| Ryedale Roman Bronzes | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created | AD 150–410 |
| Period/culture | Roman |
| Discovered | May 2020 near Ampleforth, North Yorkshire |
| Present location | Yorkshire Museum, York |
The Ryedale Roman Bronzes (also known as the Ryedale Hoard) is an assemblage of Roman metalwork. [1]
The assemblage was found by metal detectorists James Spark and Mark Didlick in a field near Ampleforth in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, in May 2020. [2]
The assemblage comprises four pieces of metalwork, all of which are copper-alloys. They are: 1) a plumb bob, 2) a horse and rider figurine, 3) a figural horse head with an iron shank (probably a key), and 4) a figural bust (a sceptre head). The sceptre head is in the shape of an Emperor, probably Marcus Aurelius, and so dates to the late 2nd-century AD. [2] In the Portable Antiquities Scheme record Dr John Pearce commented that the assemblage probably derived from a ritual context. [1]
Dr Andrew Woods, senior curator at the Yorkshire Museum, has described the find as being of "national significance and great rarity." [3]
The assemblage comprised non-precious metals and so did not qualify as treasure under the terms of the Treasure Act 1996. It was placed on public display at Hansons Auctioneers in London on 28th April 2021. [4] [5] It was originally valued at between £70,000 and £90,000. [5] [4] In May 2021 it was sold in the private auction for £185,000. [6] The Yorkshire Museum purchased the assemblage from David Aaron Ltd., who had originally bought it, with financial support from a private donor, Richard Beleson, the Art Fund and other private donors. [2]
The artefacts were displayed at the Frieze Art Fair in London from 13 to 17 October 2021 before being added to the Yorkshire Museum's collection. [7] In February 2022 it announced that the museum, which had been closed since November 2021, would reopen on 8 April 2022 with a new exhibition focussing on the hoard. [8]
The Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) is a voluntary programme run by the United Kingdom government to record the increasing numbers of small finds of archaeological interest found by members of the public. The scheme began in 1997 and now covers most of England and Wales.
Senuna was a Celtic goddess worshipped in Roman Britain. She was unknown until a cache of 26 votive offerings to her were discovered in 2002 in an undisclosed field at Ashwell End in Hertfordshire by metal detectorist Alan Meek. Her imagery shows evidence of syncretism between a pre-Roman goddess with the Roman Minerva.
Ampleforth is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, 20 miles (32 km) north of York. The village is situated on the edge of the North York Moors National Park. The parish has a population of 883 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 1,345 at the 2011 Census, and includes Ampleforth College. The name Ampleforth means "the ford where the sorrel grows".
The Vale of York Hoard, also known as the Harrogate Hoard and the Vale of York Viking Hoard, is a 10th-century Viking hoard of 617 silver coins and 65 other items. It was found undisturbed in 2007 near the town of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. The hoard was the largest Viking one discovered in Britain since 1840, when the Cuerdale hoard was found in Lancashire, though the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard, found in 2009, is larger.
The Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found. It consists of almost 4,600 items and metal fragments, amounting to a total of 5.1 kg (11 lb) of gold, 1.4 kg (3 lb) of silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery. It is described by the historian Cat Jarman as "possibly the finest collection of early medieval artefacts ever discovered".
The Stirling torcs make up a hoard of four gold Iron Age torcs, a type of necklace, all of which date to between 300 and 100 BC and which were buried deliberately at some point in antiquity. They were found by a metal detectorist in a field near Blair Drummond, Perthshire, Scotland on 28 September 2009. The hoard has been described as the most significant discovery of Iron Age metalwork in Scotland and is said to be of international significance. The torcs were valued at £462,000, and after a public appeal were acquired for the National Museums of Scotland in March 2011.
The Frome Hoard is a hoard of 52,503 Roman coins found in April 2010, by metal detectorist Dave Crisp near Frome in Somerset, England. The coins were contained in a ceramic pot 45 cm (18 in) in diameter, and date from AD 253 to 305. Most of the coins are made from debased silver or bronze. The hoard is one of the largest ever found in Britain, and is also important as it contains the largest group ever found of coins issued during the reign of Carausius. The Museum of Somerset in Taunton, using a grant from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), acquired the hoard in 2011 for a value of £320,250.
The Shrewsbury Hoard is a hoard of 9,315 bronze Roman coins discovered by a metal detectorist in a field near Shrewsbury, Shropshire in August 2009. The coins were found in a large pottery storage jar that was buried in about AD 335.
The Crosby Garrett Helmet is a copper alloy Roman cavalry helmet dating from the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD. It was found by an unnamed metal detectorist near Crosby Garrett in Cumbria, England, in May 2010. Later investigations found that a Romano-British farming settlement had occupied the site where the helmet was discovered, which was located a few miles away from a Roman road and a Roman army fort. It is possible that the owner of the helmet was a local inhabitant who had served with the Roman cavalry.
The Bredon Hill Hoard is a hoard of 3,784 debased silver Roman coins discovered in June 2011 by two metal detectorists on Bredon Hill in Worcestershire, approximately 400 metres north of Kemerton Camp, an Iron Age hill fort. The coins were found in a clay pot that had been buried around the middle of the 4th century in a Roman villa, identified by the subsequent archaeological excavation. The coins include the reigns of sixteen different emperors during the mid to late 3rd century, and are the largest hoard of Roman coins to have been discovered in Worcestershire to date.
The Lenborough Hoard is a hoard of more than 5,000 late Anglo-Saxon silver coins, dating to the eleventh century, that was found at Lenborough in Buckinghamshire, England in 2014. It is believed to be one of the largest hoards of Anglo-Saxon coins ever found in Britain. It is now on display at Discover Bucks Museum in Aylesbury.
The Overton Hoard is a Roman coin hoard dating from the early 3rd century AD. It contains 37 coins and fragments of a pottery container. It was acquired by the Yorkshire Museum in 2018.
The Shropshire bulla, also known as the Shropshire sun pendant, is a Late Bronze Age gold pendant found by a metal detectorist in 2018 in Shropshire, England. Made primarily of gold, it is the eighth bulla discovered to date in Great Britain and Ireland, and only the second in Britain. The pendant, decorated with intricately carved geometric designs, is now in the British Museum in London.
The West Yorkshire Hoard is a precious-metal hoard of six gold objects, including four gold finger-rings, and a lead spindle whorl, which was discovered near Leeds, West Yorkshire, in 2008–2009 by a metal detectorist. The find was of national and international significance, expanding the understanding of hoards and hoarding in the north of England in early medieval England, as well as expanding the corpus of known gold rings from the period.
The Cridling Stubbs hoard is a Romano-British hoard of more than 3,300 coins in a large, ceramic jar.
The Helmingham Hall hoard is a Roman British coin hoard found near the grounds of Helmingham Hall around Helmingham and Stowmarket, Suffolk, dating at latest to the reign of Claudius, during the Roman conquest of Britain in the year 47 AD.