The Carthage Treasure is a
Roman silver hoard, which was found in
Tunis
Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...
, Tunisia, at the site of the ancient city of
Carthage
Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, 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 classic ...
. The treasure principally consists of silver tableware and jewellery, most of which is now held at the
British Museum
The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
.
[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, 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 a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
, 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 were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...
. The Vandals, led by
Gaiseric, invaded Africa Proconsulare from Spain in 429 and in the
Battle of Carthage (439) the city became capital of the
Vandal Kingdom
The Vandal Kingdom () or Kingdom of the Vandals and Alans () was a confederation of Vandals and Alans, which was a barbarian kingdoms, barbarian kingdom established under Gaiseric, a Vandals, Vandalic warlord. It ruled parts of North Africa and th ...
.
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, storing, 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 ...
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 cu ...
s on the lids' curved surfaces.[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 (mollusc), mantle) of a living Exoskeleton, shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pear ...
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, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...
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 languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
inscription around the centre
Image:Carthage (6).JPG, Two elaborately decorated bowls with pastoral and bacchic 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
*Mildenhall Treasure
The Mildenhall Treasure is a large hoard of 34 masterpieces of Roman Empire, 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 may have been found ...
* Sevso Treasure
References
Bibliography
*Kent, J. & Painter K. S. (eds), ''Wealth of the Roman world: AD 300–700'', British Museum Publications, 1977, , 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)
{{British Museum
Ancient Greek and Roman objects in the British Museum
Treasure troves of late antiquity
Silver objects
Carthage
Ancient Roman metalwork
Archaeological discoveries in Tunisia