Boscoreale Treasure

Boscoreale Treasure

Mirror from the Boscoreale Treasure as displayed in the Louvre
Material Silver
Created 1st Century AD (mostly)
Present location Louvre, Paris and British Museum, London

The Boscoreale Treasure is the name for a large collection of luxury Roman objects discovered in the ruins of an ancient villa at Boscoreale, near Pompeii, southern Italy. Consisting of over a hundred pieces of silverware, as well as gold coins and jewellery, it is now mostly kept at the Louvre Museum in Paris, although parts of the treasure can also be found at the British Museum.[1]

History

Located northwest of Pompeii, Boscoreale was the location of a large Roman villa, the Villa della Pisanella, that was destroyed and buried by volcanic ash following the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. On April 13, 1895, the remains of a vaulted box containing the treasure was discovered in the wine-pressing room of the villa. The vaulted box contained silver tableware consisting of 102 items and leather bag full of coins to the value of a thousand gold aurei . It is assumed that the objects were intentionally hidden in the storehouse before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79. The last owner of the silver set was probably a woman named Maxima – a name written on many of the vessels. Many items of precious metal were abandoned in Pompeii and its surrounding area by their owners as they attempted to flee the destruction.

The villa was unearthed during several archaeological seasons, confirming the archaeological hypothesis of a villa rustica covering 1000 square meters with clearly defined residential sector and farm buildings. Most of the Boscoreale Treasure was illicitly trafficked out of Italy and was later purchased by Baron Edmond de Rothschild.

The Boscoreale treasure was purchased by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who donated it to the Louvre Museum in 1896. Baron Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French member of the Rothschild banking family. Given the number of the items, their weight over 30 kg, their technical quality and aesthetic value, the silver set from Boscoreale is among the most important and most prestigious sets of this period.

The name Maxima is inscribed on many of the vessels from the treasure. Unfortunately, there is still no definitive answer to the question of whether the woman near which the vaulted box was found is Maxima. It is assumed that the owner of the villa and the entire property is L. Caecilius lucundus, a banker from Pompeii, who inherited the wealth of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Campania, and that he was the father of Maxima.[2]

Description

The treasure consists of 109 pieces of silverware, as well as gold jewellery (necklaces, bracelets and earrings) and over 1000 gold coins. Items from the hoard vary in date from 4th Century BC to 1st Century AD. Many of the silver items from the treasure are considered masterpieces of Roman art that could only have belonged to the very elite sections of society. A few objects also seem to be family heirlooms passed down the generations. Parts of the hoard are inscribed with the name Maxima who were perhaps the original owner. Some of the most well-known items in the treasure include:

Roman Gold Aurei from Boscoreale

Figure 1

Boscoreale is also well known to Roman numismatists as the location of a hoard of over 1,000 gold aurei. The aureus (pl. aurei - "golden") was a gold coin of ancient Rome valued at 25 silver denarii and was regularly issued from the 1st century BC to the beginning of the 4th century AD, when it was replaced by the solidus. The aureus was about the same size as the denarius, but heavier due to the higher density of gold (as opposed to that of silver.)[10]

The latest of the Boscoreale hoard, which contained over 1,000 Aurei, dates to AD 79 and was uncovered in 1895. The entire area was buried by the famous volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, where the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum were preserved under layers of ash and pumice. The intense heat from Mount Vesuvius imbued all the gold coins with the beautiful red toning that we now see almost 2000 years later. The villa in which the coins were found was undisturbed until 1876, but even then the coin hoard lay undiscovered for almost another 30 years. Unfortunately, no formal study of the Boscoreale coins was made before they were dispersed into the market, and, as is often the case, it is very possible that a list published in 1909 includes material from other finds as well.

See also

Gallery

Bibliography

References

Coordinates: 48°51′37″N 2°20′15″E / 48.8603°N 2.3375°E / 48.8603; 2.3375

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