gold and silver objects were connected in any way with pagan cult practices, which is certainly a possibility, then the anti-pagan Theodosian
Theodosius I
Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...
edicts of the 390s would have provided good practical (rather than ritual) reasons for the concealment of the material from the authorities.
Gold jewellery
The gold belt-buckle is an unusual find, and would have been worn by a man; we know that belts decorated in various forms were important symbols of office or status in late Roman times, though few elements of them have survived. Its decoration, of a satyr carrying a pedum (shepherd's crook) and a bunch of grapes, accords with other hints at Bacchic imagery throughout the assemblage, in both the jewellery and the tableware. For example, the running feline animal on spoon (cochlear) no.66, originally identified as a panther or leopard, and referred to as the 'panther spoon', is certainly a reference to Bacchus, who was regularly accompanied by a panther or leopard (Panthera pardus), or by a tiger (Panthera tigris). In fact, the animal on Thetford spoon no.66 is probably a tiger: the rendering of the stripes as very short curved lines, easily mistaken for spots, was common in Roman art.The gold finger-rings could have been worn by either men or women, though the bracelets, and necklaces with pendants were chiefly feminine jewels at this date. Many of the rings display elaborate filigree
Filigree
Filigree is a delicate kind of jewellery metalwork made with twisted threads usually of gold and silver or stitching of the same curving motifs. It often suggests lace, and in recent centuries remains popular in Indian and other Asian metalwork, and French from 1660 to the late 19th century...
work, typical of late-Roman taste, and a few are of highly unusual design. The tiny horned, Pan-like head that forms the bezel
Bezel setting
A bezel is a band of metal containing a groove and a flange holding a watch crystal or gemstone in its setting. This was the earliest method of setting gemstones into jewelry...
of ring no.23 appears to be unparalleled, and may well be intended as a reference to Faunus, while the design of no.7, two birds flanking a vase, is both a standard Bacchic image, eventually adopted in Christian iconography, and possibly something more specific in this instance. The birds, even though they are at a very small scale, have the appearance of woodpeckers, and picus, the Latin name for birds of this kind, was also the name of the father of Faunus in some sources (Virgil, Aeneid 7, 48).
Much of the jewellery will have been designed and selected for its talisman
Talisman
Talisman have several meanings:*TalismanBooks and novels* The Talisman , a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott* The Talisman , a novel by Stephen King and Peter Straub...
ic, religious or personal significance. A gold amulet pendant, intended for suspension around the neck (and with parallels including one from York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
), was filled with sulphur, possibly because of its apotropaic qualities. One ring is set with an engraved gem of brown chalcedony
Chalcedony
Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of the minerals quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, while moganite is monoclinic...
13 x 9.5mm. Upon it is depicted a cock-headed, snake-legged deity known as an Anguipede
Anguipede
The Anguiped is a divinity that is often found on magical amulets from the Greco-Roman period.The Anguiped is depicted as a creature with the head of a rooster and snakes for legs, symbolism thought to be of Persian origin. Sometimes inscribed below is Iao, a form of the Tetragrammaton - the four...
, holding a shield which is inscribed in Greek with ΩΑΙ, ΙΑΩ or 'Iao' in reverse - a powerful magical word often associated with this deity (see Voces mysticae). Although set in a closed-back setting, this gem was also inscribed on its reverse side with the Greek ΑΒΡΑCΞCΑΒΑΩΘ which translates as 'Abrasax Saboath' also a word of power and associated name of the deity. It is interesting that a Greek-inscribed charm appears in a hoard primarily associated with an Italian (Latin) minor deity (Faunus), though many other Greek inscriptions are known from Roman Britain, and other examples of late-Antique 'magical gems' have also been found in Latin-speaking provinces.
A matching pair of bracelets (nos. 24 and 25), which at the time of finding and publication could be paralleled only by similar bracelets from the 1841 Lyon jewellery hoard, which is of somewhat earlier date, have now been paralleled by a set of four matching bracelets from the Hoxne hoard
Hoxne Hoard
The Hoxne Hoard is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth century found anywhere within the Roman Empire...
found in 1992, the date of which appears to be close to that of the deposition of the Thetford find.
It has been suggested that all the objects "may well have been commissioned by a group of intellectuals who fervently believed in the old values and who interred the objects when serious persecution of non-Christians began in the 390s".
Most of the gold objects appear to be in fresh, apparently unworn condition. Roman gold, which is of high purity (in this case, with a mean gold content of over 94 percent; is soft, and quickly shows signs of use. This pristine condition is one of the unusual features of the Thetford jewellery assemblage. Most of the rings have design and workmanship characteristics in common that suggest they may be the products of a single workshop, while the construction of the matching pair of bracelets is also paralleled in the form of two of the rings (nos. 10 and 12). It would be somewhat surprising for a single owner, or even a family, to possess such a comparatively large number of rings which seem to have been acquired from a single source at the same time. Personal collections of jewellery usually contain pieces of different ages and conditions.
Significance
The Thetford assemblage, in spite of the sadly inadequate details of its discovery and provenance, remains one of the most intriguing and unusual of the many late-Roman precious-metal hoards from Britain. Although the combination of silver tableware and gold personal ornament (with or without coins) is common enough in precious-metal hoards of this period from Britain, the fact that the inscriptions, supported by the visual imagery, allude to pagan, rather than Christian, belief towards the end of the 4th century, is important. Attempts have been made to interpret the hoard as Christian , but remain somewhat unconvincing when applied to objects current at a period when paganism, rather than Christianity, was out of favour. In the present state of knowledge, we can still only speculate about the status of the objects, that is, whether they belonged to an individual or family, or to some organisation, such as a religious one.See also
- Votive offeringVotive offeringA votive deposit or votive offering is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for broadly religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally made in order to gain favor with supernatural...
- Hoxne HoardHoxne HoardThe Hoxne Hoard is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth century found anywhere within the Roman Empire...
- Religion in Ancient RomeReligion in ancient RomeReligion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
- List of hoards in Britain
External links
- Gilded spoons from the Thetford treasure
- Engraved gem from the Thetford treasure
- Gold buckle from the Thetford treasure
- Gold rings from the Thetford treasure
- Jewellery from the Thetford treasure
- Large spoons (cigni) from the Thetford treasure
- Large Long spoons (cochlearia) from the Thetford treasure