A little-known hoard: the Anglo-Saxon coins in the Roman forum.

[Vel Saties]

in 2022 A priceless treasure from the Viking era was discovered in Sweden during an excavation campaign: necklaces, bracelets and coins worn as pendants. According to experts, the find is about 1000 years old, but it is perfectly preserved

Exceptional find not far from Stockholm. Near the Swedish city of Täby a team of archaeologists from the National Historical Museums has found a priceless treasure.

In the excavation area there was a settlement whose oldest nucleus dates back to 400 AD. while other buildings date back to between 800 and 1050 AD.
And precisely in one of these homes, necklaces and amulets of excellent workmanship were found, having been buried in a ceramic vase 1000 years ago, including coins worn as pendants.

The coins tell of the thriving trade in Scandinavia at the time. Some come from England and Bavaria, others from much further away. Five of these are in fact of Arab origin.

Among the "European" coins there is a particularly rare one which was apparently minted in Normandy, in the city Rouen and dates back to the 10th century AD. According to Professor Jens Christian Moesgaard of Stockholm University, this type of coin was described in an 18th century book.

But that's not the main story of this post.
The link with what I wanted to illustrate to you is given by the fact that in the 10th-11th century these coins must have traveled a lot in Europe both as a result of trade and raids.
Suffice it to say that 34 specimens were found in Salerno (Southern Italy), probably arriving in the wake of some Norman soldier.
This reminded me of another interesting "exotic" discovery: the hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins found in the atrium Vestae of the Roman Forum.

 

 

[Vel Saties]

The hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins found in the atrium Vestae of the Roman Forum was published in number 55-56 of the 2011 Bollettino di numismatica dello Stato (Numismatics Bulletin).

It is an hoard discovered on 8 November 1883 during the excavations of the Atrium Vestae in the Roman Forum, also known as the House of the Vestals.

The hoard consisted of 830 coins, plus a few small fragments, almost all late 9th-century English silver pennies.

All the identifiable pieces, except for six, were in fact minted in England between the 80s of the 9th and the 40s of the 10th century, in the names of the Anglo-Saxon kings between Alfred the Great (871-899) and his nephew Edmund (939-946); few instead in the name of Plegmund, archbishop of Canterbury (890-923) or the Viking rulers of York

Probably the date of concealment ranges from 942 to 946, under the pontificate of Marino and the reign of Edmund in England.

Together with the English coins, a French coin, one from Bavaria, one from Lotharingia, a Byzantine solidus of the emperor Theophilus (829-842) and two Pavia denarii in the name of Berengar (915-924), Hugh and Lothair II were found ( 931-947). The Byzantine solidus is the only gold piece and the oldest coin in the hoard. These six coins may have been added during the journey from England to Rome.

the hoard was found under a large stone while they were cleaning the floor of an early medieval building in the northernmost corner of the ancient House of the Vestals, approximately 1.6 meters above the floor level of the Roman Atrium Vestae. At the time of discovery, the storage room was contained in what was described by archaeologists as a bowl of rough cooked earth.

 

Quote

In the north-west corner of the courtyard (near v) there are three large marble bases, excavated precisely in that place in 1883. They had served as building material in a medieval hut. Under the brick floor of one of the rooms, a terracotta vase was found with 835 coins, of which 830 were of Anglo-Saxon minting and bore the names of kings Alfred the Great (876-904), Edward I (900-924 ), Athelstan (924-940; these are the most numerous), Edmund I (940-946), and also the names of some archbishops of Canterbury. This closet represents a Peter's Pence, sent, as often happened, from the eighth century onwards to Rome, by the Christian Britons. Together with the coins there was a silver fibula in the vase with the inscription: Domno Marino papa. Such fibulae served as the insignia of superior officers of the papal court in the Middle Ages; and therefore it is to be believed that an employee of Pope Marino II (942-946) had hidden the treasure entrusted to him there, perhaps to repair it during one of the Saracen raids that were frequent at the time. These coins are also now preserved in the Baths Museum.

Source: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/I/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/Forum_Romanum/_Texts/Huelsen*/2/33.html

 

Just think that around the year 720, the Borgo dei Saxoni was created between St. Peter's Basilica and the Tiber, precisely at the service of the many Anglo-Saxon pilgrims who came to Rome.
Under Pope Leo IV in 847, a violent fire, started by the Saracens who had sailed up the Tiber, destroyed the village.

Around 1200, the first hospital in Italy and among the first in Europe, called Santo Spirito in Sassia, was built in the village, serving pilgrims and Romans.

 

The analysis of the coins suggests that London is the most probable center of origin of the hoard which arrived in Rome not as war booty, as military pay or due to commercial exchanges but rather as Peter's Pence, known in Italian as "Peter's Pence". ”, that is, the medieval name – never used in the Anglo-Saxon era – of the tax paid annually by England to the papacy as a sign of pious devotion. The primary clue to the connection with the papacy is the pair of silver clasps with the name of Pope Marino II found alongside the coins. It seems very likely that the stash was originally contained in a bag or pouch specially prepared to be delivered to the Pope in person.

If I have intrigued you, I finally want to inform you that the monograph regarding this hoard is also available in digital format at this address: https://www.numismaticadellostato.it/pns-pdf/BdN/pdf/BOLLNUM-55-56.pdf

 

Edited July 20 by Vel Saties