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16-498: The Berthouville hoard was discovered in early 1830 when farmer Prosper Taurin struck a Roman tile while ploughing his field near the village of Berthouville , in Normandy, France. Once dislodged, the tile uncovered the hastily buried temple treasure a mere 20 cm beneath the modern surface. The treasure belonged to a sanctuary of Mercury Canetonensis . In the mid-1st century BCE, Julius Caesar had identified Mercury as one of

32-584: A Gallo-Roman theatre and a shrine that may have been the shrine to which the silver objects had been dedicated. The Berthouville treasure left France for the first time to be studied and conserved at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California, as part of collaborative multi-year conservation project between the Getty and the Cabinet des Médailles. Study of the objects revealed previously obscured fine details on

48-445: 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 is a buried collection of spoils from raiding and

64-414: A silver bust of a goddess, probably his mother Maia , perhaps representing Romanized versions of Gallic deities. The pairing of a Roman god with a Gallic goddess would be characteristic of Gallo-Roman religion . Four of the bowls have incised emblematic designs associated with Mercury, and the formulaic Latin initialism VSLM , standing for votum solvit libens merito ("He fulfils his vow freely, as

80-632: A temple or church become the property of that institution, and may be used to its benefit. Britain in the Middle Ages During most of the Middle Ages (c. 410–1485 AD ), the island of Great Britain was divided into multiple kingdoms. By the end of the period two remained: the Kingdom of England , of which Wales was a principality , and the Kingdom of Scotland . The following articles address this period of history in each of

96-511: 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 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 hobbyists, members of

112-427: Is deserved"). Nine of the vessels form a group of luxury domestic silver of 1st century date with iconographic connections to Dionysus rather than to Mercury, marked as votive offerings ( vota ) of one Q. Domitius Tutus; they include a matching pair of silver drinking cups ( scyphi ) with Dionysiac imagery of centaurs , and a pair of silver wine-jugs. Excavations near the find-spot in 1861-1862 and 1986 revealed

128-500: Is more in keeping with the popular idea of " buried treasure ". 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 purposes, without intent to recover them . Furthermore, votive hoards need not be "manufactured" goods, but can include organic amulets and animal remains. Votive hoards are often distinguished from more functional deposits by

144-1021: The burial of hoards, of which the most famous are the Hoxne Hoard , Suffolk; the Mildenhall Treasure , the Fishpool Hoard , Nottinghamshire, the Water Newton hoard, Cambridgeshire, and the Cuerdale Hoard , Lancashire, all preserved in the British Museum . Prudence Harper of the Metropolitan Museum of Art voiced some practical reservations about hoards at the time of the Soviet exhibition of Scythian gold in New York City in 1975. Writing of

160-534: The main deities of Gaul . In his Gallo-Roman form Mercury is frequently found with a Gaulish epithet. The trésor de Berthouville is one of only three known collections of valuable objects definitely associated with a local religious cult in Gaul or Britannia . The treasure consists of silver and other metalwork, of varying type, quality and dates in the 1st to late 2nd centuries of the Common Era. The hoard

176-422: 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

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192-523: The original group. 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. Hoards may be of precious metals , coinage , tools or less commonly, pottery or glass vessels. There are various classifications depending on the nature of the hoard: A founder's hoard contains broken or unfit metal objects, ingots , casting waste, and often complete objects, in

208-419: The public, and archaeologists . 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 spurred

224-637: 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 , and the Metropolitan Museum, New York), Harper warned: By the time "hoards" or "treasures" reach museums from the antiquities market, it often happens that miscellaneous objects varying in date and style have become attached to

240-553: The works, and increased understanding of the interaction between Roman and Gallic cultures in what is now northern France. The restored treasure was exhibited at the Getty Villa from November 2014 to August 2015, then went on tour in the US and Europe before being returned to Paris. 49°10′24″N 0°37′17″E  /  49.17333°N 0.62139°E  / 49.17333; 0.62139 Hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit"

256-502: Was hidden in the late 2nd or early 3rd century, but contained heirloom pieces like the repoussé silver jug that was made in Italy in the 1st century CE. The find totalled 93 items, some of which were dissociated handles and silver appliqués, with a total weight of 25 kg. Most of the items are bowls, cups and jugs, but there is also a phiale for libations. There are also two silver statuettes of Mercury (the larger 60 cm tall) and

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