A group of 11 Celtic silver coins has been discovered under a playing field in Singen, central Germany. The coins are about 2,000 years old and exceptionally rare. The barely double-digits hoard is the largest one of from the period ever discovered in Thuringia.
The coins emerged in an archaeological survey of the former sports field in advance of construction of a new fire station. The first individual finds were unearthed in July and August of last year when construction was being overseen by archaeologists. A targeted excavation at the site last month uncovered the rest. The excavation revealed that the 11 coins were a single deposit that had been scattered by later agricultural work.
The original container has vanished. Researchers found no pottery fragments, leading them to believe the coins were probably kept in something made from organic material, perhaps a small pouch or another container that decayed long ago.
The coins were no longer lying where their owner had placed them. Centuries of ploughing had dragged them across an area measuring roughly 5.8 by 1.5 meters. Careful documentation nevertheless allowed archaeologists to reconstruct their relationship and distinguish the hoard from later objects found nearby.
The 11 coins are all silver quinarii of the Prague type. Only around 80 of them are known to have been found in Thuringia, so this single deposit is not only the largest, but contains more than 10% of the total Prague-type quinarii in the state.
Numismatists believe the quinarii may have been locally produced in the Gotha region just northwest of Singen. The find site is located between Gotha and a concentration of Celtic settlements, including Steinsburg which was one of the most important Celtic settlements in the region and was known for its craft production.
That makes the Singen hoard more than an isolated cache of silver. Its location adds another point to the archaeological map, helping researchers trace possible connections between production centers, settlements and the routes along which coins and other goods moved through Iron Age Thuringia.
The Thuringian State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology says the discovery has significantly expanded what is known about these regional connections.
So far, I had no idea that there is a ‘Singen’ in Thuringia, but as it turns out, there is indeed one, i.e. south of what seems to have been the early historic fortified enclosure at Singer Berg.
I am unaware of what happened at Steinsburg near Römhild (‘one of the region’s major Celtic settlements’), or in the Gotha region, northwest of Singen. However, 80km south of Singen –with the Thuringian Forest in between– is the hillfort of “Menosgada”.
Apparently, there was a trade route that connected Jutland in Denmark with Singen and Franconia with the river Main valley (‘Copper Road’). The Thuringian and Franconian Forests (Kupferberg) had actually been a source for copper and even silver.
The ‘Quinarius’ –as the name suggests– is a Roman silver coin, valued at half a denarius or 5 assarii. There may have been relations to Prague. Marboduus had led the Marcomanni to Bohemia in 6AD and forwarded the Governor’s head to Rome in 9AD.