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A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an
archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died or were unable to return for other reasons (forgetfulness or physical displacement from its location) before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards might then be uncovered much later by
metal detector A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. The unit itself, consist of a control box, and an adjustable shaft, ...
hobbyists, members of the public, and
archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...
s. Hoards provide a useful method of providing dates for artifacts through association as they can usually be assumed to be contemporary (or at least assembled during a decade or two), and therefore used in creating chronologies. Hoards can also be considered an indicator of the relative degree of unrest in ancient societies. Thus conditions in 5th and 6th century
Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
spurred the burial of hoards, of which the most famous are the Hoxne Hoard, Suffolk; the
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 Mil ...
, the Fishpool Hoard, Nottinghamshire, the Water Newton hoard, Cambridgeshire, and the
Cuerdale Hoard The Cuerdale Hoard is a hoard of more than 8,600 items, including silver coins, English and Carolingian jewellery, hacksilver and ingots. It was discovered on 15 May 1840 on the southern bank of a bend of the River Ribble, in an area called Cu ...
, Lancashire, all preserved in 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 ...
. Prudence Harper of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
voiced some practical reservations about hoards at the time of the Soviet exhibition of Scythian gold in New York City in 1975. Writing of the so-called "Maikop treasure" (acquired from three separate sources by three museums early in the twentieth century, the Berliner Museen, the
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...
, and the Metropolitan Museum, New York), Harper warned: Such "dealer's hoards" can be highly misleading, but better understanding of archaeology amongst collectors, museums and the general public is gradually making them less common and more easily identified.


Classification

Hoards may be of precious
metals A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typical ...
,
coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order ...
age,
tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools, only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates b ...
s or less commonly,
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...
or
glass Glass is a non- crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenchin ...
vessels. There are various classifications depending on the nature of the hoard. A founder's hoard contains broken or unfit metal objects,
ingot An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products. Ingots usually require a second procedure of sha ...
s, casting waste, and often complete objects, in a finished state. These were probably buried with the intention to be recovered at a later time. A merchant's hoard is a collection of various functional items which, it is conjectured, were buried by a traveling merchant for safety, with the intention of later retrieval. A personal hoard is a collection of personal objects buried for safety in times of unrest. A hoard of
loot Loot may refer to: Film *''Loot'' (1919 film), a film by William C. Dowlan * ''Loot'' (1970 film), a British film by Silvio Narizzano * ''Loot'' (2008 film), a documentary * ''Loot'' (2011 film), an Indian film * ''Loot'' (2012 film), a Nepali fi ...
is a buried collection of spoils from raiding and is more in keeping with the popular idea of "
buried treasure Buried treasure is a literary trope commonly associated with depictions of pirates, criminals, and Old West outlaws. According to popular conception, these people often buried their stolen fortunes in remote places, intending to return to them ...
". Votive hoards are different from the above in that they are often taken to represent permanent abandonment, in the form of ''purposeful deposition'' of items, either all at once or over time for
ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized ...
purposes, ''without intent to recover them''. Furthermore, votive hoards need not be "manufactured" goods, but can include organic
amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protect ...
s and animal remains. Votive hoards are often distinguished from more functional deposits by the nature of the goods themselves (from animal bones to diminutive artifacts), the places buried (being often associated with watery places, burial mounds and boundaries), and the treatment of the deposit (careful or haphazard placement and whether ritually destroyed/broken). Valuables dedicated to the use of a deity (and thus classifiable as "votive") were not always permanently abandoned. Valuable objects given to a temple or church become the property of that institution, and may be used to its benefit.C. Johns, "The classification and interpretation of Romano-British treasures", ''Britannia'' 27 (1996), 1–17: see especially pp. 9–11


Hoards with individual articles


Asia

*
Akota Bronzes The Akota Bronzes represent a rare and important set of 68 Jain images, dating to between the 6th and 12th centuries AD, which were found in the vicinity of Akota near Baroda in the Indian state of Gujarat. It includes rare Gupta period bronzes t ...
*
Bactrian Gold Tillya tepe, Tillia tepe or Tillā tapa ( fa, طلا تپه, literally "Golden Hill" or "Golden Mound") is an archaeological site in the northern Afghanistan province of Jowzjan near Sheberghan, excavated in 1978 by a Soviet- Afghan team led by t ...
*
Chausa hoard This was the first known bronze hoard discovered in the Gangetic valley and consists of a set of 18 Jain bronzes. The Chausa hoard, thus named after the place of discovery: Chausa or Chausagarh is located in the Buxar district of Bihar state, I ...
* Copper Hoard Culture * Kfar Monash Hoard *
Priam's Treasure Priam's Treasure is a cache of gold and other artifacts discovered by classical archaeologists Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hissarlik, on the northwestern coast of modern Turkey. The majority of the artifacts are currently in the Pushk ...
* Wonoboyo hoard * Ziwiye hoard


Europe


Great Britain and the Channel Islands

* Beau Street Hoard * Bitterley Hoard *
Canterbury-St Martin's hoard The Canterbury-St Martin's hoard is a coin-hoard found in the 19th century at Canterbury, Kent dating from the 6th century. The group, in the World Museum, Liverpool, consists of eight items, including three gold coins mounted with suspension ...
*
Cheapside Hoard The Cheapside Hoard is a hoard of jewellery from the late 16th and early 17th centuries, discovered in 1912 by workmen using a pickaxe to excavate in a cellar at 30–32 Cheapside in London, on the corner with Friday Street. They found a buried ...
* Collette Hoard *
Corbridge Hoard The Corbridge Hoard is a hoard of mostly iron artefacts that was excavated in 1964 within the Roman site of Coria, next to what is now Corbridge, Northumberland, England (not to be confused with a hoard of gold coins found nearby in 1911). It ca ...
*
Cuerdale Hoard The Cuerdale Hoard is a hoard of more than 8,600 items, including silver coins, English and Carolingian jewellery, hacksilver and ingots. It was discovered on 15 May 1840 on the southern bank of a bend of the River Ribble, in an area called Cu ...
*
Cunetio Hoard __NOTOC__ The Cunetio Hoard, also known as the Mildenhall Hoard,Nigel Kerton''C4's Time Team dig in at Mildenhall'' at ''gazetteandherald.co.uk'', Friday 4 September 2009 is the largest hoard of Roman Britain, Roman coins found in Britain. It was ...
*
Frome Hoard The Frome Hoard is a hoard of 52,503 Roman coins found in April 2010 by metal detectorist Dave Crisp near Frome in Somerset, England. The coins were contained in a ceramic pot in diameter, and date from AD 253 to 305. Most of the coins are made ...
*
Galloway Hoard The Galloway Hoard, currently held in the National Museum of Scotland, is a hoard of more than 100 gold, silver, glass, crystal, stone, and earthen objects from the Viking Age discovered in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries ...
* Grouville Hoard *
Havering hoard The Havering hoard is a hoard of 453 late Bronze-age (900 to 800 BCE) artefacts found at a site overlooking the River Thames in Rainham, London, in 2018. It is the largest bronze-age hoard to be found in London and the third-largest in the United ...
*
Hexham Hoard The Hexham hoard is a 9th-century hoard of eight thousand copper-alloy coins of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria, which were discovered whilst a grave was being dug close to Hexham Abbey in 1832. Discovery The hoard was uncovered on 15 ...
* Hoxne Hoard * Isleham Hoard *
Kirkoswald Hoard The Kirkoswald Hoard is a ninth-century hoard of 542 copper alloy coins of the Kingdom of Northumbria and a silver trefoil ornament, which were discovered amongst tree roots in 1808 within the parish of Kirkoswald in Cumbria, UK. Discovery ...
*
Lenborough Hoard The Lenborough Hoard is a hoard of more than 5,000 late Anglo-Saxon silver coins, dating to the eleventh century, that was found at Lenborough in Buckinghamshire, England in 2014. It is believed to be one of the largest hoards of Anglo-Saxon coi ...
* Leominster hoard * Middleham Hoard * Migdale Hoard *
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 Mil ...
*
Milton Keynes Hoard The Milton Keynes Hoard is a hoard of Bronze Age gold found in September 2000 in a field at Monkston Park in Milton Keynes, England. The hoard consisted of two torcs, three bracelets, and a fragment of bronze rod contained in a pottery vesse ...
* Rogiet Hoard *
Shapwick Hoard The Shapwick Hoard is a hoard of 9,262 Roman coins found at Shapwick, Somerset, England in September 1998. The coins dated from as early as 31–30 BC up until 224 AD. The hoard also notably contained two rare coins which had not been discovere ...
*
Shrewsbury Hoard The Shrewsbury Hoard (also known as the Shropshire Hoard) is a hoard of 9,315 bronze Roman coins discovered by a metal detectorist in a field near Shrewsbury, Shropshire in August 2009. The coins were found in a large pottery storage jar that w ...
* Silsden Hoard *
Snettisham Hoard The Snettisham Hoard or ''Snettisham Treasure'' is a series of discoveries of Iron Age precious metal, found in the Snettisham area of the English county of Norfolk between 1948 and 1973. Iron age hoard The hoard consists of metal, jet and ...
* St Leonard's Place Hoard * Staffordshire Hoard * Stanchester Hoard *
Stirling Hoard The Stirling torcs make up a hoard of four gold Iron Age torcs, a type of necklace, all of which date to between 300 and 100 BC and which were buried deliberately at some point in antiquity. They were found by a metal detectorist in a fi ...
*
Talnotrie Hoard The Talnotrie Hoard is a 9th-century mixed hoard of jewellery, coinage, metal-working objects and raw materials found in Talnotrie, Scotland, in 1912. Initially assumed to have belonged to a Northumbrian metal-worker, more recent interpretations a ...
* Thetford Hoard * Thornbury Hoard *
Tregwynt Hoard The Tregwynt Hoard is a mid-17th-century hoard of coins found at Tregwynt Mansion near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in 1996. The hoard is now in National Museum Wales. The treasure consisted of 33 gold coins, 467 silver coins and a gol ...
* Upchurch Hoard *
Vale of York Hoard The Vale of York Hoard, also known as the Harrogate Hoard and the Vale of York Viking Hoard, is a 10th-century Viking hoard of 617 silver coins and 65 other items. It was found undisturbed in 2007 near the town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, ...
(previously known as ''Harrogate hoard'') * Water Newton Treasure *
West Bagborough Hoard The West Bagborough Hoard is a hoard of 670 Roman coins and 72 pieces of hacksilver found in October 2001 by metal detectorist James Hawkesworth near West Bagborough in Somerset, England. Discovery, excavation and valuation The hoard was dis ...
* West Yorkshire Hoard * Wickham Market Hoard *
Winchester Hoard The Winchester Hoard is a hoard of Iron Age gold found in a field in the Winchester area of Hampshire, England, in 2000, by a retired florist and amateur metal detectorist, Kevan Halls. It was declared treasure and valued at £350,000— ...
* Wold Newton hoard


Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

*
Ardagh Hoard The Ardagh Hoard, best known for the Ardagh Chalice, is a hoard of metalwork from the 8th and 9th centuries. Found in 1868 by two young local boys, Jim Quin and Paddy Flanagan, it is now on display in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. ...
* Broighter Hoard * Derrynaflan Hoard *
Dowris Hoard The Dowris Hoard is the name of an important Bronze Age hoard of over 200 objects found in Dowris, County Offaly, Ireland. Items from the deposit are currently split between two institutions: the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin and the Brit ...
*
Mooghaun North Hoard The Mooghaun North Hoard or ''Great Clare Find'' is the name of an important Bronze Age hoard found at Mooghaun North, near Newmarket-on-Fergus in County Clare, Ireland. Considered one of the greatest Bronze Age hoards of gold ever found north of ...


Continental

*
Lampsacus Treasure The Lampsacus Treasure or ''Lapseki Treasure'' is the name of an important early Byzantine silver hoard found near the town of Lapseki (ancient Lampsacus) in modern-day Turkey. Most of the hoard is now in the British Museum's collection, although ...
, Turkey *
First Cyprus Treasure The First Cyprus Treasure or ''Lamboussa Treasure'' is the name of a major early Byzantine silver hoard found near Kyrenia, Cyprus. Currently in the British Museum's collection, the treasure is largely composed of liturgical objects that may ha ...
, Cyprus * Berthouville Treasure, France (relating to the Romans) *
Borovo Treasure The Borovo Treasure, also known as the Borovo Silver Treasure, is a Thracian hoard of five matching silver-gilt items discovered in late 1974 while ploughing a field in Borovo, Bulgaria. The treasure is kept in the history museum at Ruse. It ...
, part of the
Thracian treasure The Thracians ( bg, Траки, grc, Θρᾷκες, la, Thraci) were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in Central and Southeastern Europe, centred in modern Bulgaria. They were bordered by the Scythians to the north, the ...
*
Broighter Gold The Broighter Gold or more correctly, the Broighter Hoard, is a hoard of gold artefacts from the Iron Age of the 1st century BC that were found in 1896 by Tom Nicholl and James Morrow on farmland near Limavady, in the north of Ireland (now North ...
, Northern Ireland (relating to the Iron Age La Tène culture) * Casco de Leiro, Spain (relating to the Bronze Age) *
Chatuzange Treasure The Chatuzange Treasure is the name of an important Roman silver hoard found in the village of Chatuzange-le-Goubet in the department of Drôme, south-eastern France. Since 1893 it has been part of the British Museum's collection. Discovery In ...
, France (relating to Roman silver) * Cheste hoard, Spain (relating to the
Second Punic War The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...
) * Eberswalde Hoard, Germany (relating to the Bronze Age) *
Paramythia Hoard The Paramythia Hoard or ''Paramythia Treasure'' is the name of a Greco-Roman hoard of bronze figurines and other objects found in Paramythia, north-west Greece in the late 18th century. Of the original nineteen objects found in the hoard, fourtee ...
, Greece (relating to Greco-Roman artefacts) * Pereshchepina Treasure, Ukraine (relating to the Bulgars) * Pietroasele Treasure, Romania (relating to the Goths) * Preslav Treasure, Bulgaria (relating to the Byzantines) *
Reka Devnia Hoard {{short description, Hoard of Roman coins The Reka Devnia Hoard was the most prolific find of Roman silver coins of the period from 64 to 251 AD to have ever been published. It was found near the town of Devnya (Marcianopolis of Roman Empire), nort ...
, Bulgaria (relating to the Romans) * Saka Hoard, Estonia (12th century) * Sevso Treasure, possibly Hungary (relating to the Romans) *
Treasure of El Carambolo The Treasure of El Carambolo ( es, Tesoro del Carambolo) was found in El Carambolo hill in the municipality of Camas (Province of Seville, Andalusia, Spain), 3 kilometers west of Seville, on 30 September 1958.Chamorro, 197. The discovery of the ...
, Spain (relating to the
Tartessians Tartessos ( es, Tarteso) is, as defined by archaeological discoveries, a historical civilization settled in the region of Southern Spain characterized by its mixture of local Paleohispanic and Phoenician traits. It had a proper writing system ...
) *
Treasure of Gourdon {{no footnotes, date=February 2016 The Treasure of Gourdon (french: Trésor de Gourdon) is a hoard of gold objects of which date to the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century AD. They were secreted soon after 524. It was unearthe ...
, France (gold from 5th or 6th century) *
Treasure of Guarrazar The Treasure of Guarrazar, Guadamur, Province of Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spain, is an archeological find composed of twenty-six votive crowns and gold crosses that had originally been offered to the Roman Catholic Church by the Kings ...
, Spain (relating to the
Visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is k ...
) *
Treasure of Villena The Treasure of Villena ( es, Tesoro de Villena) is one of the greatest hoard finds of gold of the European Bronze Age. It comprises 59 objects made of gold, silver, iron and amber with a total weight of almost 10 kilograms, 9 of them of 23.5 ...
, Spain (relating to the Bronze Age) *
Ubina Hoard The Ubina Hoard is a wealth deposit of silver coins and jewelry found in the village of Salu, Harju County in Estonia in 2005. The oldest items in the hoard probably date from the Viking Age but the hoard seems to have been deposited during the ...
, Estonia (12th century) * Vinkovci Treasure


Scandinavia

* Molnby Hoard, Sweden (relating to the Viking age) * Sandur Hoard, Faroe Islands (relating to the Viking age) *
Spillings Hoard The Spillings Hoard ( sv, Spillingsskatten) is the world's largest Viking silver treasure, found on Friday 16July 1999 in a field at the Spilling farm northwest of Slite, on northern Gotland, Sweden. The silver hoard consisted of two parts with ...
, Sweden (relating to the Viking age) * Sundveda Hoard, Sweden (relating to the Viking age)


North Africa and Middle East

*
Asyut Treasure The Asyut Treasure is the name of an important Byzantine Empire, Byzantine hoard of jewellery found near the city of Asyut, central Egypt. Discovered in mysterious circumstances in the early twentieth century, the treasure is now divided between ...
*
Megiddo Treasure The Megiddo Treasure is a small hoard of jewelry pieces found in 2010, in a ceramic "beer-jug" at the archaeological site of Tel Megiddo, the location of the ancient city of Megiddo, in present-day kibbutz called Megiddo, Israel, Megiddo, Jezreel V ...
, a hoard found at
Tel Megiddo Tel Megiddo ( he, תל מגידו; ar, مجیدو, Tell el- Mutesellim, ''lit.'' "Mound of the Governor"; gr, Μεγιδδώ, Megiddo) is the site of the ancient city of Megiddo, the remains of which form a tell (archaeological mound), situa ...
,
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
*
Nahal Mishmar hoard The Nahal Mishmar hoard is the hoard of archaeological artifacts found by a 1961 expedition led by Pessah Bar-Adon in a cave by Nahal Mishmar in the Judaean Desert near the Dead Sea, Israel. The collection wrapped in a straw mat found under d ...
* Kaper Koraon Treasure, Syria


North America

* Baltimore gold hoard * Bank of New York Hoard *
Castine Hoard The Castine Hoard (also known as ''The Castine Deposit'') is the name given to a treasure trove of around 500–2,000 North American colonial coins that were found in Castine, Maine. The coins were from various countries, and were buried sometime ...
*
Saddle Ridge Hoard The Saddle Ridge Hoard is the name given to a hoard of 1,427 gold coins unearthed in the Gold Country of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada, California in 2013. The face value of the coins totaled $27,980, but was assessed to be worth $10 m ...
*
Dawson Film Find The Dawson Film Find (DFF) was the accidental discovery in 1978 of 372 film titles preserved in 533 reels of silent-era nitrate films in the Klondike Gold Rush town of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. The reels had been buried under an abandoned hock ...
*


See also

*
Lagerstätte A Lagerstätte (, from '' Lager'' 'storage, lair' '' Stätte'' 'place'; plural ''Lagerstätten'') is a sedimentary deposit that exhibits extraordinary fossils with exceptional preservation—sometimes including preserved soft tissues. These f ...
, a concentration of fossils useful for similar reasons in paleontology *
List of hoards in Britain The list of hoards in Britain comprises significant archaeological hoards of coins, jewellery, precious and scrap metal objects and other valuable items discovered in Great Britain ( England, Scotland and Wales). It includes both hoards that wer ...
*
List of hoards in Ireland The list of hoards in Ireland comprises the significant archaeological hoards of coins, jewellery, metal objects, scrap metal and other valuable items that have been discovered on the island of Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). ...
* List of missing treasure * Hacksilver *
Treasure Treasure (from la, thesaurus from Greek language ''thēsauros'', "treasure store") is a concentration of wealth — often originating from ancient history — that is considered lost and/or forgotten until rediscovered. Some jurisdictions le ...
*
Treasure trove A treasure trove is an amount of money or coin, gold, silver, plate, or bullion found hidden underground or in places such as cellars or attics, where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the hei ...


References

{{Authority control Archaeological artifacts Treasure