ECFN

The British Museum and Leicester University hoards project conference

"Crisis or continuity? Hoarding and deposition in Iron Age and Roman Britain, and beyond"

will be held at the British Museum
Friday 11 March 2016, 10.20–18.00
Saturday 12 March 2016, 10.20–16.30
in the BP Lecture Theatre.
Attendance is free but booking is essential, for one or both days, here: http://bit.ly/22Mumq2

This Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project "Crisis or continuity? Hoarding in Iron Age and Roman Britain" is a joint project between the British Museum and the University of Leicester, which seeks to understand why so many hoards were buried in Britain during the Iron Age and Roman periods.

The project is analysing the contents, landscape settings and contextual associations of British Iron Age and Roman coin hoards, with a particular emphasis on Roman 3rd century AD hoards, in order to not only understand the reasons for their deposition, but also what they can tell us.

A two-day international conference will address the themes of 'Hoarding and deposition in Britain and Europe' on the Friday and 'The 3rd century AD in Britain and Europe – crisis or continuity?' on the Saturday.

Speakers: Roger Bland, University of Leicester/British Museum, Tom Brindle, University of Reading, Kevin Butcher, University of Warwick, Adrian Chadwick, University of Leicester, Philip de Jersey, University of Oxford, Simon Esmonde Cleary, University of Birmingham, Duncan Garrow, University of Reading, Eleanor Ghey, British Museum, Richard Hobbs, British Museum, Helle Horsnæs, National Museum of Denmark, Fleur Kemmers, University of Frankfurt, Sam Moorhead, British Museum, Adam Rogers, University of Leicester, Nico Roymans, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Alex Smith, University of Reading, Philippa Walton, University of Oxford, David Wigg-Wolf, German Archaeological Institute, and Rachel Wilkinson, University of Leicester.

The Ueken Hoard, Switzerland

The cantonal archaeological service in Aargau, Switzerland has announced the discovery of a hoard of 4,166 antoniniani dating to the period 274-294 from Ueken. The find was reported by a farmer who found the first coins in a molehill in an orchard; a subsequent excavation from September 2015 revealed the full extent of the hoard.

The hoard is to be displayed at the Vindonissa Museum, Brugg.

The Ueken hoard before cleaning (© Kanton Aargau. Foto: Béla Polyvàs).

Press release by the cantonal archaeological service, Aargau (German)

Article in Spiegel online (German)

Article in theguardian (English)

Roger Bland leaves the British Museum

It is with some concern that we learn that, as of the end of July, Roger Bland is resigning from his post as head of the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory at the British Museum. Roger was instrumental in drafting the new Treasure Act in the 1990s, and subsequently in establishing and running the enormously successful Portable Antiquities Scheme.

The Scheme’s database now hosts information on over 1 million objects found and reported by the public during last 16 years, over 100,000 of them in 2014 alone. The internationally acclaimed system not only has massive public outreach, but also represents a unique research resource from which the numismatic community profits greatly; nearly half of the records on the database are of coin finds. The Portable Antiquities Scheme itself is now to be moved from the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory to the Department of Learning, Volunteers and Audiences. Dan Pett, who created the award-winnign database and website, is being transferred to the new Digital and Publishing Department.

It is to be hoped that the spending cuts which now threaten do not significantly hamper the Scheme, and that Dan Pett will still be able to continue providing his own, very important work to the international digital numismatic community. More background can be found in an article in British Archaeology issue 143/August 2015 (http://www.britisharchaeology.org/current).

Rick Witschonke (1945-2015)

It is with great sadness that we learn of the death on February 24th 2015 after a long illness of Richard B. Witschonke. A collector and scholar, he made his own special mark in the numismatic community with his friendship and enthusiasm, and was a great supporter of ECFN, generously sponsoring participants and events.

“Rick” was born in Washington, D.C. in 1945, and having gained a BA in English at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and had the good fortune not to be picked in the draft lottery for the Vietnam War, he went on to study at Harvard Business School, graduating in 1972 with an MBA. This was followed by a highly successful career in technology consulting. 

His interest in coin collecting had started at an early age, and even as a teenager he had focussed his interest on coins of the Roman Republic, going on to assemble what was surely one of the most comprehensive collections of Republican coinage worldwide. An important landmark in his development as a numismatist was meeting Charles Hersh in 1969, for whom he was to later sponsor a Festschrift. Himself the author of many scholarly articles, Rick was widely respected among collectors, scholars, dealers and curators alike, and many prominent figures in the numismatic community enjoyed his friendship. It was ever his goal to bridge the sad and ever-widening gap between the different communities.

He had already joined the American Numismatic Society in the late 1960s, and in 1999 was elected a member of the Society’s governing Council and served one term as an ANS trustee. Following his retirement, he joined the curatorial staff on an honorary basis in 2003, first as a curatorial assistant, then as a curatorial associate. Together with Peter van Alfen he organised the famous Summer Seminars at the ANS, and the help and encouragement he gave to the students was typical of the generous but quiet support he provided to scholars and projects over the years.

Rick enjoyed life, his wine cellar rivalled his coin collection and his fall garden parties were famous. His friendship will be missed by many, and our thoughts go out to his companion of many years, Heidi, and his sons.