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A woman was out taking a casual stroll when she stumbled into a treasure trove in the Czech Republic.
She found a ceramic pot containing thousands of coins in a field in the country’s Kutnohorsk Region, perhaps buried for a rainy day by its owner during a tumultuous period nearly 900 years ago.
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While the pot was found broken, likely due to agricultural work done in the area, but archeologists were able to use metal detectors to unearth more than 2,150 silver coins, known as denarii, scattered about.
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The hoard of rare coins is one of the most significant finds of the decade, the Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic said in a news release.
The unclaimed denarii were most likely buried in the medieval era, between 1100 and 1125, during a period of political turmoil, according to Filip Velímský, an archeologist with the institute.
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“It was probably placed in its place during the first quarter of the 12th century, at a time of internal political instability,” he was quoted in Popular Mechanics as saying. “At that time, there were disputes in the country between the members of the Přemysl dynasty about the princely throne of Prague.”
How much the coins were worth at the time isn’t known due to lack of available data, but it was likely a significant sum. Velímský compared the find to winning the lottery.
“It was a huge amount, unimaginable for an ordinary person and at the same time unaffordable. It can be compared to winning a million in the jackpot.”
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During the middle ages, the Kutnohorsku rival princes had frequent battles for the throne of nearby Prague. The coins were minted in Prague between 1085 and 1107 and date back to the reign of Přemysl rulers King Vratislav II, and princes Břetislav II and Bořivoje II.
The buried treasure could be war loot or cash meant to pay wages, experts say.
The denarii were made of a silver alloy, which included copper, lead and other trace metals. X-ray imaging and spectral analysis will help determine the precise composition, which will help date the coins.
Experts expect to restore and document the artifacts in the coming year. The coins are expected to be displayed at a museum in Kutnohorsk by 2025.
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