THE GOLD HOARD OF LIENDEN

Archaeologists of VU Amsterdam and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands unveiled a fascinating hoard of gold coins in Het Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen last week. The treasure must have been buried around AD 460, not long before the final fall of the West Roman Empire in 476. 'The find adds a key element to our knowledge of the final stages of Roman rule in the Netherlands and the transition to the Early Middle Ages', said archaeologist Nico Roymans.

In the summer of 2016, treasure hunters ('amateur archaeologists') found 23 Roman gold coins in an orchard in Lienden in the Dutch province of Gelderland. After reporting it through PAN, the archaeologists tracked down two other treasure hunters who had found eight gold coins in exactly the same spot four years earlier. Archival research revealed that similar coins – which had vanished in the meantime – had been found on the same plot of land in the 19th century. The coins are solidi, the standard Roman gold coin dating from the late 4th and 5th century.

'The Lienden gold hoard is very special for two reasons,' Roymans explains. 'It is the largest currently known hoard of solidi in the Netherlands. It also appears to be the very last Roman hoard of coins we know of in the Netherlands and adjoining regions. The latest of the coins bears the likeness of Emperor Majorian, who ruled from 457 to 461. This implies that the treasure must have been buried sometime around 460 or shortly after. The West Roman Empire ended in 476 when the last Emperor was deposed.

The gold hoard of Lienden is a unique document of historical interest for the last stages of Roman rule in the Netherlands, giving us an insight into the political and military situation during the transitional phase to the Early Middle Ages. It is the last hoard of Roman gold in the Netherlands, which marks the end of the West Roman Empire in this country.

To read the complete article, see:
Unique hoard of gold casts new light on final stages of Roman rule in the Netherlands (https://phys.org/news/2017-06-unique-hoard-gold-stages-roman.html)

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