Silver treasure from Augsburg

The place where the silver treasure was found on the former production site of the Zeuna strengh company

The silver treasure from Augsburg was discovered in 2021 during archaeological investigations in the Augsburg district of Oberhausen . It includes almost 5600 Roman denarii from the 1st and 2nd centuries. The coins have a high silver content and a total weight of over 15 kilograms. It is the largest Roman coin treasure found in Bavaria . Researchers consider it to be one of the most important discoveries of this type of find in Germany.

description

The location is on a former production site of the automotive supplier Zeuna Starker west of the Outer Uferstrasse. In 2021, archaeologists from an excavation company examined the site for several months under the supervision of the Augsburg City Archeology for historical legacies. The soil investigations were carried out before the construction of a new residential area. The coins lay in the gravel of an old river bed of the Wertach about four meters below today's surface. The site is around 200 meters from a site where archaeologists had recovered Roman weapons, tools, jewelry and ceramics with a total weight of around 400 kilograms a few months earlier. This site shows that Augsburg is the oldest military base in present-day Bavaria.

The coin treasure was recovered and documented under scientific conditions, so that all information about the finds has been preserved. According to an initial coin dating , the oldest coins were minted under Emperor Nero , who ruled from 54 to 68 AD. The most recent coins were made under Emperor Septimius Severus , who ruled from 193 to 211 AD.

The restoration of the silver coins, including their research, is planned by the University of Tübingen as part of a dissertation and should be completed after three years. Before that, there will be a temporary exhibition of the coins from the end of 2021 to the beginning of 2022 in the Augsburg armory . A permanent exhibition of the coin treasure is planned for later.

evaluation

Researchers consider the coin treasure to be one of the most important discoveries of its kind in Germany because of the large number of silver coins. The Romans often buried large amounts of money in their northern provinces, but they usually only comprised a few hundred coins and which were mostly not silver coins.

The amount of money was enormous by ancient standards, as the value of the coins corresponded to about 11 to 15 annual salaries of a legionnaire . Further scientific studies of the found coins are expected to provide information on the coins in circulation in the early 3rd century and on the possible owners and the circumstances of their concealment. According to initial assumptions by researchers, the most likely owners would be people who were active in the military or in trade. According to the Augsburg city archaeologist Sebastian Gairhos, it could have been the cash assets of a wine or textile wholesaler who was doing business in what was then Augsburg, the Roman provincial capital of Augusta Vindelicum . The treasure was probably buried outside the city in the early 3rd century, not far from the Via Claudia Roman road . It was probably washed away centuries later by floods in the Wertach River, so that the coins were scattered in the river gravel.

The city of Augusta Vindelicum dates back to around 15th BC. The Roman military camp , which was built in the 3rd century BC , was the nucleus of Augsburg and was located in what is now the Oberhausen district. Later, the city was raised to the capital of the Roman province of Raetia under Emperor Trajan (98-117 AD) .