| Bursa Treasure | |
|---|---|
 Bursa Treasure as displayed in the British Museum | |
| Material | Silver |
| Created | 1st century AD |
| Present location | British Museum, London |
| Registration | 1913,0531.1-7 |
The Bursa Treasure or Brusa Treasure is the name of an early Roman silver hoard found in the city of Bursa, Turkey. Since 1913, the entire treasure has been at the British Museum. [1]
In the early 20th century, a rich collection of silver articles was unearthed from a tomb near Bursa in the Marmara Region of Turkey. The exact circumstances of the treasure's discovery remains unclear, but soon after it was found it was sold to the British Museum by the London art dealer W. C. Bacon & Co. The lack of provenance has made it difficult to determine who the hoard originally belonged to, but most of the extant objects indicate that it was probably part of an elite Roman lady's toiletry from the 1st century AD.
The Bursa Treasure is composed of seven silver cosmetic objects that include a distaff, a toilet vessel, a small pyxis with lid, a simpulum or ladle, a spoon with a handle in the shape of a swan, a large mirror and a patera or libation bowl, the back of which has the faint impression of a Chinese silk garment from the Han dynasty. High quality, luxury artefacts made from precious metal are relatively rare from the early decades of the Roman Empire, although there are similar finds emanating from Pompeii and Boscoreale in southern Italy.
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present. The British Museum was the first public national museum to cover all fields of knowledge.
In the material culture of classical antiquity, a patera or phiale is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has a bulbous indentation in the center underside to facilitate holding it, in which case it is sometimes called a mesomphalic phiale. It typically has no handles, and no feet.
The Mildenhall Treasure is a large hoard of 34 masterpieces of Roman silver tableware from the fourth century AD, and by far the most valuable Roman objects artistically and by weight of bullion in Britain. It was found at West Row, near Mildenhall, Suffolk, in 1942. It consists of over thirty items and includes the Great Dish which weighs over 8 kg (18 lb).
A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder; hoarders sometimes died or were unable to return for other reasons before retrieving the hoard, and these surviving hoards might then be uncovered much later by metal detector hobbyists, members of the public, and archaeologists.
A pyxis is a shape of vessel from the classical world, usually a cylindrical box with a separate lid. They were used to hold cosmetics, trinkets or jewellery, but were also used for dispensing incense and by physicians to contain medicine. Surviving pyxides are mostly Greek pottery, but could also be made from a range of other materials: wood, bronze, ivory, marble, silver, or stone. The name derived from Corinthian boxes made of wood from the tree puksos ("boxwood"). During the Classical period, the Attic word "kylichnis" was also used to refer to the same shape. The shape of the vessel can be traced in pottery back to the Protogeometric period in Athens, however the Athenian pyxis has various shapes itself.
The Hoxne Hoard is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by Eric Lawes, a metal detectorist in the village of Hoxne in Suffolk, England in 1992. The hoard consists of 14,865 Roman gold, silver, and bronze coins and approximately 200 items of silver tableware and gold jewellery. The objects are now in the British Museum in London, where the most important pieces and a selection of the rest are on permanent display. In 1993, the Treasure Valuation Committee valued the hoard at £1.75 million.
The Berthouville treasure is a hoard of Roman silver uncovered by ploughing in March 1830 at the hamlet of Villeret in the commune of Berthouville in the Eure département of Normandy, northern France. Purchased at the time of discovery for a modest 15,000 francs, the treasure is conserved in the Cabinet des Médailles at the Bibliothèque nationale, Paris.
The Esquiline Treasure is an ancient Roman silver treasure that was found in 1793 on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. The hoard is considered an important example of late antique silver work from the 4th century AD, probably about 380 for the major pieces. Since 1866, 57 objects, representing the great majority of the treasure, have been in the British Museum.
The Mâcon Treasure or Macon Treasure is the name of a Roman silver hoard found in the city of Mâcon, eastern France in 1764. Soon after its discovery, the bulk of the treasure disappeared, with only 8 silver statuettes and a silver plate identified as being part of the original find. All of these objects are now in the British Museum
The Chaourse Treasure is a hoard of Roman silver found in Chaourse, a village near Montcornet, Aisne in northern France in 1883. Dating between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, the treasure is one of the most complete table services to survive from antiquity. This important hoard is now part of the British Museum's collection.
The Arcisate Treasure is a Roman silver hoard found in the town of Arcisate, northern Italy. Soon after its discovery in 1900, the treasure was acquired by the British Museum According to scholars, the treasure's significance is due to the completeness of the set, the high quality of the craftsmanship and materials used to make it, as well as the hoard's excellent state of preservation.
The Caubiac Treasure is a Roman silver hoard found in the village of Thil, southern France in 1785 that is now kept in the British Museum in London.
The Chatuzange Treasure is the name of an important Roman silver hoard found in the village of Chatuzange-le-Goubet in the department of Drôme, south-eastern France. Since 1893 it has been part of the British Museum's collection.
The Carthage Treasure is a Roman silver hoard, which was found in Tunis, Tunisia, at the site of the ancient city of Carthage. The treasure principally consists of silver tableware and jewellery, most of which is now held at the British Museum.
The First Cyprus Treasure or Lamboussa Treasure is the name of a major early Byzantine silver hoard found near Kyrenia, Cyprus. Currently in the British Museum's collection, the treasure is largely composed of liturgical objects that may have belonged to an ancient church or monastery. It is called the First Cyprus Treasure to distinguish it from the so-called Second Cyprus Treasure, which is now split between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cyprus Museum.
The Lampsacus Treasure or Lapseki Treasure is the name of an important early Byzantine silver hoard found near the town of Lapseki in modern-day Turkey. Most of the hoard is now in the British Museum's collection, although a few items can be found in museums in Paris and Istanbul too.
The Capheaton Treasure is an important Roman silver hoard found in the village of Capheaton in Northumberland, north-east England. Since 1824, it has been part of the British Museum's collection.
The Uerdingen Hoard or Uerdingen Treasure is the name of an historically significant group of ancient objects found in a Roman grave in the town of Uerdingen, western Germany. Discovered in the middle of the nineteenth century, the entire hoard was donated to the British Museum in 1868.
The Boscoreale Treasure is a large collection of exquisite silver and gold Roman objects discovered in the ruins of the ancient Villa della Pisanella at Boscoreale, near Pompeii, southern Italy. Consisting of over a hundred pieces of silverware, as well as gold coins and jewellery, it is now mostly kept at the Louvre Museum in Paris, although parts of the treasure can also be found at the British Museum.
The Sant'Angelo Muxaro Patera is an ancient gold libation bowl that was discovered as part of a larger hoard in the seventeenth century near the hilltop town of Sant'Angelo Muxaro in Sicily, southern Italy. Since 1772, this rare and precious find has been part of the British Museum's Ancient Greek collection.
