gems, archaeology, archaeogemology, France, Eauze, ancient jewelry

Today Eauze is a small town in the southwest of France. It was formerly civitas Elusa, in the province of Aquitania; at the end of the fourth century A.C., it became the capital of Novempopulania, one of the first seats of Christianity in Gaul. In October 1985, a treasure was discovered at Eauze by the Direction des Antiquités Historiques during a salvage dig conducted before the area was converted into an industrial zone (fig. 1). The treasure had been placed in a circular pit, about 50 cm in diameter; it comprised a great number of coins, jewelry, and a few other objects. The whole ensemble had been carefully deposited: the coins were stored in bags, apparently four in number (the shape of one bag, containing about 7,000 coins, was still visible to the excavators); in all, there were 28,000 pieces, including 4,500 denarii and 23,000 antoniniani; two-thirds of the coins are later than A.D. 249. Over the bags, the other objects were arranged in three groups (each had been wrapped in an unidentified material): one group contained the jewelry and six gold coins; another contained the silver and ivory pieces; and lastly there were the bronze coins, a small lot of 45 pieces. These latest coins date from A.D. 261–262. The significance of the find lies not only in its securely dated context, but also in the conditions of its retrieval, which insured control over the areas in proximity to the cache and the preservation of the treasure in its entirety. Unlike the case of the great coin hoards discovered in France in the nineteenth century, we are able here to observe a closed and intact context.