In England, historians and museum curators have secured an unusual treasure. It consists of 933 gold coins from the Iron Age, which may be connected to Julius Caesar and unrest between neighboring tribes in the eastern England. It is the first tangible proof of Roman reports on such aggression. The treasure has now been purchased by the local Museum of Chelmsford and is to be exhibited there in the future. This should contribute to the understanding of British history.
The “Great Baddow Hoard” was found in the east of England on a private property at Great Baddow by an illegal probe, more than 2000 years after he was buried. The treasure dates from 60 to 20 BC and thus from the British Iron Age, as experts later determined. It contains fragments of a possible container and 933 gold coins and is therefore the largest gold treasure of this kind from that time.
Gold coins confirm unrest between the British tribes of the Iron Age
At that time, the various tribes in Britain began to shape their own coins with regional metal stamps. Previously, as a currency, they had mostly imported Celtic gold coins from overseas. The new regionality is also reflected in the gold treasure of Great Baddow: While 930 coins have the same character – east -british states of the type “Whatdon Chase” – three coins each have their own emblem.
“It is believed that most coins in the ‘Great Baddow Hoard’ were manufactured in the region, which was later associated with the so -called ‘Catuvellauni’. The coins could have been intended as a tribute to the Roman General Julius Caesar,” explains Claire Wiletts, curator of the Museum of Chelmsford. However, the treasure was not found in the former area of the Catuvellauni, but in the former area of the neighboring Trinovantes.
“This could indicate a movement or influence of western tribal groups in the east, which may match reports on unrest while Caesar’s second invasion in Britain in 54 BC,” said Willetts. Roman sources document such aggression, but archaeological evidence has so far hardly been. The “Great Baddow Hoard” is now the first tangible proof of unrest between the Trinovant and Catuvellauni in eastern England. This enables the treasure to understand the Iron Age tribes in the region better.
The gold treasure will be exhibited from summer 2026
The entire treasure has now been acquired by the Museum of Chelmsford and is to be researched in more detail and will be exhibited for the first time from the summer of 2026 – just a few kilometers away from its site. Visitors are supposed to come into contact with the history of the “Great Baddow Hoard” and Great Britain and research researchers. “Not much is known about the history of Chelmsford in the Iron Age, and the ‘Great Baddow Hoard’ helps us to close some of the gaps in the archaeological records of that time,” explains Jennie Lardge from the Chelmsford City Council. For example, it is still unclear who made the coins, who they belonged to and why they were buried.
Source: Chelmsford City Council
