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Indiana Jones fan finds largest 1st century gold coin hoard
Miscellaneous / / May 23, 2022
George Ridgway, 31, a longtime admirer of archaeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones, found 748 Roman and Iron Age gold and silver coins near Ipswich, East England. This happened a few years ago, but the details were made public recently.
Mr. Ridgway, a butcher from Ashbucking, Suffolk, has been obsessed with Harrison Ford's Indiana Jones since childhood. From an early age, he wears a signature hat and sometimes a whip.
In September 2019, while looking at Google Earth maps, he came across an unusual field layout in Suffolk, near Ipswich. He took a metal detector and went there.
There, he first found two Roman brooches, and then a silver denarius of Julius Caesar, dated 46-47 BC. After another couple of hours of searching, 180 coins were found, and after Ridgway found parts of a broken pot and other coins. In his opinion, all this money was buried together as one cache.
Working with archaeologists, it took about three months to unearth the rest - 748 coins in total - although Mr. Ridgway said he has since found more.
Dr Eleanor Gay, curator of the British Museum of Iron Age Hoards and Roman Coins, said that currently This is the largest hoard of precious metals found in Britain and dates from the reign of Claudius I (41-54 AD). AD).
This is an unusual find because the hoard combines Iron Age coins from the time of the Celtic leader Cunobelinus (who ruled the North Thames region and had a base in Colchester) with Roman coins.
Most other mixed hoards found in East Anglia usually combine Roman coins with local Iron Age East Anglia coins from Norfolk and Suffolk.
Eleanor Gay
British Museum curator
The representative of the museum drew particular attention to the gold coin of Claudius, minted shortly before the conquest of Britain by the Romans in 43 AD. According to her, such coins are extremely rare.
Now the treasure is still being evaluated by the British Museum in London. The final reward for these relics will be divided between Mr. Ridgway and the landowner from Suffolk, in whose field the treasure was found.
Ridgway himself called this find amazing and amazing, but emphasized that he did it for the love of hunting for history, and not for monetary gain.
George thinks there must be an ancient Roman settlement somewhere near the treasure. Now he will try to find and explore it together with local archaeologists.
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