A 2000 year-old treasure with about 300 Roman coins discovered in Mures county by a treasure hunter

A more than 2,000-year-old treasure, consisting of about 300 silver and bronze coins, was discovered by a treasure hunter from Mures county in a forest in the area of Sângeru de Pădure, following a scan with a metal detector, Agerpres reports.

„I search extremely hard and from this forest, I have covered about 50 percent, half of the forest is already surveyed, but such discoveries are a matter of luck. You can’t have a strategy, you can’t know where you’re going to find something. It’s all about luck and perseverance in what you do. When you hear that sound you can’t know what you’ve found, because it sounds the same with other metals, you can’t know what you’ve got in the ground. It’s a joy I experienced when I saw what I found, it’s the third time I’ve discovered something valuable. The first time I howled in the forest with joy – I found four tetradrachms from 200 years before Christ. When I come to survey, I don’t come for an hour or two, because then I’m wasting my time, I leave at 12 and come back in the evening. You can’t go by maps because there aren’t any, you just have to be lucky,” prospector Narcis Carţiş told the press.

The moment he found the treasure, Narcis Carțiș said he felt a huge joy, then he looked around to see if anyone had noticed, uncovered part of the clay pot without moving it and, after discovering several coins in it, he announced the Mures County Museum.

The head of the Archaeology Department of the Mures County Museum, Nicoleta Man, went on Thursday with a team of specialists to the site of the discovery and found about 300 coins in a Roman pot buried not very deep in the forest.

„This discovery falls into the category of chance discoveries made by treasure hunters, of which there are quite a few in Mures county. This area has more and more surprises in store for us, because in the last two years there have been a lot of discoveries – monetary, including treasures of Dacian jewellery. This discovery is a Roman treasure. It was a common practice to hide wealth, that accumulated over a generation or several generations, that we will determine when we determine the period of accumulation of the treasure. According to the practice of the time, they were deposited in a pot, in this case a Roman pot which, according to its paste and shape, is produced in the workshops at Cristești. Inside there are traces of bronze casting, so it could be that in addition to silver coins there are also bronze coins or objects,” said Nicoleta Man.

The discovery was made near the eastern border of Dacia where there were three Roman castles, a large stream of soldiers, a fairly high standard of living, and an area surrounded by rural Dacian settlements where farmers and craftsmen lived.

„The treasure as it looks is not a very high value for antiquity, we estimate it at over 200-300 denarii, considering that a soldier’s pay was between 200 and 400 denarii, and we also know some prices practiced in antiquity: from the documents we have preserved it seems that a lamb was sold for 3.5 denarii, a piglet for 5 denarii. So it is a relatively small accumulation. On the territory of Mures county, there are some important hoards, such as the hoard from Dâmbău, Sighișoara, Dumbrăvioara, two monetary hoards discovered at Cristești and we have a huge one at Sălașuri, with 3,200 denars, probably a more prominent personage. In this area with many chance finds there should be either a Dacian fortress – because all the Dacian ornaments discovered did not belong to a common man, but to an aristocratic elite – and, of course, a Roman settlement to which we should attribute this hoard. The treasures in Mures county seem to be hidden after the year 250, when the conflicts with the Yazidi and Marcomans began,” said Nicoleta Man.

Archaeologists present at the site of the discovery revealed that the vessel is from antiquity and has not been disturbed since it was buried, which presumably means that the Roman who hid it wanted to recover it at some point but did not get the chance.

Detectors are rewarded by the museum with 30-40% of the value of the find, with a further 15% added in the case of an exceptional find.

Narcis Carțiș is 43 years old, passionate about history, and a year and a half ago got his detectorist’s license. Since then he has made three exceptional archaeological discoveries: an ancient coin vessel in the Ernei area, four tetradrachms and the current hoard at Sângeru de Pădure.

Translated article