One problem with Butcher and Ford’s story of the discovery while plowing is the lack of significant damage to any of the artifacts, especially the Great Dish. If the objects were hit by a plow and then hurriedly dug up using a shovel, then there would surely be some signs of this in the form of scratches, dents, or cracks, though to be fair there are dents on the four flanged bowls, which could have been caused by the plow. Another problem is that Ford and Butcher changed their story about when and where the hoard was discovered on more than one occasion. Ford initially claimed to have found the treasure in January 1942 on land owned by Fred Rolfe, but later said that he had in fact discovered the cache in January 1943 while walking across a recently plowed field. Ford subsequently changed his story again and went back to his original account. More worrisome, when a thorough excavation of the find spot initially identified by Ford was undertaken in September 1946, nothing at all was found—not a single Roman artifact, nor even a trace of the original hole in which the treasure was supposedly buried. One can only assume that the archaeologists were digging in the wrong place, and that they had been misdirected by Ford.
A further point to consider is Ford’s delay in reporting the find, ostensibly because he thought the objects were made of pewter and need not be reported. But if Ford was a collector of antiquities, surely he could tell the difference between pewter and silver. C.W. Phillips, who took part in the unproductive excavation of the West Row site in 1946, was sure that Ford and Butcher’s relatively small reward for finding the treasure was a nominal amount due to the fact that the authorities saw so many inconsistencies in their account of the discovery of the treasure.
Some interesting local rumors have been circulating about the treasure for decades. The first of these concerns landowner Fred Rolfe, who told of a local tradition that there was treasure buried in the field on his land where the Mildenhall Treasure was found. The late Tom Lethbridge, who took part in the 1946 excavation in Rolfe’s field, mentions the fact that in 1922 representatives of a firm of solicitors from the nearby town of Bury St. Edmunds paid Sydney Ford’s father £20 for permission to dig in the field where the Mildenhall Treasure would later be found. The men informed Ford’s father that they had received a letter from a man living overseas giving information about a treasure buried in the field so many paces from the “meadow gate.”2 Whatever the truth of this story, the men did not find anything, but could Sydney Ford have been searching the area for this lost treasure when he found the Mildenhall cache? Had he found other pieces of the treasure before the main hoard of 34 objects and not told anyone? Strangely enough, Oliver Cromwell is said to have hidden treasure “chests of silver” in or near three round barrows (burial mounds) known as Three Hills, at Warren Hill on the edge of Mildenhall Woods. During excavation of one of these barrows in February 1866, local people descended on the site after hearing the rumor that one of Cromwell’s treasure chests had been uncovered. The rumor was false, but the excavations did reveal a female skeleton, pieces of red deer antler, and Bronze Age pottery. The mounds were destroyed soon after the excavations.
Another local rumor, but with more substantial evidence to back it up, is that originally the Mildenhall Treasure was larger but Ford kept some of the pieces back from the authorities, and later sold them or kept them somewhere in his house. Incredibly, evidence to support this story did not emerge for more than half a century after the find was originally announced. In December 2002, 94-year-old Mildenhall resident Jack Thompson, who had helped clean the treasure at Ford’s workshop just after it had been discovered, went to see the set of replicas of the hoard on display at the Mildenhall Museum and noticed something was missing. Mr. Thompson told Dr. Colin Dring of the Mildenhall Museum about a missing silver goblet, which he remembered cleaning, and described as being 5 inches high with intricate decoration and four legs. Interestingly, subsequent research by Dr. Dring discovered that the goblet was not listed on any inventory of the finds after they were made public and was not included as part of the treasure trove inquest of July 1946. The British Museum also stated that it had no record of the goblet.
There were further astonishing revelations a month later, in January 2003, when the British Museum announced that after studying an old photograph showing the Mildenhall Treasure it was convinced that there was another piece missing from the collection in its possession. The photograph, taken some time between 1942 and 1946, shows Jack Ford, Sydney’s son, in the West Row house with the treasure on display on the sideboard behind him. Experts from the museum identified a vessel in the photograph that is not part of the museum’s collection from Mildenhall and stated that they had no idea what had happened to it. Where are these missing pieces, and are they the only artifacts missing from the Mildenhall Treasure? There are many unanswered questions concerning just about every aspect of the Mildenhall Treasure: its place of origin, the contents of the original hoard, its time and place of discovery, and the whereabouts of the “lost” pieces. Unfortunately as the hoard was found more than 65 years ago during WWII, or possibly even earlier, these questions are unlikely to be answered. Sydney Ford was certainly keeping secrets about the treasure; perhaps one day surviving relatives of Mr. Ford will be traced who can shed some light on these secrets and help in our understanding of the Mildenhall Treasure.
CHAPTER 9
The Treasures of Pompeii
In August of AD 79 Mount Vesuvius, in the Bay of Naples, along the southwestern coast of Italy, erupted violently, destroying the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and burying them under 13 to 20 feet of ash. Thousands of people in the cities, in the surrounding countryside, and along the seashore were killed as they tried to escape or barricaded themselves inside their houses. Excavations of sites in the area from the 18th century onward have revealed the bodies of some of the city dwellers, frozen in time and preserved in their original context along with their possessions, which they tried so desperately to hang on to. A number of treasure hoards both small and large have been recovered from the ruins of these cities of the dead, and two of the most important are those from the wealthy villas of Boscoreale, just to the north of Pompeii, and Casa del Menandro, in Pompeii itself. These hoards of silverware, jewelry, and coins seem to have been hurriedly secreted away just as the vast clouds of ash from Vesuvius loomed over Pompeii, and tell us a tragic but fascinating story of Roman life in the first century AD.
The cataclysmic eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 resulted in a number of mostly isolated deposits of valuable items in Pompeii and Herculaneum and in the surrounding countryside. Such deposits include silver plates, mirrors, and cups; silver coins; an exquisite statuette of Indian ivory; and gold armlets, rings, and earrings. Because these objects were sealed in context by the volcanic ash from Vesuvius, many of them can be precisely dated and give us extraordinary insights into Roman art and the lifestyles of the people who owned them. These generally isolated discoveries, however, are easily eclipsed by the treasure hoard discovered in 1895 in the Villa della Pisanella at Boscoreale, a plush suburb on the slopes of Vesuvius, a mile north of Pompeii.
9.1. Plaster casts of three bodies from the area of Porta Nocera, Pompeii. Courtesy of Wikipedia.
The Boscoreale area was home to a number of aristocratic country villas, most notably the exceptionally well-preserved Villa Boscoreale, justly celebrated for its elaborate frescoes and mosaics. The Villa Pisanella was discovered in 1868 by Modestino Pulzella, but proper excavation of the site did not begin until 1895. In April 1895, during excavations of the torcularium (a room housing a wine/oil press), archaeologists discovered a hoard of treasure that had apparently been stashed in an empty cistern below the room, presumably at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius. The hoard included a leather purse containing a cache of more than 1,000 gold aurei (a coin valued at 25 silver denarii), the latest of which dates to AD 78, a few pieces of gold jewelry, some bronze objects, and 99 exquisite pieces of silver tableware.
The remarkable collection of fine silv
er vessels, which were manufactured between the end of the first century BC and the beginning of the first century AD, included a hand mirror illustrated with a scene showing the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan; a fine silver wine vase; the “Africa Dish,” a partially gilded silver vessel exhibiting high-quality applied, repoussé, and engraved decoration showing a female bust wearing an elephant hide and surrounded by various symbols (scholars believe this may be a portrait of Cleopatra, or her daughter Cleopatra Selene II, or an allegorical personification of Africa); two silver skyphoi (two-handled, deep wine-cups) known as the Boscoreale Cups of the emperors Augustus and Tiberius; and a pair of extraordinary wine cups, embellished with gold, and illustrated by skeletons labeled with the names of renowned tragic and comic poets and famous Greek philosophers. One of these vessels is inscribed “Enjoy life while you have it, for tomorrow is uncertain.” This maxim became horribly relevant for the inhabitants of the Villa Pisanella, as is graphically illustrated by the many skeletons found at the site of those people who did not manage to escape the disaster in time.
On the whole, the silver collection from the Villa Pisanella suggests a prosperous Roman family; indeed a number of the silver pieces in the hoard are so elaborate as to suggest they were used for display rather than use. Some of the silver pieces (for example, the Boscoreale Cups) showed significant signs of wear, indicating that they were heirlooms. As everywhere in the area at the time of the eruption in AD 79, the family was taken completely by surprise and seems to have attempted to hide their valuables in the villa as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, any further interpretations are difficult because of uncertainties about the size and exact context of the hoard, due to the fact that almost as soon as the objects were discovered, they were sold and exported out of Italy.
The exact series of events at the time of the discovery at the Villa Pisanella is unclear. We know that the Villa itself was located on private land belonging to Vincenzo da Prisco, who sold the treasure and various other finds from the site to an antiquarian named Canessa, who exported the finds and put them on the market. Subsequently, the Louvre was asked if it was interested in the objects, but found the price too high, and so the treasure was subsequently broken up and began to be sold off as single items. (The Africa Dish was sold to the British Museum, for example.) At this stage, philanthropist and collector Baron Edmond James de Rothschild (1845–1934) stepped in, and agreed to buy the hoard and donate it to the Louvre, on the condition that it go on permanent display there. De Rothschild acquired the various pieces that had been sold individually, except for the Africa Dish, which the British Museums refused to part with, and retained six pieces of the treasure for himself, including the Boscoreale Cups. These cups were later donated to the Louvre by a descendant of the baron, and now the entire Boscoreale Treasure is displayed in the Louvre.
Thirty-five years after the discovery of the Boscoreale Treasure, another astounding hoard was unearthed, this time in Pompeii itself. The treasure of the Casa del Menandro was discovered by Professor Amedeo Maiuri in December 1930, during the course of the excavation of the Insula of the Menander, a major city block in Pompeii. The house is thought to have belonged to Quintus Poppaeus Sabinus, a wealthy relation of the Emperor Nero, due to an inscription on a seal found in one room of the house bearing the name “Quintus,” and two more found in another room bearing the name “Sabinus.” However, this connection is far from proven.
The treasure itself was found in two boxes in a wooden chest in a small cellar under the atriolum (small hall/ante-room) of the bath-suite of the house. What remained of the box (traces of wood and a small lock) in the upper part of the chest contained pieces of gold and silver jewelry and a number of coins; the lower level held 118 pieces of well-preserved silver plate of varying dates and styles, wrapped in cloth. Consequently, this treasure actually forms two separate hoards. The first hoard, from the upper level of the chest, consists of 20 pieces of gold jewelry: two small necklaces, three pairs of earrings, two arm rings, two hairpins, a bulla (ornamental pendant), 11 rings, and a small ball of fine gold wire (probably used for repairing the other pieces of jewelry). Some pieces of the jewelry (the earrings, necklaces, and rings) were decorated with pearls and various precious stones.
9.2. Pompeii with Vesuvius in the background. Image by Sören Bleikertz. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 on Wikipedia.
Discovered along with the jewelry were a rather modest collection of 46 coins, 25 of which were Republican denarii (one dating from 152 BC, the rest from 90–32/1 BC), eight silver Imperial denarii, and 13 aurei of Nero and Vespasian. The latest coins in the hoard were three aurei of Vespasian, dated to AD 78–9, thus dating the whole deposit in the upper box to AD 78–9 at the latest, the time of the eruption of Vesuvius. It is important to note that all of the coins need not have been deposited hurriedly at the time of the eruption, but may have been put there earlier as savings or even as a source of ready cash.
The silver plate in the lower level of the chest is of vital importance in terms of finds of Roman first-century silver, as it represents the only large hoard of such items found in a secure, undisturbed archaeological context, and the latest date for its deposit has been given by the eruption of Vesuvius. The hoard, which is the largest collection of roman silver plate ever discovered, also included the only surviving complete Roman dinner service for eight people. The discoverer of the hoard, Professor Maiuri, divided the table plate into drinking silver, which included a scyphus (large drinking cup) decorated with scenes showing the labors of Hercules, and a large saucepan with a figured handle; eating silver, which included large plates, pepper pots, sauce pots, and spoons; show silver, which included a phi-ale (a shallow cup resembling a saucer) decorated in gold with a female personification of a walled city (Tyche); and toilet silver, which included decorated mirrors and washing bowls.
Some important questions emerge about the two hoards at Casa del Menandro. Who deposited these treasures in the chest, and are the jewelry and the silver plate contemporary? To begin with the jewelry, the question of ownership is rather more complicated than it may first appear. Were these pieces personal possessions or a collection hoarded for their monetary value? And what about the coins? Professor Maiuri has suggested the collection of jewelry could have belonged to one of the ladies of the house, though there are too many items to have been worn all at the same time. There are, however, pieces of jewelry in the collection that would have been used by men and children, which may suggest the pieces were a family collection. Professor Maiuri also believed the Casa del Menandro, and consequently the hoards found within it, belonged to high-class Romans of significant wealth. However, Kenneth S. Painter, in his monograph, The Insula of the Menander at Pompeii—Volume IV: The Silver Treasure, suggests that the house could well have belonged to a local magistrate.
Painter also raises some other interesting points about the Casa del Menandro Treasure in his monograph. For example, he questions the connection between the owner of the jewelry hoard in the upper level of the chest and the owner of the silver plate. How do we know they were the same person? Due to the dates of the artifacts in the two hoards, the silver plate may even have been placed in the chest as early as AD 60, well before the eruption of Vesuvius, and therefore deposited there for some other reason. If so, then the owner of the rather modest collection of jewelry and the owner of the fine collection of silver plate may have not have been the same person. In fact, they may not have even been of the same class.
The hoard from the Casa del Menandro is similar in size and grandeur to the Boscoreale Treasure, though the former has a more complete set of eating silver while the latter has more drinking silver.
There is another fascinating hoard of Roman silver with similarities to both the Casa del Menandro and Boscoreale Treasures. This is the Hildesheim Treasure, unearthed near the city of Hildesheim, Lower Saxony, Germany, in October 1868. The Hildesheim hoard is the largest collection of Roman silver ev
er found outside the frontiers of the Roman Empire, and consists of around 70 exquisitely crafted pieces of solid silver tableware, including cups, goblets, mixing bowls, serving dishes, plates, table implements, and a small folding three-legged table. We do not have the eruption of Vesuvius to help in the dating of this hoard, but it was probably deposited sometime in the late first century BC or early in the first century AD, either by a Roman commander campaigning in Germany or perhaps as booty captured from the Romans by a Germanic tribe. Interestingly, one theory is that the Hildesheim hoard may have been stolen from Roman commander Publius Quinctilius Varus in AD 9 at the famous Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, in the German state of Lower Saxony, where an alliance of Germanic tribes ambushed and destroyed three Roman legions.
The Boscoreale and Casa del Menandro Treasures are significant today in terms of the light they shed on the lives of well-off members of Roman society living in the area of Vesuvius at the time of its catastrophic eruption. The hoard from Casa del Menandro is of prime importance due to its discovery during a professional archaeological excavation; thus the position and description of each object have been meticulously recorded. Because of this we have a reliable source of information about the people who deposited the objects and the society in which they lived. But it is important to remember that not every precious item found in hoards sealed by the ash of the volcano was necessarily deposited at the time of the eruption. Some pieces, such as the Casa del Menandro silver, may have been secreted away earlier and for another reason, and therefore have a very different story to tell.
CHAPTER 10
Lost Treasures of Afghanistan
Ancient Treasures Page 11