__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
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 ...
of
Roman coins found in Britain. It was discovered in 1978 at the site of the Roman town of
Cunetio
Cunetio was a large walled town in a valley of the River Kennet in modern-day Wiltshire, England. The settlement was occupied from the 2nd century CE by Romano-British culture, Romano-British people until the Sub-Roman Britain, post-Roman period, ...
, near modern-day
Mildenhall, Wiltshire
Mildenhall ( ) is a village and civil parish in the Kennet Valley in Wiltshire, England, immediately east of the market town of Marlborough. The village is about east of the centre of Marlborough, on the minor road which follows the River Kenne ...
, and consisted of 54,951 low value coins. The coins were contained in a large pot and a lead container.
The coins are now in the
British Museum and the pot is on display at the
Wiltshire Museum in
Devizes.
Overview
Cunetio developed from a small settlement into an important economic market for the area, which is thought to explain the concentration of coins. Excavation of a nearby well in 1912 uncovered 102 coins, possibly from another hoard. A smaller hoard had been found at this site in 1960.
The 1978 hoard consisted of 54,951 coins weighing over . Most of the coins were low value
Radiates
Radiata or Radiates is a historical taxonomic rank that was used to classify animals with radially symmetric body plans. The term Radiata is no longer accepted, as it united several different groupings of animals that do not form a monophyleti ...
, however there were significant numbers of
Antoniniani, some of which dated from the reign of
Gallienus (253-268). The dates of the coins were between AD 250-275, however the majority are from the independent empire established in
Gaul by
Postumus in 260. Larger hoards of Roman coins have been found at
Misrata
Misrata ( ; also spelled Misurata or Misratah; ar, مصراتة, Miṣrāta ) is a city in the Misrata District in northwestern Libya, situated to the east of Tripoli and west of Benghazi on the Mediterranean coast near Cape Misrata. With ...
in Libya and are believed to have been found at
Evreux in France (100,000 coins) and
Komin, Croatia (300,000 coins); however, at the time of its discovery the Cunetio Hoard was by far the largest in Britain.
The site of the hoard and the wider settlement were surveyed and excavated for the Channel 4 television programme ''
Time Team'' in 2009.
See also
*
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 ...
References
Sources
*
*
External links
Time Team episode on Cunetioat YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunetio Hoard
Treasure troves of late antiquity
Treasure troves of Roman Britain
History of Wiltshire
1978 in England
1978 archaeological discoveries
Treasure troves in England
Metal detecting finds in England
Hoards from Roman Britain
Coin hoards