BOOK: Excavations at Traprain Law in 1919 uncovered a hoard of Roman silver; wine jugs, goblets, coins and military buckles – much of it cut, as if ready for melting down. A new book places the hoard in its wider European context.
Late Roman Silver. The Traprain Treasure in Context
By Fraser Hunter and Kenneth Painter
The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 2013
ISBN-10: 1908332026
ISBN-13: 978-1908332028
ABSTRACT
The Votadini were a tribe of Britons that traded with the Romans. They had a large settlement around Traprain Law, in East Lothian, with territory extending across the Lothians. Traprain Law, once called Dumpender Law, is a massive volcanic hill that towers above the flat farmlands of East Lothian. Bronze-Age artifacts have been found on the hill and there are Neolithic cup and ring marks on its rocks. The Iron-Age Votadini settlement around Traprain was made up of hundreds of roundhouses; homes for families including Iron-Age craftspeople skilled in enamel and metal work.
Excavations at the site in 1919 uncovered Roman silver; wine jugs, goblets, coins and military buckles – much of it cut, as if ready for melting down. The coins from Gaul showed that the Votadini may have had trading links with the continent. It is not clear if the hoard was stolen, or a bribe or payment from the Romans. The Traprain Treasure and other artifacts from Traprain are on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
The Traprain Law treasure from east Lothian in south-east Scotland is the most dramatic hoard of late Roman Hacksilber yet found. The interpretation of these bent, broken and crushed silver fragments has long been debated. Were they loot broken up by uncultured barbarians, or some form of diplomatic gift?
This volume places the phenomenon in the wider context of late Roman silver use, considers Britain either side of the frontier in the late fourth and fifth century, and then expands across the Roman world, analysing topics such as the role of late Roman silver vessels and the nature of donatives and diplomatic gifts to people inside and outside the empire. A series of authors debate the enigmatic and peculiarly British habit of clipping late Roman silver coins, and present new data.
A synthesis of Roman Hacksilber provides fresh insights into its roles, while important yet relatively unknown hoards and groups of material from Britain and the continent are presented. Comparative perspectives on Hacksilber in other periods provide a wider context, and the ultimate role of such silver in Britain and Ireland, re-melted into local prestige goods, is considered. The authors provide fresh insights into the Traprain hoard and bring together a challenging series of perspectives on the nature of late Roman society and economy, and its relationship to the barbarian world.
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