A hoard of late Roman coins from Heerlen / J.T.J. Jamar and J.P.A. van der Vin

8/9/2019 A hoard of late Roman coins from Heerlen / J.T.J. Jamar and J.P.A. van der Vin

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Berichten van de Rijksdienstvoor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek

jaargang 26, 1976


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A F K O R T I N G E N A B B R E V I AT I O N S

Aarbager Aarbeger for nordisk Oldkyndighed og HistoricAPL Analecta Praehistorica Leidensia

BABesch. Bulletin van de Vereeniging tot bevordering de rkermis van de) antieke beschavingBAI Biologisch-Archaeologisch Instituut, GroningenBJ Banner J.ahrbucherB K)NOB Bulletin van de n) Koninklijke) Nederland-

s ch)e n) Oudheidkundige n) BondBRGK Bericht de r Romisch-Germanischen Komm issionBROB Berichten van de Rijksdienst voor h et Oudheidkun-

dig BodemonderzoekIPP Albert Egges van Giffen Instituut voor Pre- en

Protohistorie, AmsterdamJV T Jaarverslag van de Vereeniging voor Terpenon-

derzoekMA Medieval Archaeology

NAFN Neue Ausgrabungen un d Forschungen inNiedersachsen

NAP Nieuw Amsterdam Peil (Dutch Datum LevelNDV ieuwe Drents ch)e VolksalmanakNKNOB Nieuwsbulletin van de Koninklijke Nederlandse

Oudheidkundige BondNN U Nachrichten aus Niedersa chsens UrgeschichteOJ Oudheidkundigjaarboek (= BNOB, 3de-4de ser.OM L Oudheidkundige Medede e)lingen uit het Rijksmu-

seum van Oudheden te LeidenPPS Proceedings of the Prehistoric SocietyPSHAL Publications de la Societe Historique et Archeologi-

que dans le LimbourgPZ Praehistorische ZeitschriftRMO Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, LeidenROB Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemon-

derzoek, AmersfoortTA G Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Nederland s ch)

Aardrijkskundig GenootschapVF De vrije FriesVORG Verslagen en mededeelingen van de Vereeniging tot

beoefening van Overijsselsch regt en geschiedenis

T

Het aardewerk is op schaal 1:4 afgebeeld, tenzij anders gegeven; de profielen van het handgevormde aardewerkwit, die van gedraaid aardewerk zijn zwart getekend.Unless otherwise stated, the pottery is drawn to a scale of the profiles of hand-made pottery are represented in wof wheel-thrown pottery in black.


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B E R I C H T E N VA N D E R I J K S D I E N S T

V O O R H E T O U D H E I D K U N D I G B O D E M O N D E R Z O E K


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Staatsuitgeverij s-Gravenhage ISBN 90 12 0209


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Berichten van de Ri jksdiensvoor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek

Proceedings of the State Service

for Archaeological Investigations

in the Netherlands

jaargang 26, 1976


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R E D A C T I E

W. A. van Es, J.F. van Regteren Altena, P. J. WelteringenW.C. Mank

Ad res: Rijksdienst voor het OudheidkundigBodemonderzoek, K leine Haag 2, Ame rsfoort, Nederland

Grafische ve rzorging: Aart Verhoeven, Spanga, en H. J. Bloklander, ROB Amersfoort


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I N H O U D

J.A. Brongers, Material for a History of DutchArchaeology up to 1922 7

J.A. Bakker, On the Possibility of ReconstructingRoads from the TR B Period 63

R.S. Hulst und A.D. Verlinde, Gerollkeulen ausOverijssel und Gelderland 93

N.A. Paap, Coprolites 127

J.H.F. Bloemers and Herbert Sarfatij, A RomanSettlement at De Woerd, Valkenburg (South Hol-land), Report I : The Potters Stamps 133

A.N. Zadoks-Josephus Jitta and WJ.Th. Peters,Three Roman Bronze Statuettes from Ede andBennekom (Gelderland) 168

J.TJ. Jamar and J.P.A. van der Vin, A Hoardof Late Roman Coins from Heerlen 169

P. Stuurman, Native Roman Pottery from the SiteKnown as Het Monsterse Geestje near Monster,Province of South Holland 175

Jonathan Parkhouse, The Dorestad Quernstones 18

W. Groenman-van Waateringe, Schuhe aus Wijkbi j Duurstede 189

J.P. Pals and B. van Geel, Rye Cultivation andthe Presence of Corn-flower CentaureacyanusL.) 199

D.P. Bosscha Erdbrink, A Dog s Skeleton fromOost-Souburg, Province of Zealand 205

Hans L. Janssen and Paul A. De Paepe, Petrologi-cal Examination of Medieval Pottery from SouthLimburg and the Rhineland 217

Luc Devliegher, Le fragment de croix limousined Aardenburg 229

A.D. Verlinde, Eine Wanne aus dem vierzehntenJahrhundert, gefunden in Dalfsen, im Vergleichmit rezenten Wannen 233


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J.T.J. J A M A R1 A N D J.P.A. VA N D E R V I N2

A Hoard of Late Roman Coins from Heerlen

During excavation work for the construction of theThermae Museum in Heerlen, J.K. Gielen, staffmember of the Heerlen Municipal ArchaeologicalService, discovered on 22 September 1975 a greatnumber of coins in the filler of a Roman ditch. 3 The

coins were pressed together like a flat oval packet witha maximal length of 30 cm and a maximal thickness of5 cm, at a depth of 60 cm (fig. 3) . Since the grab ofthe dragline only cut into the side of the hoard, it waspossible to recover the find practically undamaged. Ontop of the packet of coins there was a large stone. Itcould no longer be determined whether the stone hadbeen deliberately put on top of the coins as a cover,or whether the stone had landed on top by accident.Though the form of the packet suggested that the coinshad been buried in a wrapping of leather or linen, noremains of any covering were discovered. In freeing thecoins from the stone, especially where they were stuckfast by corrosion, a careful examination was made fo rany traces of wrapping material, but nothing could befound. The entire collection of coins was severely dam-aged by corrosion. About half the coins were loose; anumber of other coins were stuck together. They werecounted after they had been cleaned in the Royal CoinCabinet (Koninklijk Penningkabinet) in The Hague.Their number far exceeded the original estimate ofseveral hundred: it amounted to 869 coins. Unfortuna-tely, most of them were of unusually poor qual i ty.

The coin-find was quite uniform as to content and con-sisted entirely of barbarous imitations of third-centuryRoman antoniniani. 4 Size and weight varied greatly,which is customary with such barbarous imitations.

Fig. i Situation of Heerlen

Most coins were more or less round in shape; it is veryprobable that they were struck on coin blanks carefullymade in advance. Contrary to what could be expected,these coin blanks were not only used for the biggest

1 Municipal Archaeological Service (Gemeentelijke Oud-heidkundige Dienst), Heerlen.2 Royal Coin Cabinet (Koninklijk Kabinet van Munten,Penningen en Gesneden Stenen), The Hague.

3 Bloemers 1976, 5-6.4 For barbarous imitations, see especially: Mattingly/Stebbing 1938 and Hill 1949.

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J.T.J. J A M A R AND J.P.A. VAN DER VIN I A Hoard of Late Roman Coins from Heerlen

coins. T he m ethod of producing such blanks was quitesimple: they were made by flattening a small heatedball of metal. T he sharp corners and tails of other,more irregular shapes show that such coin blanks werecut out of a thin sheet of m etal with large scissors. T hediameters vary from about 7 to 17 mm; most of the coinshave a diameter of ii to 1 2 m m . T he thickness of thecoin blanks also differs; beside specimens with a normal thickness of about ij to 2mm, there were alsoexamples with a thickness of only ^ mm . T he lightestexample weighs only 0.26 grams, the heaviest, 2.38grams. Apart from these extremes, most of the coinsweigh between 0.50 and 1.50 grams.

The portrait types have been taken from Roman coinsfrom the period between approxim ately 260 and the e nd

of the third ce ntury . In part icula r, the coins of the Gallicemperors Claudius n (268-270), Victorinus (268-270),and Tetricus i and n (270-273) served as examples.Many portrai ts are strikingly barbaric, so that at t imesonly the consistently precisely executed halo recalls theRoman prototype. T he name and titles of the emperorusually present on Roman coins are almost entirelyabsent on these barbarous imitations. Many examples- especially the very small ones - show no text at allon either th e obverse or the reverse. On others, thereha s been a more or less successful at tempt to imitatethe text of the original. Often the unlettered die-cutterrestricted himself to making some dots and dashes.Specific letter forms, such as V and X, were favouredto some extent; these were copied correctly, whereasother letters soon became misshapen and finally wereleft ou t altogether. A classification of all these barbarou simitations based on the rev erse representations is hardlypossible. In the first place, the die-cutters frequentlydid not m ake accurate copies of Roman exam ples, bu t,instead, gave their imagination free range. Moreover,a mixing of types occurred an d attributes were givento personifications which they had never had on usualRoman coins. At the same time, many representationslost their specific characteristics as a result of repeated

copying and deteriorated to severely stylized figures.T he figure of Pax was p art icularly in favour for copying,and to a lesser degre e the figures o f Spes, Salus, Fortuna,and Sol. In the case of non-personifications, preferencewas given to the consecratio-type o f Claudius n Gothi-cus, the reverse of which shows an altar. There werethirty-two examples of the latter in the Heerlen coin-hoard.

Most of the coins recove red, however, had reverspersonifications which were difficult to identify. Of869 specimens, only 254 could be classified accorto the reverse of the Rom an pro totype (cf. fig. 70).

112 Consecratio-type (of Claudiu s n) withaltar 32 examp

3 sacrifical instrument (of both Tetrici) 94 consecratio-type (of Claudius n) eagle i

walking animal i5 woman with sceptre in 1. hand (Pax) 67

woman with anchor in r. hand (Salus) 16woma n with sceptre diagonal (Pax) 15woman with cornucopia and branch (Felici-tas/Pax) 12woma n with sceptre in r. hand (Pax) 12

wom an sacrificing at altar (Salus/Pietas) 126 man with raised hand (Sol) 10man with staff i n 1. hand (standing) 10

7 wom an with raised robe (Spes) 8woman with short staff in r. hand (Pax ?) 7woman with wreath o r patera 5woman with both arms raised (Pax) 5man with staff in 1. hand (walking to left) 5woman with short staff in 1. hand (Pax ?) 4

8 wom an with long palm branch in 1 hand(Hilaritas) 3m an with spear in r. hand (Virtus) 3walking figure ( to 1.) 3walking figure ( tor. ) 2

woman w ith signum (Pax) i9 woman with scale (Aequitas) i

seated woman with patera ii o victoria with palm branch to right (Victoria) I

25 4 examp

Although the nearly 900 examples m ay seem a big hofor barbarous imitations it is relatively small. Thereno doubt that the purchasing power of each ofsmall copper coins was very limited, as a result of

serious, persistent inflation in the late third cMany hundreds of these sm all copper coins wereto a single gold coin. Most of the finds from the third and early fourth century in fact comprised sethousands of these barbarous coins, sometimeswith, but often lacking, the Roman prototypes.Evreux hoard of 1890 should b e considered exceptioin the remains of a chest more than 110,000 specim

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J.T.J. J A M A R A N D J.P.A. VA N D E R V I N A Hoard of Late Roman Coins from Heerlen

x c v t i o n

RO 956

Fig. 2 Heerlen: location of sections 4 and 5, scale i: 2,000

were found, among them being a very large numberof barbarous imitations. 5

The composition of the Heerlen f ind, consisting entirelyof barbarous imitations, is unusual in the Netherlands.Up till now, barbarous imitations in this country havealways appeared together with usual Roman coins cur-rent in the second half of the third century, or a littlelater (Vught, Hapert). 6 Particularly in France, however,there have been a number of finds similar to that ofHeerlen. 7

The dating of these imitations has long been a pointof controversy among numismatists, many of whom dis-agreed that these imitations were contemporary withthe Roman prototypes and proposed a dating far into

the 5th century. Archaeological studies in the contextof which these coins were recovered have, however, defi-nitely shown in a number of cases that the interval

Fig. 3 Heerlen: lengthwise section of the northern ditch withthe find spot of the 1975 coin hoard (cf. fig. 2: C-D)

between prototype and imitation cannot have been verylong. A clear example is the coin hoard from the theatreof St Albans in England. On the basis of archaeologicalmaterial found near the coins, the St Albans hoard ofcoins, consisting largely of barbarous imitations, mustbe dated about AD 3OO.8

It would seem that a dating of about AD 300 for Heerlenalso is most probable. On the one hand, the Constantinetypes, of which barbarous imitations are also known,are entirely absent, which makes a dating far into thefourth century hardly plausible; on the other hand, itis likely that t he prototype w as copied a number of times,extending over several decades. In view of the fact thatthe prototypes date from about AD 270 (Claudius n andboth Tetrici), the most acceptable credible dating ofthe Heerlen coin-hoard would between AD 290 and 310.The find spot and its environs have often been subjectedto archaeological investigation in the past, mainlybecause of the thermal baths in the immediate vicinity. 9

Large-scale excavations were carried out there by theState Service fo r Archaeological Investigations (ROB)Amersfoort, in the years 1952, 1954, 1956, and I957- 10

Brief ly summarized, these investigations showed thatthere were V-shaped ditches to the north and south ofthe thermal baths, related to the military aspect ofHeerlen. The ditches ran parallel to each other and were

5 Hill 1949, Appendix C.6 Van Gelder/Boersma 1967, 25 ff.7 Hill 1949, Appendix C (France).8 Wheeler 1937, 215. Also see Hill 1949, 16.

9 Van Giffen/Glasbergen 1948.10 Bogaers 1956; I957a-c; 1959; Jongen/Van Hommerich/Schobben 1952; Bogaers/Riiger 1974, 173-6.

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J.T.J. JAMAR AND J.P.A. VAN DER VIN I A Hoard of Late Roman Coins from Heerlen

Fig. 4 Heerlen:section southern ditch cf.fig. 2:A-B)

Fig. 5 Argonne sherd with roulette decoration, scale i: 2 Fig. 6 Heerlen coin-hoard 1975, before cleaning

oriented east-west. The southern ditch was dug at twodifferent periods, a fact that w as also reconfirmed during

the construction of the Thermae Museum in 1975 fig.2) . This is not true of the north ditch. The latter mayhave been dug at a later time than the south ditch. Itis conceivable that a military fortification was construct-ed in the late Roman period, at first south of the thermalbaths. At a later stage, the fortification could have beenexpanded using thermal terrain, which made a new ditchon the north side necessary fig. 3). 11 The coin-hoard

described earlier came from th e upper layer of the fin th e canal fig. 4) at i i2 . iom + NAP.

On the basis of material found during previous investi-gations, it can be concluded that the ditch was fup at the end of the 4th century (or later). This dacan be maintained despite the coin-find of 1975. Moover, a fragment o f terra sigillata from th e Argonne in

ii Bogaers I957b, 52.

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J.T.J. J A M A R AN D J P A VAN DER VIN A Hoard of Late Roman Coins from Heerlen

Fig. 7 Heerlen coin-hoard 1975: loose coins; a. Sizes andshapes; b. Portraits with progressive barbarization; c. Reversetypes

no . museum 8246) was found a t 112.00 +NAP in thesame ditch. 12

The fact that the filler in the ditch dates back to thelate 4th century at the earliest and the coin find to theperiod between AD 290-310 allows for but one conclu-sion, i.e., the coins ended up somehow during the lateRoman period or later, after the ditch had fallen intodisuse. Possibly they were deposited at the time theditch was being filled up, possibly later still.

In view of the quite limited value the coins had whenthey were in circulation, it can be assumed that this

is not a case of an intentionally buried purse but rathera lost one which — and when it happened - landed inth e filler of the ditch.

12 Chenet 1941, pi. xxxiv, no . 188 (style). Fo r dating, se eHubener 1968, 260 and 281.

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R E F E R E N C E S

Bloemers , J.H.F., 1976: Verslag van de werkzaamheden van deprovinciaal a rcheoloogin Limburg over hetjaar 1975, Amersfoort(stencilled).

[Bogaers, J.E.,] 1956: Heerlen, NKNOB, 84, in 126, 140,176, 196, 209, 262.

[Bogaers, J.E.,] 19573; Heerlen, NKNOB, 97, 112.

Bogaers , J.E., I957b: Heerlen, een bouwfragment met de naamMarcus Sattonius lucundus, NKNOB, 133-8.

Bogaers, J.E., I957c: Marcus Sattonius lucundus, Het Landvan Herle 7, 49-52.

Bogaers, J.E., 1959: Militaire en burgerl i jke nederzettingen inRomeins Nederland, Antiquity and Survival 2 , no . 5 — 6 (Hon-derd eeuwen Nederland), 143-67.

B ogaers , J .E . /C.B . Riiger eds.) 1974: Der niedergermanischeLimes Koln Kunst und Altertum am Rhein, 50).

Chenet, G., 1941: L a ceramique gallo-romaine d Argonne du IVesiecle et la terre sigillee decoree d la molette, Macon Fouilleset documents d archeologie antique e n France, i).

Gelder, H.E. van/J.S. Boersma 1967: Munten in muntvondBussum Fibulareeks, 35).

Giffen, A.E. van/W. Glasbergen 1948: Thermen en caste Heerlen-Coriovallum, L Antiquite classique 17, 199-262.

Hill, P.V., 1949: Barbarous Radiates Imitations of Tcentury Roman corns. New York Numismatic Notes and Mographs, 112).

Hiibener, W., 1968: Eine Studie zur spatromischen Radchengillata Argonnensigillata), BJ 168, 241-98.

Jongen, J.J./L. van Hommerich/F.X. Schobben 1952: Rhet oudheidkundig bodemonderzoek te Heerlen, MaSeptember 1952, Het Land van Herle 2, 93-8.

Mattingly, H./W.P.D. Stebbing 1938: The Richborough Hof Radiates , 1931, New York Numismatic Notes and Mographs, 80).

Wheeler, T.V., 1937: A Hoard of Radiate Coins fromVerulamium Theatre, Numismatic Chronicle 5th ser., 17, 28 .

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A hoard of late Roman coins from Heerlen / J.T.J. Jamar and J.P.A. van der Vin

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