The Arcisate 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 lett ...
silver hoard found in the town of
Arcisate
Arcisate is a town and ''comune'' located in the province of Varese, in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. The celebrated Arcisate Treasure of Roman silverware was found in the town in the nineteenth century. It is now in the British Museum
...
, northern
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. Soon after its discovery in 1900, the treasure was acquired by 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 docume ...
According to scholars, the treasure's significance is due to the completeness of the set, the high quality of the craftsmanship and materials used to make it, as well as the
hoard
A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological 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 ...
's excellent state of preservation.
[P. Piana Agostinetti and S. Priuli, "Il tesoro di Arcisate", ''Archeologia Classica'', 37 (1985)]
Discovery
The treasure was found in Arcisate in the
province of Varese
The province of Varese ( it, provincia di Varese) is a province in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese (population of 80,857 inhabitants), but its largest city is Busto Arsizio. The headquarters of the Agus ...
in 1900 and was almost immediately bought by Adolf Roger, who in turn sold it to the British Museum.
Description
The Arcisate Treasure is composed of five objects, all made of
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
. They include a jug, a cup (both handles of which are now missing), a