Archaeological discoveries

Celtic gold found in eastern Germany may have been used to buy slaves

Small bulging gold coins were discovered in a field southwest of Berlin. Of Celtic origin, they allow for the first time to presume that commercial relations existed in the 1st century before our era between Celtic tribes established in the west of present-day Germany and the proto-Germanic culture of Jastorf, installed beyond the natural border that was the basin of the Elbe.

Celtic Rainbow Bowl Coins (Regenbogenschüsselchen ) found in the Land of Brandenburg (Germany) are devoid of inscriptions and motifs.

Culture Minister Manja Schüle and the Archaeological Museum of the State of Brandenburg have just announced the largest discovery of Celtic gold coins in this German state:41 rainbow bowl coins, dating back more 2,000 years old, found on a site of the proto-Germanic culture of Jastorf. Since the Celts never lived in this region, which is now around Berlin in eastern Germany, the presence of Celtic coins provides evidence that there was contact between these geographically distant cultures and separated by the Elbe basin, which was unknown until now.

Celtic gold found in eastern Germany

It all started in 2017, when Wolfgang Herkt, a former farmer who has since become a volunteer curator of archaeological heritage, asked to survey a freshly plowed field in the Głogów-Baruth proglacial valley, near the village of Baitz, south-west of Berlin. He finds gold there, 11 pieces to be exact, which he hands over to the experts of the Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments of the Land, who are responsible for continuing the search. The area is then methodically searched, unearthing not only 30 more coins, but also a village of the Jastorf culture.

The volunteer curators of the archaeological heritage follow a two-year diploma course at the end of which they can volunteer to help archaeologists to identify, conserve and transmit the archaeological heritage, "they are real professionals “, underlined the Minister during the press conference. Indeed, you need to have an expert eye to recognize coins in these small pieces of smooth metal in the shape of a miniature bowl.

The first eleven pieces found were handed over to the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments ( BLDAM ) . © Wolfgang Herkt / BLDAM

For archaeologists, this discovery is remarkable because it confronts them with two enigmas, the resolution of which will allow history to be rewritten:how could Celtic coins end up in this remote region? And why were they not engraved?

Coins were minted in southwestern Germany

According to the analyzes of numismatist (coin specialist) Marjanko Pilekic, the coins unearthed are mainly composed of gold, silver and a little copper. They date from the 1st century BC, dating back to a period between 100 and 30 BC. These are what are known as rainbow bowl coins, a currency used by the Celts mainly in the area between southern Germany and the Hungary. The specialist believes that they were probably struck in Hesse or Rhineland-Palatinate, in the west of the country, and that they arrived east of the Elbe by a short route.

If the Celts undertook vast migrations across Europe, they lived at the time in the regions currently corresponding to the Länder of southern Germany, but never settled east of the Elbe, in the northeast of the country, where the Jastorf culture developed from 600 BC. approximately until the beginning of our era, before being absorbed by the Germans of the Elbe.

Celtic currency was only used locally

It was by trading with Greek merchants that the Celts borrowed from them the use of coins, which replaced barter from the 3rd century BC. Celtic coins are mainly used at the local level, to buy goods, to substitute for high value goods that were previously acquired by exchange in the barter economy, to offer them as a diplomatic gift or to give them away in tribute to a chief. Given the diversity of Celtic tribes spread throughout Europe, these currencies were only current locally, except to consider the weight of the metal that composed them. The tribes of northern Europe preferred gold, those of the south favored silver.

The Regenbogenschüsselchen , coins that have become lucky charms

Only the Celtic tribes of the Boïens and the Vendéliques made domed pieces in the shape of a miniature bowl, generally devoid of inscriptions, but decorated with abstract symbolic motifs (spheres, points, circles or stars) or figurative motifs from Celtic imagery. (torques, bird heads, snakes…). According to an explanation by numismatist Marjanko Pilekic, their name of Regenbogenschüsselchen , literally "little rainbow bowls", dates back to the Middle Ages and is based on the popular belief that these gold coins fell to earth along a rainbow. For the peasants who found them in the fields after a downpour, they were a sign of luck, because luck is found where the rainbow begins. As they were also attributed magical powers, keeping them was a guarantee of happiness and healing. They are also called Sternentaler ("star talents").

The pieces are only a few centimeters in diameter. © T. Kersting / BLDAM

A major purchase:possibly slaves or mercenaries

It is impossible to estimate the value that this treasure could have represented at the time, and we have no element that allows us to reconstruct precisely why these gold coins were found miles away. east of their broadcast area; archaeologists can therefore only speculate about them. Their presence on the Brandenburg site suggests that this colony of the Jastorf culture must have traded with the Celts. However, until now, the closest exchange zone between the Celts and the Germans that has been identified is in southern Thuringia, that is to say much further to the south-west. According to the indications of the chief archaeologist of the Land of Brandenburg, Franz Schopper, the Celts bought from the Germans jars of honey, animal skins and the long hair of blond women. But it could also be the dowry of a Celtic woman who was married to a German, without excluding the possibility of a sale of slaves or mercenaries.

This possibility is supported by the fact that the coins were not engraved. They have not been collected over time either, notes Marjanko Pilekic. The numismatist therefore thinks that they all come from a single mint and that they were made at the same time, before being sent to Brandenburg directly after the minting. This suggests that they were used to pay for an important exchange, which could indeed correspond to the slave trade or the payment of a troop of mercenaries.

Map of the current German Länder . © Superbenjamin / CC BY-SA 4.0

Coins are a major source of information for historians

The archaeological value of these forty gold coins far exceeds their material value. What is essential in this discovery, underline the researchers, is the context. The historical context, because the coins tell them which cultures traded with each other and how intensively they traded. But also the contemporary context, because, by preserving the integrity of the archaeological site, the heritage conservation assistant has made it possible to carry out rigorously scientific excavations. The discovery of the first eleven gold coins is thus the first event of an exploration which has made it possible to revise the historiography of Brandenburg, because, until now, no exchange was known between the Celtic tribes and the Germanic tribes of the region.