A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
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 the public, and
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
s.
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 the burial of hoards, of which the most famous are the
Hoxne Hoard
The Hoxne Hoard ( ) is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by ...
, Suffolk; the
Mildenhall Treasure
The Mildenhall Treasure is a large hoard of 34 masterpieces of 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 was found at West Row, near Mild ...
, the
Fishpool Hoard, Nottinghamshire, the
Water Newton
Water Newton is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Water Newton lies approximately west of Peterborough. Water Newton is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being ...
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 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:
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.
Classification
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 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
Loot may refer to:
Film
*''Loot'' (1919 film), a film by William C. Dowlan
* ''Loot'' (1970 film), a British film by Silvio Narizzano
* ''Loot'' (2008 film), a documentary
* ''Loot'' (2011 film), an Indian film
* ''Loot'' (2012 film), a Nepali fil ...
is a buried collection of spoils from
raiding
Raiding may refer to:
* The present participle of the verb Raid (disambiguation), which itself has several meanings
* Raid (military)
* Raid (video games), a group of video game players who join forces
* Raiding, Austria, a town in Austria
* Par ...
and 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
amulet
An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects ...
s and animal remains. Votive hoards are often distinguished from more functional deposits by 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 a temple or church become the property of that institution, and may be used to its benefit.
[C. Johns, "The classification and interpretation of Romano-British treasures", ''Britannia'' 27 (1996), 1–17: see especially pp. 9–11]
Hoards with individual articles
Asia
*
Akota Bronzes
*
Bactrian Gold
Tillya tepe, Tillia tepe or Tillā tapa ( fa, طلا تپه, literally "Golden Hill" or "Golden Mound") is an archaeological site in the northern Afghanistan province of Jowzjan near Sheberghan, excavated in 1978 by a Soviet-Afghan team led by th ...
*
Chausa hoard
This was the first known bronze hoard discovered in the Gangetic valley and consists of a set of 18 Jain bronzes.
The Chausa hoard, thus named after the place of discovery: Chausa or Chausagarh is located in the Buxar district of Bihar state, ...
*
Copper Hoard Culture
*
Kfar Monash Hoard
*
Priam's Treasure
Priam's Treasure is a cache of gold and other artifacts discovered by classical archaeologists Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann at Hissarlik, on the northwestern coast of modern Turkey. The majority of the artifacts are currently in the Pushk ...
*
Wonoboyo hoard
*
Ziwiye hoard
The Ziwiye hoard is a treasure hoard containing gold, silver, and ivory objects, also including a few gold pieces with the shape of human face , that was uncovered on in Ziwiyeh plat near Saqqez city in Kurdistan Province, Iran, in 1947.
Prove ...
Europe
Great Britain and the Channel Islands
*
Beau Street Hoard
The Beau Street Hoard, found in Bath, Somerset, is the fifth-largest hoard ever found in Britain and the largest ever discovered in a British Roman town. It consists of an estimated 17,500 silver Roman coins dating from between 32 BC and 274 ...
*
Bitterley Hoard
The Bitterley Hoard is the largest post medieval / English Civil War Coin Hoard found to date from Shropshire, England. It was discovered on 17 February 2011 by a metal detector user near the village of Bitterley, South Shropshire. The find consi ...
*
Canterbury-St Martin's hoard
The Canterbury-St Martin's hoard is a coin-hoard found in the 19th century at Canterbury, Kent dating from the 6th century. The group, in the World Museum, Liverpool, consists of eight items, including three gold coins mounted with suspension ...
*
Cheapside Hoard
*
Collette Hoard
The Collette Hoard was found in fields near Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England by metal detectorist John Minns in April 2005. The hoard is named after Collette, the eight-year-old daughter of Minns, rather than the location it was foun ...
*
Corbridge Hoard
*
Cuerdale Hoard
*
Cunetio Hoard
*
Frome Hoard
The Frome Hoard is a hoard of 52,503 Roman coins found in April 2010 by metal detectorist Dave Crisp near Frome in Somerset, England. The coins were contained in a ceramic pot in diameter, and date from AD 253 to 305. Most of the coins are made ...
*
Galloway Hoard
The Galloway Hoard, currently held in the National Museum of Scotland, is a hoard of more than 100 gold, silver, glass, crystal, stone, and earthen objects from the Viking Age discovered in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfrie ...
*
Grouville Hoard
The Grouville Hoard is a hoard of an estimated 70,000 late Iron Age and Roman coins reported in June 2012. They were discovered by metal detectorists Reg Mead and Richard Miles in a field at an undisclosed location in the parish of Grouville on ...
*
Havering hoard
The Havering hoard is a hoard of 453 late Bronze-age (900 to 800 BCE) artefacts found at a site overlooking the River Thames in Rainham, London, in 2018. It is the largest bronze-age hoard to be found in London and the third-largest in the Unite ...
*
Hexham Hoard
*
Hoxne Hoard
The Hoxne Hoard ( ) is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by ...
*
Isleham Hoard
The Isleham Hoard is a hoard of more than 6,500 pieces of worked and unworked bronze, dating from the Bronze Age, found in 1959 by William 'Bill' Houghton and his brother, Arthur, at Isleham, near Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely, in the English county o ...
*
Kirkoswald Hoard
*
Lenborough Hoard
The Lenborough Hoard is a hoard of more than 5,000 late Anglo-Saxon silver coins, dating to the eleventh century, that was found at Lenborough in Buckinghamshire, England in 2014. It is believed to be one of the largest hoards of Anglo-Saxon coin ...
*
Leominster hoard
The Leominster hoard is a hoard of coins and jewellery dating to the Viking period found near Leominster, Herefordshire in June 2015.
Discovery
The hoard was discovered by metal detectorists George Powell and Layton Davies near Eye, Herefordshi ...
*
Middleham Hoard
The Middleham Hoard is a coin hoard found near Middleham, North Yorkshire in England. It dates from the period of the English Civil War, and consists of 5,099 coins, all silver. It is the largest hoard of coins buried during the Civil War to ha ...
*
Migdale Hoard
The Migdale Hoard is a group of early Bronze Age jewellery discovered by workmen blasting a granite knoll behind Bonar Bridge, Scotland, near what is known as "Tulloch Hill" in May 1900.
Dating from about 2000-1150 BC, the artifacts are in the c ...
*
Mildenhall Treasure
The Mildenhall Treasure is a large hoard of 34 masterpieces of 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 was found at West Row, near Mild ...
*
Milton Keynes Hoard
*
Rogiet Hoard
The Rogiet Hoard is a hoard of 3,778 Roman coins found at Rogiet, Monmouthshire, Wales in September 1998. The coins dated from 253 up until 295–296. The hoard notably contained several faulty issues, and some rare denominations, including tho ...
*
Shapwick Hoard
*
Shrewsbury Hoard
The Shrewsbury Hoard (also known as the Shropshire Hoard) is a hoard of 9,315 bronze Roman coins discovered by a metal detectorist in a field near Shrewsbury, Shropshire in August 2009. The coins were found in a large pottery storage jar that w ...
*
Silsden Hoard
{{No footnotes, date=February 2020
The Silsden Hoard is an assemblage containing 27 gold coins of late British Iron Age date and a Roman iron finger ring.
Discovery
The hoard was discovered in 1998 by Jeff Walbank using a metal detector in a fiel ...
*
Snettisham Hoard
The Snettisham Hoard or ''Snettisham Treasure'' is a series of discoveries of Iron Age precious metal, found in the Snettisham area of the English county of Norfolk between 1948 and 1973.
Iron age hoard
The hoard consists of metal, jet and ...
*
St Leonard's Place Hoard
*
Staffordshire Hoard
*
Stanchester Hoard
*
Stirling Hoard
The Stirling torcs make up a hoard of four gold Iron Age torcs, a type of necklace, all of which date to between 300 and 100 BC and which were buried deliberately at some point in antiquity. They were found by a metal detectorist in a fie ...
*
Talnotrie Hoard
*
Thetford Hoard
The Thetford Hoard (also known as the Thetford Treasure) is a hoard of Romano-British metalwork found by Arthur and Greta Brooks at Gallows Hill, near Thetford in Norfolk, England, in November 1979, and now in the British Museum. Dating from ...
*
Thornbury Hoard
*
Tregwynt Hoard
The Tregwynt Hoard is a mid-17th-century hoard of coins found at Tregwynt Mansion near Fishguard in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in 1996. The hoard is now in National Museum Wales. The treasure consisted of 33 gold coins, 467 silver coins and a g ...
*
Upchurch Hoard
The Upchurch Hoard was a pot containing thirty-seven Roman sestertii dating from the late 1st century to the second half of the 2nd century AD found near the village of Upchurch, Kent, England, in 1950.
Detail
The Upchurch Hoard is a hoard of ...
*
Vale of York Hoard (previously known as ''Harrogate hoard'')
*
Water Newton Treasure
*
West Bagborough Hoard
The West Bagborough Hoard is a hoard of 670 Roman coins and 72 pieces of hacksilver found in October 2001 by metal detectorist James Hawkesworth near West Bagborough in Somerset, England.
Discovery, excavation and valuation
The hoard was disco ...
*
West Yorkshire Hoard
The West Yorkshire Hoard is a precious-metal hoard of six gold objects, including four gold finger-rings, and a lead spindle whorl, which was discovered near Leeds, West Yorkshire, in 2008–2009 by a metal detectorist. The find was of national ...
*
Wickham Market Hoard
The Wickham Market Hoard is a hoard of 840 Iron Age gold staters found in a field at Dallinghoo near Wickham Market, Suffolk, England in March 2008 by auto mechanic, car mechanic, Michael Dark using a metal detector. After excavation (archaeolog ...
*
Winchester Hoard
The Winchester Hoard is a hoard of Iron Age gold found in a field in the Winchester area of Hampshire, England, in 2000, by a retired florist and amateur metal detectorist, Kevan Halls. It was declared treasure and valued at £350,000—the h ...
*
Wold Newton hoard
The Wold Newton Hoard is a coin hoard dating from the early 4th century AD. It contains 1,857 coins held within a pottery container. It was acquired by the Yorkshire Museum in 2016.
Discovery
The hoard was found by metal detectorist David Bla ...
Ireland
*
Ardagh Hoard
The Ardagh Hoard, best known for the Ardagh Chalice, is a hoard of metalwork from the 8th and 9th centuries. Found in 1868 by two young local boys, Jim Quin and Paddy Flanagan, it is now on display in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. ...
*
Broighter Hoard
The Broighter Gold or more correctly, the Broighter Hoard, is a hoard of gold artefacts from the Iron Age of the 1st century BC that were found in 1896 by Tom Nicholl and James Morrow on farmland near Limavady, in the north of Ireland (now Nort ...
*
Derrynaflan Hoard
*
Dowris Hoard
*
Mooghaun North Hoard
Continental
*
Lampsacus Treasure
The Lampsacus Treasure or ''Lapseki Treasure'' is the name of an important early Byzantine silver hoard found near the town of Lapseki (ancient Lampsacus) in modern-day Turkey. Most of the hoard is now in the British Museum's collection, although ...
, Turkey
*
First Cyprus Treasure
The First Cyprus Treasure or ''Lamboussa Treasure'' is the name of a major early Byzantine silver hoard found near Kyrenia, Cyprus. Currently in the British Museum's collection, the treasure is largely composed of liturgical objects that may hav ...
, Cyprus
*
Berthouville Treasure
The Berthouville treasure is a hoard of Roman silver uncovered by ploughing in March 1830 at the hamlet of Villeret in the commune of Berthouville in the Eure ''département'' of Normandy, northern France. Purchased at the time of discovery for ...
, France (relating to the Romans)
*
Borovo Treasure
The Borovo Treasure, also known as the Borovo Silver Treasure, is a Thracian hoard of five matching silver-gilt items discovered in late 1974 while ploughing a field in Borovo, Bulgaria.
The treasure is kept in the history museum at Ruse.
Item ...
, part of the
Thracian treasure
*
Broighter Gold
The Broighter Gold or more correctly, the Broighter Hoard, is a hoard of gold artefacts from the Iron Age of the 1st century BC that were found in 1896 by Tom Nicholl and James Morrow on farmland near Limavady, in the north of Ireland (now North ...
, Northern Ireland (relating to the Iron Age La Tène culture)
*
Casco de Leiro, Spain (relating to the Bronze Age)
*
Chatuzange Treasure, France (relating to Roman silver)
*
Cheste hoard
The Cheste hoard () is an Iberian hoard discovered near the town of Cheste, Valencia, Spain, in 1864. Dating to about 200 BCE, the hoard was found buried in two pots and contained gold jewellery, silver coins and silver ingots. It is currently h ...
, Spain (relating to the
Second Punic War
The Second Punic War (218 to 201 BC) was the second of three wars fought between Carthage and Rome, the two main powers of the western Mediterranean in the 3rd century BC. For 17 years the two states struggled for supremacy, primarily in Ital ...
)
*
Eberswalde Hoard
The Eberswalde Hoard or Treasure of Eberswalde (german: Eberswalder Goldschatz or ) is a Bronze Age hoard of 81 gold objects with a total weight of . The largest prehistoric assembly of gold objects ever found in Germany, it is considered to be ...
, Germany (relating to the Bronze Age)
*
Paramythia Hoard
The Paramythia Hoard or ''Paramythia Treasure'' is the name of a Greco-Roman hoard of bronze figurines and other objects found in Paramythia, north-west Greece in the late 18th century. Of the original nineteen objects found in the hoard, fourtee ...
, Greece (relating to Greco-Roman artefacts)
*
Pereshchepina Treasure
The Pereshchepina Treasure (russian: Перещепинский клад, uk, Перещепинський скарб) is a major deposit of Bulgar, Sassanian, Sogdian, Turkic and Avarian objects from the Migration Period.
The most valuab ...
, Ukraine (relating to the Bulgars)
*
Pietroasele Treasure, Romania (relating to the Goths)
*
Preslav Treasure
The Preslav Treasure was found in autumn of 1978 at the vineyard in Castana, 3 km to the north - west of the second Bulgarian capital – Veliki Preslav. The excavations that followed revealed more than 170 golden, silver and bronze objects ...
, Bulgaria (relating to the Byzantines)
*
Reka Devnia Hoard, Bulgaria (relating to the Romans)
*
Saka Hoard
The Saka Hoard is a silver hoard discovered in 2015 in Saka, Estonia. It consists of two neck rings and two spiral rings made of silver.
The hoard was discovered by an amateur archaeologist using a metal detector
A metal detector is an ins ...
, Estonia (12th century)
*
Sevso Treasure
The Seuso Treasure or Sevso Treasure ( hu, Seuso-kincsek; hr, Seusovo blago), is a hoard of silver objects (14 items) from the late Roman Empire. The first pieces appeared on the market in London in 1980, and the treasure was acquired by a co ...
, possibly Hungary (relating to the Romans)
*
Treasure of El Carambolo
The Treasure of El Carambolo ( es, Tesoro del Carambolo) was found in El Carambolo hill in the municipality of Camas (Province of Seville, Andalusia, Spain), 3 kilometers west of Seville, on 30 September 1958.Chamorro, 197. The discovery of the ...
, Spain (relating to the
Tartessians
Tartessos ( es, Tarteso) is, as defined by archaeological discoveries, a historical civilization settled in the region of Southern Spain characterized by its mixture of local Paleohispanic and Phoenician traits. It had a proper writing system ...
)
*
Treasure of Gourdon, France (gold from 5th or 6th century)
*
Treasure of Guarrazar, Spain (relating to the
Visigoths)
*
Treasure of Villena
The Treasure of Villena ( es, Tesoro de Villena) is one of the greatest hoard finds of gold of the European Bronze Age. It comprises 59 objects made of gold, silver, iron and amber with a total weight of almost 10 kilograms, 9 of them of 23.5 ka ...
, Spain (relating to the Bronze Age)
*
Ubina Hoard, Estonia (12th century)
*
Vinkovci Treasure
The Vinkovci Treasure ( Croatian: ''Vinkovačko blago'') or Cibalae Treasure is a hoard of late Roman silver plate, discovered in Vinkovci, Croatia at the end of March 2012. Consisting of 48 artifacts weighing a total of about , the hoard include ...
Scandinavia
*
Molnby Hoard
Molnby Hoard is a Viking Age deposit of 163 silver coins found in Molnby, Vallentuna Municipality in Sweden in October 2016. Most of the coins come from the area around Samarkand in Central Asia and date from the 10th century. The hoard is one of t ...
, Sweden (relating to the Viking age)
*
Sandur Hoard, Faroe Islands (relating to the Viking age)
*
Spillings Hoard
The Spillings Hoard ( sv, Spillingsskatten) is the world's largest Viking silver treasure, found on Friday 16July 1999 in a field at the Spilling farm northwest of Slite, on northern Gotland, Sweden. The silver hoard consisted of two parts with ...
, Sweden (relating to the Viking age)
*
Sundveda Hoard
The Sundveda Hoard ( sv, Sundvedaskatten) is a Viking Age hoard of 482 silver coins found in 2008 in Sundveda between Märsta and Sigtuna, not far from Stockholm in Sweden. It is the largest silver hoard found in the Mälaren region since 1827. ...
, Sweden (relating to the Viking age)
North Africa and Middle East
*
Asyut Treasure
The Asyut Treasure is the name of an important Byzantine hoard of jewellery found near the city of Asyut, central Egypt. Discovered in mysterious circumstances in the early twentieth century, the treasure is now divided between the Kunstgewerbem ...
*
Megiddo Treasure
The Megiddo Treasure is a small hoard of jewelry pieces found in 2010, in a ceramic "beer-jug" at the archaeological site of Tel Megiddo, the location of the ancient city of Megiddo, in present-day kibbutz called Megiddo, Jezreel Valley, northern ...
, a hoard found at
Tel Megiddo,
Israel
*
Nahal Mishmar hoard
*
Kaper Koraon Treasure
The Kaper Koraon Treasure is a Byzantine silver treasure consisting of 56 individual silver items originating from Syria in the sixth and seventh centuries.
History
The treasure was re-discovered between 1908 and 1910. It was originally believed ...
, Syria
North America
*
Baltimore gold hoard
In 1934, a hoard of gold coins was discovered by two teenage boys (Theodore Jones, 16, and Henry Grob, 15) in Baltimore, Maryland. The two boys discovered copper pots containing 3,558 gold coins while digging in the dirt of a cellar. One year l ...
*
Bank of New York Hoard
The Bank of New York Hoard is the name given to identify a treasure trove of several thousand Fugio Cents that were discovered at the Bank of New York, bank. Sometime in 1788, a keg of Fugio cents was acquired by the bank and stored in the baseme ...
*
Castine Hoard
The Castine Hoard (also known as ''The Castine Deposit'') is the name given to a treasure trove of around 500–2,000 North American colonial coins that were found in Castine, Maine. The coins were from various countries, and were buried sometime ...
*
Saddle Ridge Hoard
The Saddle Ridge Hoard is the name given to a hoard of 1,427 gold coins unearthed in the Gold Country of the Sierra Nevada, California in 2013. The face value of the coins totaled $27,980, but was assessed to be worth $10 million. The hoard cont ...
*
Dawson Film Find
The Dawson Film Find (DFF) was the accidental discovery in 1978 of 372 film titles preserved in 533 reels of silent-era nitrate films in the Klondike Gold Rush town of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. The reels had been buried under an abandoned hoc ...
*
See also
*
Lagerstätte, a concentration of fossils useful for similar reasons in paleontology
*
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 we ...
*
List of hoards in Ireland
The list of hoards in Ireland comprises the significant archaeological hoards of coins, jewellery, metal objects, scrap metal and other valuable items that have been discovered on the island of Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) ...
*
List of missing treasure
*
Hacksilver
Hacksilver (sometimes referred to as hacksilber) consists of fragments of cut and bent silver items that were used as bullion or as currency by weight in antiquity.
Use
Hacksilver was common among the Norsemen or Vikings, as a result of both t ...
*
Treasure
*
Treasure trove
References
{{Authority control
Archaeological artifacts
Treasure