Gold coin treasure from bars
The Celtic gold coin treasure from Riegel was found in 2001 in a settlement of the later Latène period in Riegel am Kaiserstuhl in Baden-Württemberg, which has been known since 1944 . It is the first Celtic gold coin treasure found in Baden-Württemberg, which could also be recovered during a planned excavation.
description
The not fully excavated, unfortified settlement of Riegel is conveniently located on the high bank of the formerly navigable Elz , a tributary of the Rhine , and extends over a length of at least 350 m. Under the powerful gravel layer of a Roman road were pit houses , incomplete plan aisled post buildings and six post memory verify. Also of interest was the exploration of a pottery furnace with an operating and firing pit opposite, in which false fires of ceramics decorated with smoothing patterns were found. What is striking about the location of the settlement is the previous lack of amphorae fragments .
A treasure of 27 gold coins was found at a depth of 0.15 m in the La Tène period . They were placed in a small, disk-turned vessel, which was destroyed by a plow before the Roman road was built. 11 coins were still in the container, the remaining 16 were slightly warped in one direction. There is no doubt about their togetherness. Almost all coins are freshly minted and consist of a gold-silver-copper alloy. The gold content is 37%. Due to the alloy, the weight is around 6.6 g. The coins are imitations of the stater Philip II of Macedonia , who bears the head image of the god Apollo on the obverse and a team and charioteer on the reverse. The coin images are partly dull and incompletely knocked off because the dies were badly worn.
Dating
The alloy of the coins, the lighter weight, but also the small finds from the settlement, including, besides the known potin coins from Leuker - or Sequanertyp and 17 copies of a dished bronze coin, known previously only from this settlement, suggest a date around the Middle of the 2nd century BC Chr.
literature
- Rolf Dehn, Jörg Drauschke: A Celtic gold coin treasure from Riegel aK, Emmendingen district. In: Archaeological excavations in Baden-Württemberg 2001, 82–85.
- Andreas Burkhardt, Willem B. Stern, Hans-Gert Bachmann, Rolf Dehn: The production of Celtic gold coins from ternary Au - Ag - Cu alloys in southern Germany and northern Switzerland. In: Metall 11, 2002, 728-732.
- Rolf Dehn: The Celtic gold coin treasure from Riegel. In: Archäologische Nachrichten aus Baden 68/69, 2004, 29–33.