Treasure of Carthage

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Partial presentation of the treasure in the British Museum

The treasure of Carthage is an important deposit from late antiquity . The Fund ensemble was in the 19th century (before 1869) close to a chapel on the Byrsa Hill in the formerly in the Roman province of Africa located Carthage , near present-day Tunis in Tunisia recovered. The exact circumstances of the find are not known. The pieces came into the possession of the classical scholar and collector Augustus Wollaston Franks . After his death in 1897 they came to the British Museum , some also to the Louvre .

Composition of the find ensemble

A total of 32 finds are known, including 24 pieces of silverware and crockery and six pieces of jewelry. The pieces of jewelry are two necklaces, a pair of earrings, a finger ring, two intaglios and a cameo .

The jewelery

A necklace consists of braided gold wires, the ends of sheet metal are designed as lions' heads. The other chain has emeralds, sapphires and pearls on links made of gold wire. The gold pair of earrings has pendants made of pearls, emeralds and sapphires. The gold finger ring has a pearl. The engravings on one gem show a head, the other a Fortuna . Minerva is shown on the cameo .

The silver

Deep bowl with a central leaf motif and pearl rim

The silver objects still have a total weight of 3086.7 g. Some pieces belong together as a set. Two deep bowls appear to be a pair. One of them has a central medallion with a leaf motif, the edge is decorated with masks and shepherd scenes. The middle medallion of the second bowl bears a shepherd motif, as does the rim. Two bowls with wavy decoration also belong together as a pair. The middle medallion of one bowl is surrounded by an inscription D (ono) D (ed) I CRESCONI (o) CLARENT (io) as a reference to the owner. This begins with a staurogram . The second, similarly decorated bowl bears a LOQVERE FELICITER blessing, beginning with a christogram with alpha and omega. Possibly one of the bowls and the bowls belong together as a dinner service.

Two of four bowls ( Viminiacum type ) still have a lid. The lid could be turned upside down and used as a plate, the high, almost cylindrical upper end then served as a foot.

A bowl with a handle in the shape of a dolphin is decorated with vegetable motifs. The edge is serrated in a star shape, the ends of the tips run out in balls. The second handle shell carries an as raised in the middle blowing work frog executed.

The cutlery of the Carthage Treasure includes differently shaped spoons. Seven ligules have a round, relatively deep bowl. These are decorated with a cross at the base of the stem. Four cochlearia with oval spoon shells are each designed slightly differently. Another cochlear has a round bowl, the inside of which is decorated with a Christogram with Alpha and Omega in a wreath.

backgrounds

The treasure of Carthage is dated around 400 or the first decades of the 5th century. Presumably, after a particularly dangerous situation, it could no longer be recovered by its former owners. The conquest of Carthage by the Vandals in 439 is seen as a possibility .

The silver objects belong to at least one late Roman dining service . It was not uncommon at this time to put Christian symbols or images on objects of everyday use.

  • Necklace and pair of earrings

  • Bowl with owner's inscription

  • The two deep bowls

  • Grip shell depicting a frog. Including three spoons.

  • Viminacium type bowl with lid

See also

literature

  • Ormonde Maddock Dalton: Catalog of Early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum. London 1901.
  • François Baratte, Catherine Metzger, Janet Lang, Susan La Niece: Le Trésor de Carthage: contribution à l'étude de l'orfèvrerie de l'Antiquité tardive , coll. Études d'antiquités africaines, éd. CNRS, Paris, 2002, ISBN 2-271-06009-5 .
  • Max Martin , Annemarie Kaufmann-Heinimann: The apostle jug and the silverware in the hoard from 1628. (= Trier magazine. 35). Self-published Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier , 2017, ISBN 978-3-944371-06-1 .

Web links

Commons : Treasure of Carthage  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References

  1. ↑ See Baratte 2002, p. 34 with literature on interpretations of the inscription.
  2. ↑ Martin 2017, p. 228.
  3. ^ Josef Engemann : Notes on devices used in everyday life with Christian images, symbols and inscriptions. In: Yearbook for Antiquity and Christianity. 15, 1972, pp. 154-173.