A hoard of 11th century coins тιԍнтly wrapped in lead sheeting has been discovered at Sizewell C on the Suffolk coast. The packet contained 321 silver coins issued between 1036 and 1044 that were first placed in a textile object that has now decomposed before having the lead sheet bent around it.
Sizewell C is the site of a planned nuclear power station. Contractors Oxford Cotswold Archaeology were engaged to excavate before construction. The team unearthed the hoard at the intersection of two medieval boundary lines, suggesting the person who buried it picked the spot for ease of retrieval. The hoard, still тιԍнтly encased in its lead sheet, was removed to a laboratory where conservators carefully pried open the lead seam and excavated the coins from the interior.
The coins are all pennies except for two cut halfpence, so a notable chunk of change, but not coins of enormous value individually or in the aggregate. Based on prices recorded in legal codes from the period, the hoard would have been enough to buy 16 cows. It was likely the savings of someone who made good money, perhaps a prosperous local farmer, not a member of the regional or national elite.
The coins were issued during the reigns of Harold I ‘Harefoot’ (1036-40), Harthacnut (1040-2) and Edward the Confessor (1042-66), with the majority being issued by Harold I, Harthacnut second and Edward the Confessor taking up the rear with just 24 coins. The most recent of the coins are of the PACX type, issued at the beginning Edward’s reign between the summer of 1042 and the end of 1044. The coins were struck in more than 30 different mints. About 40% of the coins were minted in London; the other were struck in mints across England, include Thetford, Norwich, Ipswich, Bedford, Huntingdon, Cambridge, Lincoln, Stamford, Axbridge and Langport.
Archaeologists believe the timing of the most recent coins suggest the reason why the hoard was buried. Edward the Confessor was the first ruler of the House of WesSєx to retake the English throne after 25 years of Danish rule under Cnut and his sons Harold I and Harthacnut. Edward is known to have confiscated lands and exiled perceived enemies in the first years of his reign, and hoards dating to 1042-44 have been found all across England.
Damian Leydon, site delivery director at Sizewell C, said the find was “extraordinary”.
“This project provides a rare and fascinating glimpse into Suffolk’s rich history, deepening our understanding of this part of Britain,” he added.
“In partnership with Oxford Cotswold Archaeology, we plan to make these discoveries as accessible to the public as possible.”
A Cupid-like Diana intaglio ring
An intaglio ring with an unusual depiction of Diana has been acquired by the British Museum. The dark red gemstone is engraved with what at first glance looks like a little Cupid about to draw his arrow of love from the quiver on his back and shoot it into a person, but upon closer inspection the figure is wearing short chiton and there’s a hunting dog at their feet. That identifies the deity as Diana Venatrix, the huntress, about to draw her arrow of death and shoot it into a deer.
The oval gemstone, believed to be a carnelian, is set in an elaborate gold ring. The stone is complete and undamaged, and while the gold has been crushed and bent, the ring is still mostly complete minus a few small broken pieces. The ring is made of three beaded gold wires mounted in a triangle cross-section (two on the bottom, one between them on top). The three strands flatten at the shoulder and the two outer strands curve around the bezel. The triangular gaps on the sides of the bezel are filled with fine beaded gold wires in small spirals and smaller discs.
The ring was discovered by a metal detectorist in the village of Sedgeford, near Hunstanton in Norfolk in 2022 and declared treasure. The British Museum acquired it for its permanent collection in September 2024. It is not yet on display. Diana the Huntress, armed with bow and accompanied by either a dog or a stag, was a popular iconographic type in Roman art. The sculptural type was widespread, and derivations of it appeared on coins and gemstones. The British Museum has three other intaglios with Diana Venatrix and hound: two carnelian intaglios from the Snettisham jeweler’s hoard, and one chalcedony pendant from the Thetford Hoard. The Snettisham examples are far more coarsely engraved; really just a few slashes suggesting the figure drawing an arrow and hound.
A longer, lither Diana Venatrix with hound engraved on chalcedony and mounted in gold setting is part of the late-Roman Thetford Treasure, a hoard of fine jewelry and silver tableware, also found in Norfolk. The Thetford pendant and the Sedgeford ring are close enough parallels in the motif, engraving and the cable/beading effect of their gold surrounds that they could conceivably have been made in the same workshop. They certainly date to the same period, the second half of the 4th century.
The ring was likely commissioned by the wearer, not purchased retail, and the wearer was almost certainly an elite woman (several of the coins with Diana Venatrix on the reverse have wives and mothers of emperors on the obverse) who used it as a signet ring to sign her correspondence and legal documents. See for example the Diana Venatrix intaglio found at the Caerleon Fortress Baths in Wales which has the owner’s initials carved into it.
19th c. shipwreck loaded with champagne found in Baltic
A 19th century shipwreck laden with champagne, wine, mineral water and porcelain in perfect condition has been discovered off the coast of the Swedish island of Öland in the Baltic Sea.
The wreck was found at a depth of 190 feet 20 nautical miles south of Öland in Swedish waters by the Baltictech ᴀssociation, a group of technical divers dedicating to exploring Baltic Sea shipwrecks. The Baltictech crew had spotted the wreck on sonar, but it barely showed up on the scan, so they thought it was probably a small fishing vessel. Two of the divers decided to check it out just in case, and when that “quick dive” turned into them being gone for two hours, the crew realized it was a lot more than an old fishing boat.
It was a 19th century sailing ship, preserved in the dark, cold, currentless depth of the Baltic with wooden crates and baskets full of delicate glᴀss wine bottles and stoneware mineral water bottles. The divers were able to count 100 bottles of champagne and another 100 of water, but that was just what was easily identifiable on the surface. There are likely many more than that nestled deeper into the wreck.
They recovered one of the water bottles which bears the stamp of the famous German mineral water brand Selters, the origin of the term seltzer water, which is still in production today. The style of the logo dates the water (and therefore the ship) to between 1850 and 1867. The pottery factory that made the stoneware bottlers for Selters is also still in existence, and their information may help narrow down the dates further.
At that time, Selters water was valued for its medicinal properties, not just as a refreshing beverage, so it was very expensive and like the champagne, was exported only to the wealthiest and most aristocratic tables. There is no clearly visible maker’s mark on the champagne bottles like there is on the watter bottles, but the letter R on the cork may be an important clue.
One of the lingering mysteries surrounding the shipwreck is the origin and intended destination of the champagne. [Polish diver and Baltictech team leader Tomasz] Stachura speculates that the bottles may contain Louis Roederer champagne, a brand that was highly favored in the Russian imperial court during the 19th century. Notably, in 1876, the Louis Roederer champagne house began producing a special cuvée, known as Cristal, specifically for Tsar Alexander II of Russia. Whether or not these bottles are indeed Louis Roederer champagne remains to be confirmed, but the possibility adds an intriguing layer to the discovery.
Despite the excitement surrounding the find, questions remain about the condition and drinkability of the champagne. The team is conducting further investigations in collaboration with the Insтιтute of Maritime Archaeological Research at Södertörn University in Sweden, under the guidance of Professor Johan Rönnby. However, before any bottles can be recovered from the site, there are administrative hurdles to overcome. As Stachura pragmatically noted, “It has been there for 170 years, so it can wait another year while we prepare better for the operation.”
Here is Baltictech’s 3D model of the wreck site. It’s not high resolution enough to make out the details of the cargo, but you can see how remarkably intact the ship is.
Roman brick aqueduct tunnel found in nature preserve
The remains of a Roman aqueduct have been found in the Borsacchio Nature Reserve on the Adriatic coast of the central Italian region of Abruzzo. The underground brick structure was uncovered during work on a gas pipeline in a hilly stretch of the reserve near the town of Cologna Spiaggia. The conduit likely dates to the Imperial period (1st-4th century A.D.), likely to the later part of it.
Previous archaeological investigations conducted in the area between the 1980s and the early 2000s have found evidence of a thriving Roman town with pottery kilns for amphora production, a large country villa from the Late Republican era, two necropolises and a fortress guarding the strategically important port where the Tordino river flowed into the Adriatic. A Roman inscription found in a nearby monastery records construction work done to an important public edifice by local praetors M. Petulcius e L. Satrius.
The local amphora factory played a part in the construction of the aqueduct. Large fragments of broken amphorae were used to build the base of the pipeline. The sides and a vaulted ceiling were then built up with neatly laid bricks and hydraulic mortar. The pipeline extends from west to east, going through the hill.
Unfortunately the structure was damaged during the works by the bucket of the bulldozer, leaving a hole in the top of the brick tunnel, but workers immediately realized they’d stumbled on something of archaeological significance and stopped what they were doing, preventing any further harm. The bricks are still present and the hole should be comparatively easy to repair. The crew reported the find to the Superintendency of Archaeological Heritage and for now, the gas pipeline modernization project is on hold.
Flemish artist’s only known work export barred
A unique set of four hardstone, shell and pearl panels that are the only known surviving works of the 17th century Flemish artist De Vély are at risk of leaving the UK after they were sold at auction last July for a whopping £1.6 million. The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport has put a temporary export bar on De Vély’s Polyptych with Mars, Virtu Invincible, Minerva and Magnificence that gives a local insтιтution until March 17th to raise the purchase price to acquire the panels.
Known as the Fairhaven Panels because they have been in the collection of Broughton family, Lords Fairhaven, since the 1920s, the panels combine stones like lapis lazuli, sardonyx and garnet with shells, enamel, glᴀss beads, pearls and gilt metal to create personifications of four deities or moral symbols — Mars, Virtu Invincible, Minerva and Magnificence — set in gilded metal cases. The elaborate detail and precious materials are the work of a master craftsman working for the most exalted of patrons. De Vély signed and dated the panels in a тιтular cartouche that records he began in 1685 and completed them in 1700. The almost pointillistic detail he achieved with tiny seed pearls and shells and gemstones fully justify the 15-year timeframe.
Its origin is unknown, but the depiction of Mars standing on a trophy of flags and arms strongly suggests it was created for the court of Louis XIV. There’s the banner of the Gardes Françaises (white cross on blue ground with gold fleurs de lys), the Sun King’s golden sun against a white ground, and a cheeky reference to a very old grudge with the Plantagenet flag of three gold lions on a red ground on the bottom left next to a helmet and sword. Many Flemish artists — painters, sculptors, engravers, tapestry designers/weavers — worked in Paris during the long reign of Louis XIV.
Mars is the left outer panel. Magnificence is his opposite on the right. Both of them stand inside baldachins with lapis lazuli columns adorned with natural pearls and gems. Their clothes are formed of gold, mother of pearl and cabochon gemstones. They stand over elaborate flourishes flanked by lions and panthers. The two inner panels — Virtu invincible and Minerva — have less sumptuous backdrops and use more shellwork than gemstones. They stand above animal pelts made of shells and mother and pearl.
The panels were acquired for the family collection by American-born Cara Leyland Rogers (1867-1939), daughter of industrialist and Standard Oil magnate Henry Huttleston Rogers of Fairhaven, Mᴀssachusetts. She met Urban Hanlon Broughton, an English civil engineer, when he was in the United States installing hydro-pneumatic sewerage systems, including one in the Rogers’ Fairhaven summer home. They married and moved to England after her father’s death in 1909. She dedicated herself to charitable and philanthropic pursuits, while her husband became a Member of Parliament. He was due to receive a peerage but died of pneumonia before the official list was announced, so his eldest son received the barony instead and his widow was given the тιтle Lady Fairhaven, the style she would have received had her husband lived long enough.
Lady Fairhaven was an avid collector of jewels and hardstones, and her father’s hometown of Fairhaven was a fishing village spitting distance from the major whaling port of New Bedford. Her paternal grandfather was a whaling ship captain. There’s little mystery as to why De Vély’s masterpiece of hardstone sculpture festooned with shells, mother of pearl and seed pearls would have resonated with the former Miss Rogers.
She was also deeply committed to preserving the history of her adopted country. Shortly after her husband’s death in 1929, Lady Fairhaven bought the historic Meadows at Runnymede where King John signed the Magna Carta and donated it to the National Trust in memory of his husband, thus saving the birth site of a foundational symbol of freedom against tyranny for the British nation.
The panels have remained in the family until the current Lord Fairhaven decided to put them under the hammer at Sotheby’s in July 2024. I suspect the first Lady Fairhaven would have sided with the Culture Ministry.
