The Carthage Treasure is a
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
silver hoard, which was found in
Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
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, Tunisia, at the site of the ancient city of
Carthage
Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...
. The treasure principally consists of silver tableware and jewellery, most of which is now held at the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
.
[British Museum Collection]
British Museum, retrieved April 2014
Discovery
The hoard was unearthed in the 19th century at the Hill of St Louis in Carthage, which at the time of its deposition was the largest city of
Africa Proconsulare.
[ Most of the treasure was purchased by Sir ]Augustus Wollaston Franks
Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks (20 March 182621 May 1897) was a British antiquarian and museum administrator. Franks was described by Marjorie Caygill, historian of the British Museum, as "arguably the most important collector in the history of ...
, a senior curator at the British Museum, who bequeathed it to the museum upon his death in 1897. A small part of the treasure can be found in the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
, including one of the silver covered bowls.Louvre Collection
Louvre Collection, retrieved April 2014
Dating and attribution
Dating to the second half of the fourth century AD, the Carthage Treasure comprises 31 different objects, primarily luxury silver tableware and jewellery that must have belonged to a wealthy Roman family who for some reason decided to
bury it for safe-keeping. This may have been because of the religious feud around 400, but it is more likely that the treasure was hidden from the
Vandals
The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century.
The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...
. The Vandals, led by
Gaiseric
Gaiseric ( – 25 January 477), also known as Geiseric or Genseric ( la, Gaisericus, Geisericus; reconstructed Vandalic: ) was King of the Vandals and Alans (428–477), ruling a kingdom he established, and was one of the key players in the diff ...
, invaded Africa Proconsulare from Spain in 429 and in the
Battle of Carthage (439) the city became capital of the
Vandal Kingdom.
Inscribed in the centre of one of the dishes around the
tondo is D D ICRESCONI CLARENT, which is associated with the Cresconii, a powerful Roman North African family in Carthage
[Bowl from the Carthage Treasure]
Highlights, British Museum, retrieved 3 April 2014 who are well known from deeds and records of office-holders at this time.
Description
The treasure includes a pair of flat dishes (one of which identifies the family), two bowls with chased and hammered pastoral scenes in relief around the edge,
four hemispherical
bowl
A bowl is a typically round dish or container generally used for preparing, serving, or consuming food. The interior of a bowl is characteristically shaped like a spherical cap, with the edges and the bottom forming a seamless curve. This makes ...
s with high tapering feet (two of which still have their covers), a shallow bowl with handle and frog engraved in the centre, twelve silver spoons, and a mixed collection of jewellery: a finger ring, a cameo, a pair of ear rings, several
intaglios and two necklaces, one made of gold, the other with precious stones.
[ The jewelled necklace consists of twelve polygonal emeralds, thirteen sapphires, matched by twenty-five pearls all joined by gold links.][''Catalogue of early Christian antiquities and objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and mediaeval antiquities and ethnography of the British museum'']
O. M. Dalton, 1901
The family would have owned two collections of silver: One known as ''argentum potorium'' that was the drinking set, and another for eating called the ''argentum escarium''. Amongst this find were several silver hemispherical lidded bowls that measure 12 cm high and 12 cm in diameter. The vessels' elegant design includes a tall base that complements the knop of the bowl's lid. The bowls also incorporate subtle facet
Facets () are flat faces on geometric shapes. The organization of naturally occurring facets was key to early developments in crystallography, since they reflect the underlying symmetry of the crystal structure. Gemstones commonly have facets cut ...
s on the lids' curved surfaces. Similar bowls have been found at the Roman site of Viminacium
Viminacium () or ''Viminatium'', was a major city (provincial capital) and military camp of the Roman province of Moesia (today's Serbia), and the capital of ''Moesia Superior'' (hence once a metropolitan archbishopric, now a Latin titular see). ...
near modern Kostolac
The City municipality of Kostolac ( sr-cyrl, Градска општина Костолац, Gradska opština Kostolac is a town in Serbia and one of two city municipalities which constitute the City of Požarevac. It is situated on the Danube ri ...
in Serbia.[Silver bowl from the Carthage Treasure]
British Museum, retrieved 10 January 2016
Gallery
Image:Carthage (3).JPG, One of the necklaces (made of pearl
A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...
s and sapphire
Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sa ...
s) next to the pair of ear rings
Image:Carthage (4).JPG, A silver spoon with an apocalyptic Chrismon engraved in the centre
Image:Carthage (5).JPG, A flat bowl with Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
inscription around the centre
Image:Carthage (6).JPG, Two elaborately decorated bowls with pastoral and bacchic
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Roma ...
scenes
Image:Carthage (7).JPG, Shallow bowl above three silver spoons
Image:Carthage (1).JPG, One of the hemispherical covered bowls
See also
*Esquiline Treasure
The Esquiline Treasure is an ancient Roman silver treasure that was found in 1793 on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. The hoard is considered an important example of late antique silver work from the 4th century AD, probably about 380 for the major pi ...
*Mildenhall Treasure
The Mildenhall Treasure is a large hoard of 34 masterpieces of Roman silver tableware from the fourth century AD, and by far the most valuable Roman objects artistically and by weight of bullion in Britain. It was found at West Row, near Mild ...
*Sevso Treasure
The Seuso Treasure or Sevso Treasure ( hu, Seuso-kincsek; hr, Seusovo blago), is a hoard of silver objects (14 items) from the late Roman Empire. The first pieces appeared on the market in London in 1980, and the treasure was acquired by a co ...
References
Bibliography
*Kent, J. & Painter K. S. (eds), ''Wealth of the Roman world: AD 300–700'', British Museum Publications, 1977, {{ISBN, 0714100617, 9780714100616
*D. Strong, Greek and Roman Silver Plate (British Museum Press, 1966)
*L. Burn, The British Museum Book of Greek and Roman Art (British Museum Press, 1991)
*S. Walker, Roman Art (British Museum Press, 1991)
Ancient Greek and Roman objects in the British Museum
Treasure troves of late antiquity
Silver objects
Carthage
Ancient Roman metalwork