Archaeologists have discovered 40,000 coins from the Roman era in France

Archaeologists recently found more than 40,000 Roman coins during excavations in the village of Senon in northeastern France. The treasures were found in three ceramic vessels buried about 1.7–1.8 thousand years ago. This was reported on December 8 by Popular Science magazine.

As it is specified, Senon was an important city of the Celtic tribe of the Mediomatrics. They lived in what is now northern France during the Gallic Wars, when Julius Caesar conquered parts of modern France, Belgium, and Switzerland from 57 to 50 BC.

The coins were buried in three large ceramic vessels called amphorae. A team of scientists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) suggests that the find dates back to the end of the 3rd century and the first 10th anniversary of the 4th century AD, but the exact dates are still unknown.

INRAP numismatist Vincent Genevieve said that the first vessel contained about 83 pounds of coins (about 23-24 thousand coins). The second vessel and its contents weighed about 110 pounds (presumably 18-19 thousand coins), while the third vessel contained only three coins.

However, there is no certainty that these were "treasures" hidden during the period of instability. It clarifies that, most likely, the vessels represent a "complex monetary management", a financial system, possibly designed for medium- and long-term savings or for use within a single household, so that money can be deposited and withdrawn at different times.

"In two cases, the presence of several coins found stuck to the outside of the vessel clearly indicates that they were placed there after the vessel was buried, before the pit was filled with sediment," INRAP said in a statement.

Two of the found deposits were located in the place where the residential area used to be. This indicates that they were easily accessible to the owner. At the beginning of the IV century, after the destruction of the original settlement by fire, the territory was restored, but then a second fire occurred. Despite both disasters, the age of the coins and the INRAP data prove that the cluster existed before the Roman conquest.

"All hypotheses will be considered, but it is possible that there is a connection between these three hoards of coins from about the same period (all of them, according to our current data, were buried between 280 and 310 AD) and the known military presence in Senona, as evidenced by a fortification dating from the same period and located only 150 meters away. m (492 ft) from the excavation site," the researchers concluded.

On December 4, Arkeonews magazine reported the discovery of silver coins from the era of the First Crusade in northern Croatia. The value was found at the Batin site in the Baranya region. A total of 56 French coins were discovered, which date back to the XI–XIII centuries.

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