Berthouville Treasure

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The Berthouville Treasure is a find of silver objects from the 2nd century that was discovered in Villeret (Canetonum) near Berthouville in the Eure department in Normandy in 1830 and is now in the collection of the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris heard.

Research history

On March 21, 1830, the farmer Prosper Taurin († 1865) found a stone slab on his field in the hamlet of Villeret and underneath 69 silver objects , above all drinking vessels with historical and mythological Greek motifs, made of chased, gilded and chased silver that make one Temples dedicated to Mercury of Canetonum . The Gauls have often equated Teutates with Mercurius.

Mercurius of Canetonum

Prosper Taurine showed Auguste Le Prévost the findings. He numbered them, had them drawn and wrote about them in the Journal de Rouen (now Paris Normandy ). A few months after the discovery, the French state bought the finds for 15,000 francs . The fields in Villeret indicated an old building. Where the temple walls were, the plants turned yellow faster because the roots couldn't go that deep. An archaeologist from Bernay , Le Métayer-Masselin, came to Villeret in 1861 and began an excavation there. He found remains of walls from buildings and some coins and vases. When stones were stolen from the sites by local residents during his absence and used as building material, he made drawings of the found walls, which, however, were hardly usable. The owner of the property finally sued Le Métayer-Masselin. Even if the Bernay Court ruled against them, the excavations had to be stopped.

When Ernest Babelon , head of the Cabinet des Medailles, wanted to write a monograph on the finds in Villeret, he organized another excavation. It was financed by Arthur Join-Lambert (1839–1917). They commissioned Camille de la Croix , who in 1896 found the foundations of four ancient Roman temples from different eras.

Since December 2010, the Berthouville treasure has been examined and restored at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu and will be presented in an exhibition from 2014–2015.

The site and its structures

Floor plan of the temples and theater by Camille de la Croix

The ruins are located on an area of ​​around 6 hectares. The square area of ​​4600 m² of the temple precinct was surrounded by a wall. The cella (inner main room) of the larger temple was 100 m² in size and divided by a wall. The pronaos (vestibule) was about 400 m² in size, with two small chambers on its north and south sides. The large temple was dedicated to the goddess Maia , mother of Mercury, and enclosed the smaller temple of Mercury. The temple of Mercury was 24 × 6 m and its pronaos 12.1 × 8.4 m in size. A portico ran around the building and was paved with white stones. These two oldest temples date from the 1st century and were probably destroyed in the second half of the 3rd century by the Franks and Alemanni , who invaded Gaul around 275 (see Imperial Crisis of the 3rd Century ). The silver treasure that belonged to the Temple of Mercury was deposited in its hiding place and was not discovered during the later reconstruction of the two temples. Le Métayer-Masselin found pieces of reddish marble from the marble quarry in Vieux (Calvados) .

When exactly the new temples were rebuilt cannot be said. The new buildings are in almost the same places as the old temples, but they do not use the same foundations. One of the new temples had a square cella and pronaos. Le Métayer-Masselin found remains of wall painting, leaves, flowers and fruits there. To the northeast of this temple was a tower with an inner diameter of 3.1 m. This made the tower larger than the little turret at the old temple, which had an inner diameter of only 0.6 m. Otherwise, the new temples were smaller than the old temples. The new temples were burned down in the 5th century. Later the area was used as a necropolis . The poor urn graves were found in a younger layer, above the remains of the building.

A Roman key was found at a depth of 70 m in a well, which was 90 m away from the temples and was used in the Middle Ages to mine marl .

There was a fork in Roman roads near the temple . One connected Rouen (Rotomagus) via Brionne (Breviodurum) with Lisieux (Noviomagus) , another connected Le Vieil-Évreux (Gisacum) via Lisieux with Vieux (Aregenua) and a smaller Roman road led from Morsan to Bernay .

A Roman theater was found east of the temple , the semicircular western facade was 65.5 m long and the orchestra 29.3 m. The theater was built in the 1st century, destroyed in the second half of the 3rd century and, unlike the temples, was never rebuilt. It offered space for about 5000 people.

Since the remains of a Roman settlement have not been found either in that place or in Villeret, which dates from the Middle Ages, Babelon assumed that Canetonum consisted only of a villa, the temples, the theater and a forum , which on certain days was the people from the surrounding settlements met to hold the market and to speak justice. Only a few Roman fragments and remains of Roman underfloor heating ( hypocaust ) were found on the western edge of today's settlement of Villeret . No necropolis from the Gallo-Roman period has been found.

Adolphe-André Porée (1848–1939), who had visited the site of the excavation, wrote in 1896 that the ruins reminded him very much of the ruins of Sanxay , but on a smaller scale. Like Sanxay, Canetum was also on the edge of a settlement area of ​​a Celtic tribe . In the case of Canetum, these were the Lexovii who lived west of the Seine estuary and had Lisieux as their capital. The nearby Risle river was the border with the settlement area of ​​the Eburovices , whose capital was Évreux , and the Velicasses, whose capital was Rouen.

The street that leads to the site is now called Rue du Trésor ('Street of the Treasure'). Otherwise nothing of the ruins can be seen due to the many years of agricultural use of the site. However, on aerial photos you can still see the layout of the buildings.

The objects of the treasure

Mercurius statue

Most of the finds are silver offerings to Mercury. The names of the donors and a dedication to Mercurius are engraved in the offerings, which is interesting for name research , because here both Roman and Gallic names and mixed forms come up. One of the names, Sollemnis , appears on the “marble of Thorigny” from Vieux, which dates from the same period. Le Métayer-Masselin found various Gallic coins. Eight of them ended up in the Cabinet des Medailles , four bronze coins from the Lexovians , two bronze coins from the Velicasses , one from the Eburovices and one from the Belgians . He also found a bronze sistrum that is 20 cm long and is now in the Musée d'archéologie nationale in Saint-Germain-en-Laye .

The attributes of Mercurius are repeatedly depicted on the objects: the billy goat, the rooster, the purse and the cadaver . The traditional clothing of Mercurius consists of the petasos , a hat that often has wings, and winged sandals.

1. + 2. Two Mercurius statues, one of which is 57 cm high and shows a standing Mercurius, who stretches his right hand forward and holds the gold-plated cadastral staff in his left hand. The upper part of the head is missing, the remains of a seam suggest that there was a petasus there.

3rd-7th Two Mercurius busts that still show traces of gilding. A small hand made of solid silver and two snakes made of cast silver and four incense spoons of different shapes.

8. Three simpula , a type of ladle used to make wine, which was the emblem of Roman priests. Mercury, a goat and a tree are engraved on a simpulum. The inscription engraved in dots reads: Mercurio. Augusto. Q. Domitius. Tutus. In the second simpulum is the inscription Mercurio. Aug. Combaromarus. Buolmini. Fil. VSLM engraved. Combaromarus is a Gallic name. VSLM is Votum Solvit Lubens Merito, and it keeps its promise .

9. Four small jars with no inscription or decoration.

10th + 11th Two silver discs, one of which bears the inscription: Deodorant. Mercurio. Kanetonnessi. C. Property Secundus. VSLM , which means for the god Mercurius von Canetum vonigentus Secundus, who keeps his promise . The edge of the disk is decorated with lions and masks, in the middle is a man who is attacked by a lion and a wolf. The other disk shows in its center a gold-coated bird eating berries and the inscription: Mercury. Aug. Sacrum. Germanissa. ViscariVSLM.

12. A phial donated by Germanissa. The handle shows a female bust and below it a woman holding a cornucopia in her left hand and a caduceus in her right hand.

sleeping omphale on a bowl with godrons

13. A large bowl from the 1st century, 28.5 cm in diameter and 5.58 cm in height, decorated with 21 outwardly protruding godrons , donated by Domitius Tutus. Their associated ground use is discussed under 26.

14. A phial from the 2nd century, on the bottom of which is depicted Amor, who is standing next to an altar, wearing a mask in his right hand and leaning on a large lyre with his left hand. The bowl bears the inscription: Mercurio. Aug. P. Aelius. P. Aeli. Numitoris. Libertus. Eutychus. VSLM , that means it was donated by the freedman Aelius Eutychus. Your use on the ground is also discussed under 26.

15. A large phial, 21.8 cm in diameter.

seated Mercurius on the bowl of Lucia Lupula

16. A phial from the 2nd century adorned with arabesques of vases, ibis devouring snakes , flowers, butterflies, reptiles, garlands and the like. A seated Mercury is shown on its floor. His head is decorated with wings, he is holding a caduceus and at his feet is a goat on one side and a rooster on the other. In addition, an altar and a turtle are depicted. An inscription says: L. Lupula. MC Do. and was interpreted by Le Prévost as Lucia Lupula Mercurio Caneto Donat .

17.-23. Eight phials, one with a foot and three with a handle, one with the inscription Q. Lucanius. Blaesus. Ex Stipe. ( Ex Stipe means that the bowl was donated on the basis of a collection ), and a phiale decorated with foliage and snake heads, bearing the inscription Merio. Caneto. Epaticcus. dso wears.

24. Two phials adorned with chased vines and bunches of grapes that wrap around obelisks and are pecked at by birds. They bear remnants of gilding and the inscription Deo. Merc. Can. Decir. Lupercus. Ex test. Pac. Dociris. PII. PII is a weight specification. Pondus was the Latin word for pound. Such weight information can also be found on the drinking bowls 15 and 21.

25. Twelve phials without inscriptions.

26. Four ornate emblemata , discs that had been used as the bottom in drinking bowls. The first disk shows Mercurius with the Caduceus in his left hand and the wallet in his right. In front of the figure is a column wound with a garland on which a rooster sits. Opposite her is another pillar on which a turtle sits and next to it is a goat. On the second disk, Mercurius leans his left hand on the cadastral staff, his right hand holds a robe that is wrapped around Mercurius' waist and on which a wallet hangs.

Maia and Mercurius

The third disk is in phiale 14. It shows the busts of Mercurius and Maia among them a Caduceus.

The sleeping Omphale

The fourth disk belongs to Phiale 13. It shows a sleeping Omphale surrounded by three erotes on the skin of the Nemean lion . Her head rests on the club of Hercules .

27. Two silver oinochoes , which are decorated with embossments that are reminiscent of honeycombs. One bears the inscription: Mercurio. Sacr. Maxuminus. Carantini.

28. A small silver votive plaque with the inscription: QBSVSLM

29. A smooth vase of which only the upper part has been preserved, with the inscription: Mercurio. Aug. Camulognata. Coigi. Filia. VSLM Camulognata is a Gallic name and recalls the name of the Aulerci leader Camulogene mentioned in Caesar's De bello Gallico .

Achilles weeps for Patroclus

30. Two oinochoes made of chased silver from the 1st century depict scenes from the Homeric epics , the death of Patroclus , mourned by Achilles , and the death of Hector . Achilles stands over Hector's corpse and a Victoria hands him a laurel wreath, then he drags Hector's dead body around Patroclus's grave. And finally the death of Achilles, who was struck by the arrow of Apollo .

Poseidon and Demeter at the Isthmian Games

31. A cup from the 1st century with depictions of the Istrian games , with Greek gods and a winner of the games. Poseidon sits next to the standing Demeter and both look in the direction of the seated nymph Peirene , who in turn touches the wing of a Pegasus with one hand . The Pegasus drinks from a spring, in the background of which one can see the mountain of Acrocorinth on which a temple stands. Next to the Pegasus stands a muscular, beardless man wreathed with spruce branches, who is holding a robe with his right hand and a palm of victory with his left that is standing on a table. The wreath of spruce branches was the symbol of the winner of the Istrian games. The cup bears the inscription: Mercurio. Augusto. Q. Domitius tutus. Ex Voto.

Centauress holding up a mirror

32. Male and female Centaurs are depicted on two Skyphoi (drinking bowls with handles) made of chased silver, from the 1st century , with a male Centaur on one side and a female on the other. With their Dionysian motifs, these skyphoi are an important example of luxurious private everyday objects from the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the imperial era.

An eros pulls a centaur's hair

Is on the one Skyphos a bearded centaur with Cupids flirts (cherub), pulling him by the hair, another Erot holds a basket of fruit, along with a juvenile appears Satyr (forest spirit) his hands in running water. Opposite him, a centauress holds up a mirror, she is wrapped in ivy and throws her head back. Next to her are two erotes, one playing the flute and the other picking poppies.

Centauress holding a basket of fruits

On the second skyphos a beardless centaur with puffed cheeks can be seen playing an instrument that can no longer be recognized, a couple of erotes romping next to him, and the centauress on the opposite side holds a basket of fruit.

33. Two kantharoi decorated with three female and three male masks, the male masks representing satyrs or silenas . A male mask is beardless and has pointed ears. Garlands, flowers and ribbons are worked into the hair of the female masks.

34. Four scenes are represented on two Kantharoi. The first kantharos shows two scenes with a half-naked woman and an elderly man dressed in a cloak. The woman is holding a rolled up scroll . In front of her the man stands on a disc with astrological motifs and holds a lituus (coiled stick). In the second scene she reads the unrolled scroll and the man leans on the lituus. On the second kantharos a seated young man holds the lituus and the scroll while a woman pulls a branch from a large vase. In the second scene, the man is sitting on a lion-footed seat and holding the scroll that rests on his knee, and the woman is leaning against a pillar while holding the lituus in her left hand. The fortune-telling character of the scenes is reinforced by several zippi (flat steles ) on which masks and lyre lie and vases stand, which represent simplified faces as if they were reflected on polished surfaces, which suggests crystal romance (more precisely catopter romance ). The older man represents the prophet Teiresias and the woman the priestess Pythia from the oracle of Delphi . The other woman is Manto , the daughter of Teiresias and her son, the seer Mopsus . However, this interpretation is controversial.

literature

  • Auguste Le Prévost : Mémoire sur la collection de vases antiques trouvée, en mars 1830, à Berthouville, arrondissement de Bernay . T. Chalopin, 1832, p. 6-59 (French, books.google.com ).
  • Léon Coutil : Archéologique gauloise . Canton de Brionne. In: Société libre d'agriculture, sciences, arts et belles-lettres de l'Eure (ed.): Recueil de la Société d'agriculture, sciences, arts et belles-lettres du département de l'Eure (=  7 ). tape 3 . Paul Hérissey, Évreux 1915, p. 162–242 (French, gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Ernest Babelon : Le trésor d'argenterie de Berthouville près Bernay (Eure), conservé au département des médailles et antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale . Lévy, Paris 1916. - Review: Maxime Collignon : Le Journal des savants . No. 15 , 1917, pp. 434-445 ( visualizeur.bnf.fr ).
  • Kenneth Lapatin (Ed.): The Berthouville Silver Treasure and Roman Luxury. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2014, ISBN 978-1-60606-420-7 .

Web links

Commons : Treasure of Berthouville  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ a b L. Coutil pp. 166-169.
  2. ↑ L. Coutil p. 164; Le Prévost p. 6.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Camille de la Croix: Fouilles de Berthouville, par le P. de la Croix . In: Bulletins de la Société des antiquaires de l'Ouest . tape 2 , no. 7 , 1895, ISSN  1149-3194 , pp. 538-543 (French, Gallica ).
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h Dominique Cliquet: L'Eure . 27. In: Carte Archéologique de la Gaule . Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-87754-018-9 , chap. 151 , p. 94-99 (French).
  5. ↑ Le Prévost p. 14.
  6. ↑ L. Coutil p. 164, 166.
  7. ↑ Le Prévost p. 9.
  8. ↑ L. Coutil pp. 162-163. 170.
  9. ↑ a b c d e f g Camille de la Croix: Le Trésor et les Substructions Gallo-Romains de Berthouville (Eure) . In: Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques . 1897, p. 70-77 u. Plate 1 ( archive.org ).
  10. ↑ L. Coutil p. 170, 172-173.
  11. ↑ L. Coutil p. 174.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g h Maxime Collignon : Review by Ernest Babelon: Le Trésor de Berthouville près Bernay (Eure) . In: Le Journal des savants . No. 15 , 1917, pp. 434-445 ( Gallica ).
  13. ^ Welcoming the Berthouville treasure to the Getty Villa ; Ancient Luxury and the Roman Silver Treasure from Berthouville. November 19, 2014 – August 17, 2015, Getty Villa .
  14. ↑ a b L. Coutil p. 171, 184-185.
  15. ↑ L. Coutil p. 171.
  16. ↑ L. Coutil p. 178.
  17. ↑ Sommaire des voies romaines (17.2 + 18) (French)
  18. ↑ L. Coutil p. 183.
  19. ↑ a b c L. Coutil p. 165, 180, 182.
  20. ^ Adolphe-André Porée: L'art normand . Fontemoing et Cie, Paris 1913 (French, collection électronique de la Médiathèque André Malraux de Lisieux ).
  21. ^ Adolphe-André Porée: Découvertes archéologiques du RP de la Croix, au Villeret (Berthouville), en 1896 . In: Bulletin monumental . tape 7 , no. 61 , 1896, pp. 339 ( Gallica ).
  22. ^ Aspects de l'Architecture monumentale antique. (PDF; 9.2 MB) Berthouville et Caudebec-lès-Elbeuf. In: Archeology of Upper Normandy. 2005, pp. 15-18 , accessed on November 17, 2011 (French).
  23. ↑ L. Coutil p. 186.
  24. ↑ Le Prévost pp. 15-29.
  25. ^ Jon van de Grift: Tears and Revel: The Allegory of the Berthouville Centaur Scyphi . In: American Journal of Archeology . tape 88 , 1984.
  26. ↑ L. Coutil pp. 189-242; Le Prévost pp. 37-59.

Coordinates: 49 ° 10 ′ 45 ″  N , 0 ° 37 ′ 16 ″  E