An ancient Celtic cache of gold 'rainbow cups' was unearthed in Germany 2,000 years ago.

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"The value of the loot must have been enormous," says the narrator.

In Brandenburg, a state in northeastern Germany, a volunteer archaeologist unearthed an old stockpile of Celtic coins whose "worth must have been great."

Manja Schüle, Brandenburg's Minister of Culture, declared in December 2021 that the 41 gold coins date back over 2,000 years and are the first known Celtic gold treasure in Brandenburg.

The curvature of the coins inspired the German term "rainbow cups," or regenbogenschüsselchen, " the literal translation.

"In popular belief, rainbow cups were found where a rainbow touched the Earth, similar to the legend that there is a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow ", Researchers at Schloss Friedenstein Gotha Foundation in Germany who studied the hoard of coins said in an email to Live Science that they were "amazed" by the findings.

In addition, rainbow cups "dropped directly from the sky," Pileki said, and they were regarded as lucky charms and healing artefacts. "Freed from grime and sparkling," he claimed, peasants may have uncovered the ancient gold coins in their fields after a rainstorm.

Wolfgang Herkt, a volunteer archaeologist with the Brandenburg State Heritage Management and Archaeological State Museum (BLDAM), uncovered the loot in 2017 near the village of Baitz in Brandenburg. On the farm, Herkt searched after getting permission from the proprietor, and something gold and shiny caught his eye. Pilekić noted that it reminded him of the lid of a little booze bottle. "It was, however, a Celtic gold coin," she explained.

Herkt reported the discovery to the BLDAM, whose archaeologists added ten more coins to the hoard's total of 41. In a statement, Herkt remarked, "This is an incredible find that you probably only make once in a lifetime." A find like this can help researchers better understand the country's history, and it's a nice feeling to do so.

Pilekić was able to date the minting of the hoard to between 125 B.C. and 30 B.C., during the late Iron Age, by comparing the weight and size of the coins with those of other ancient rainbow cups. Celtic archaeological culture of La Tène controlled the lands now known as England, France, Switzerland, Austria, southern Germany and the Czech Republic between 450 BC and the Roman invasion in the first century B.C.," Pileki added. He noticed that "we discover enormous numbers of rainbow cups of this kind" in southern Germany.

This discovery demonstrates that Iron Age Europe had broad trading networks despite the absence of Celts in Brandenburg.

What did the horde have in it?

In all, there are a total of 41 gold coins, 19 of which are staters, with a diameter of 0.7 inches and a weight of 0.2 ounces on average, and 22 of which are 1/4 staters, with a diameter of 0.5 inches and a weight of 0.06 ounces on average (1.8 g). According to Pileki, a PhD candidate in the field of coins, money and economics in Antiquity at Goethe University in Frankfurt, the entire hoard is "simple rainbow cups."

He believes that the trove was deposited all at once because the coins in the stockpile all look the same. Even more puzzling is how the world's second greatest hoard of "simple" rainbow cups came up in the city of Brandenburg.

The discovery of "Celtic" gold in Brandenburg was unexpected, Pileki said. "It is rare to find gold in Brandenburg, but no one would have anticipated it to be of this type." In light of this discovery, we'll try to discover what more we didn't know or believed we knew about these coin types."

Reference : https://www.livescience.com/celtic-gold-hoard-discovered-germany

Image source : https://pixabay.com/id/photos/bastei-menjembatani-formasi-batuan-3014467/

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