500 BC Celtic tomb reveals gold

In 2015 French archaeologists completed excavations of an ancient burial site revealing the decorated skeleton of a Celtic prince. The tomb was discovered in an industrial area of Lavau, a village near Troyes, about 150km southeast of Paris. The find was described as extraordinary by experts. Buried with a two-wheeled chariot, the body is believed to be a high ranking aristocrat from the Hallstatt culture that dominated central Europe during the Early Iron Age.

Well-preserved Greek and Etruscan relics were found, including a bronze cauldron, decorated by Dionysus' head, at the centre of a 40m-diameter burial mound. Bronze dinner sets, delicately decorated ceramic platters, elaborate Greek vases and, finally, the deceased's remains, resting on his ornate chariot and still wearing his gold. He was dubbed the Lavau Prince. He was in his forties, in good health and tall. His only injury was a broken collarbone. His name will probably never be known because Celtic cultures left no written records.

The skeleton sported ancient pieces of jewellery including a richly decorated gold torque weighing more than half a kilogram and gold bracelets. Remains of the deceased's clothing, such as shoe parts, finely worked amber beads that formed a necklace or hair decoration, and iron and coral hooks that attached to a piece of clothing were also retrieved.

The Greek vase held a secret. It once contained red wine, produced in the city of Marseilles or in Italy and costly to import.

‘If it is a boy, let it live; if it is a girl, expose it.’

"Hilarion to his dearest Alis, heartiest greetings..." This opening line comes from P.Oxy. IV 744, a famous private letter written on papyrus in Roman Egypt. Dated to June 17, 1 BCE, it was sent by a soldier named Hilarion to his wife (or sister) Alis while he was away in Alexandria.

The letter was written in Alexandria on Pauni 23 of the 29th year of Caesar (Augustus), corresponding to 1 BCE. The text is known for its grim historical instructions regarding Alis's expected pregnancy: if she gives birth to a boy, to keep it, but if it is a girl, to discard or expose it. "I beg and beseech of you to take care of the little child, and as soon as we receive wages I will send them to you. If - good luck to you! - you bear a child, if it is a male, let it live; if it is a female, expose it. You told [our friend] Aphrodisias to tell me, 'Do not forget me. How can I forget you? I beg you therefore not to worry.’ Newborn infanticide and child exposure (expositio) were legal practices in ancient Rome. Expositio was where parents abandoned newborn infants outdoors to die or to be rescued and raised by others as slaves or foundlings. Baby girls were targeted more often than boys due to the financial burden of providing a marriage dowry. The practice legally ended when Christian emperors banned it in the 4th century CE.

Ancient Iron

According to researchers, ancient metalworkers hunted for iron from meteorites to create highly prized weapons before they could extract the metal from the earth. In 2016 X-ray scans on a dagger from Tutankhamun's tomb were made to determine what it was made from. Research indicates that before the very first kilns for smelting iron ore emerged around 3,200 years ago, all iron was crafted from meteorites.

Most meteorites that collide into the earth contain high levels of nickel or cobalt. Tutankhamun’s dagger was made with iron containing nearly 11 percent nickel and traces of cobalt.The oldest-known furnace for smelting iron ore is at Tell Hammeh in Jordan and dates to about 930 B.C. During the Bronze Age iron, because it could not be smelted, was valued at ten times the price of gold. As the Iron Age advanced, the price dropped rapidly allowing for a series of important discoveries using the harder and more durable metal. Iron production in significant quantities began around 500 BC. Archaeological finds are very rare because the metal was so valuable, artifacts were rarely lost or discarded.

The Romans produced large quantities of iron. They had various sources of iron ore with the key source being the island of Elba. Extensive deposits of hematite occur there. Hematite is pure, concentrated iron oxide and is an excellent iron ore. The technology required to separate iron from its ores and convert it into useful objects is far more complicated than that needed to work copper and bronze. It requires a temperature of about 3650 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2020 degrees Celsius) to cause iron to melt sufficiently so that it will flow.

The hardness of the resulting iron, after it had been formed and allowed to cool, depended upon the amount of carbon in the mixture. What the ancient ironworkers didn't realize was that in reality they were making steel. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon, with some special steels containing other elements. Steel containing less than about one quarter percent carbon is too soft. Six or seven tenths of a percent is a good mix for items that needed to keep an edge. Anything over one percent was hard and brittle, and would shatter when struck too hard.

The Age of King Midas - The Phrygia Kingdom

In antiquity, Phrygia was a kingdom in the west central part of Anatolia, in what is now Turkey, centered on the Sakarya River. Legendary kings were Phrygians: Gordias whose Gordian Knot would later be cut by Alexander the Great, Midas, and Mygdon who warred with the Amazons. Phrygian power reached its apex in the late 8th century BC.

Homer's Iliad says the Phrygians were allies of the Trojans and fought in the Trojan War against the Achaeans.

The later Midas was the last independent king of Phrygia before its capital Gordium was sacked by Cimmerians around 695 BC. Phrygia then became subject to Lydia, then to Persia, Alexander the Great, Pergamon, Rome and Byzantium. Phrygians were fully assimilated by the early medieval era.

Classical Greek iconography preserved the Phrygian cap, which was worn by Mithras and survived into modern imagery as the "Liberty cap" of French and American revolutionaries.

Gordion

A spectacular array of 150 artifacts were on display in 2017. 'The Golden Age of King Midas' was an exhibition developed by the Penn Museum

Goat jug

Ivory statuette of a lion tamer found at Delphi

Golden Kingdoms: the Ancient Americas

Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas was on view at the Getty Center in 2018. It traced the development of gold working and other luxury arts in the ancient Americas from about 1000 BC to the arrival of Europeans in the early 16th century. The exhibit revealed the ways ancient Americans used not only metals, but also jade, shell, and feathers.

Octopus Frontlet, 300–600, Moche culture

Ear Ornament Depicting a Warrior, 640–680, Moche.

It was a world where feathers were more valuable than gold. The rarest feathers, including the iridescent green feathers of the quetzal, were reserved for the Aztec emperor himself.

The MET exhibition traced the development of gold-working in the Americas from its origins in the Andes, to its expansion northward into Central America, and finally to Mexico, where gold-working comes to prominance after 1000 AD. The unprecedented exhibition featured 300 works from 53 lenders in 12 countries.

Jade plaque showing king and attendant, 600 AD

The Ilminster ring

UK metal detectorist Kevin Minto expected another corroded bronze coin of little worth when his metal detector beeped in a field in Somerset in 2018. Instead, he unearthed a 48-gram (1.7 oz) ring made of solid Roman gold. Now known as the Ilminster Ring, it features an engraved gemstone showing Victoria the Roman goddess of victory driving a biga, a two-horse chariot. The image on the stone was carved using intaglio, where the design is engraved into the surface rather than raised above it. The ring was buried around 297 C.E. with a Roman coin hoard, along with lead and pottery objects. The ring's owner could only be a person of the highest status, a governor, merchant, or wealthy landowner.

The ring dates to one of the most unstable periods in Roman Britain. Between 286 and 296 C.E., Britain broke away from the wider Roman Empire. Called the Carausian Revolt, Britania was politically isolated until imperial forces brought it back under Roman control. Carausius’s tenuous rule lasted until 293, when his finance minister, Allectus, killed him and took power. Allectus’s own reign lasted three years, ending when Roman emperor Constantius I invaded the island.

The South West Heritage Trust acquired the ring, along with the hoard of Roman coins, for £78,000. Proceeds were split with the land owner.

Rome's news readers - praeco

In the Roman Republic and Empire, the newsreader (praeco) would read aloud the Acta Diurna. These were daily, official notices and public records. They were carved on stone or metal and presented in message boards in public places. The Acta Diurna (Latin for "Daily Acts") was essentially the world's first newspaper. Initiated by Julius Caesar in 59 BC, criers would read these updates on military victories, legal proceedings, and public events to the illiterate or gathered public.

The publication covered a wide range of official and social information. Decrees, legal proceedings, and outcomes of trials were advertised. Social updates included prominent births, marriages, and deaths. General news might include gladiator event results, military victories, weather, and even human-interest stories. After a few days, the postings were taken down and archived.

Constantine I solidus

A Roman solidus of Emperor Constantine I was dug up from a field in Somerset in 2019. Constantine the Great ruled between 306 and 337 AD. The coin was found a foot below the surface of a field near Wanstrow, Somerset. The high grade example made £12k.

On the reverse is a rare portrayal of Constantine riding his horse in battle holding a spear and shield with two fallen enemy soldiers. It commemorates his victory over Maxentius at Milvian bridge outside Rome on October 28, 312. Constantine I become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire. The routed Maxentius drowned in the Tiber trying to escape.

Constantine enacted reforms. To combat inflation he reintroduced the solidus. The solidus was introduced by Diocletian in small issues and later reintroduced for mass circulation by Constantine the Great in AD 312. Constantine's solidus was struck at a rate of 72 to a Roman pound (326.6 gm) of gold or about 4.5 grams. The new gold coin became the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years.

Constantine was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, which he did on his deathbed. Constantine was a ruler of major importance, and a controversial figure.

Constantine had his eldest son Crispus seized and put to death by "cold poison" at Pola (Pula, Croatia) in May or June 326. In July, he had his wife Empress Fausta killed in an overheated bath. Constantine was succeeded by his three sons born of Fausta, Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans. More bloodshed soon followed.

This Maxentius (AD 307-312) AV quaternio or medallion of 4-aurei, weighing 21.12 grams. NGC MS 5/5 - 2/5, is exceptionally rare – it is one of two known. It fetched $212k in 2022. The medallion was issued as a commemorative during the restoration of the temple of Urbis Veneris, erected by Hadrian in AD 135 and damaged by fire in 307 AD. Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius (c. 283 – 28 October 312) was the son of former Emperor Maximian and the son-in-law of Emperor Galerius. The latter part of his reign was preoccupied with civil war. Defeated at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, Maxentius was the last emperor to permanently reside in Rome.