Treasure of Colmar

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Jewish wedding ring from Colmar (Musée de Cluny)

The Colmar Treasure is a complex of coins, pieces of jewelery and other objects made of precious metal that was recovered in Colmar and is now mostly in the Musée de Cluny in Paris (some pieces are in the possession of the Colmar Unterlinden Museum ).

Landfill

Due to the history of the find, nothing more can be said about the type of hiding place. But because of the location of the house in the Jewish quarter, it was assumed that it was the depot of a Jewish pawnbroker that he had set up before the pogrom of 1348–1349. A strong argument for this interpretation is the hoard's final coin , a Hungarian florin that was minted between 1342 and 1353.

The Colmar treasure also included a Jewish wedding ring . Such rings were mostly owned by a Jewish community, as they were only worn during the wedding ceremony. It is a gold ring with enamel inlays, early 14th century; as a top a hexagonal Gothic temple with a pyramid roof, on it the inscription: מזל טוב.

Discovery

When a house was demolished in Colmar on the corner of Rue de Weinemer and Rue des Juifs (historic Jewish quarter), workers discovered a treasure in the area of ​​the foundations in May 1863 and shared it among themselves. They sold the individual pieces to antique dealers and collectors. The context of the find was lost, the type of landfill is not known, and it must also be expected that individual parts have been lost.

Pieces known today

  • 349 coins,
  • 54 pieces of jewelry,
  • a silver bar
  • a double head,
  • a silver key,
  • a silver stylus and
  • a gold-plated bronze fitting.

Web links

  • Anke K. Scholz: plague - pogroms - pawnbroker nurseries. A standardized interpretation scheme for late medieval treasures. PDF

literature