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(Image credit: Landesamt für Archäologie Sachsen)
An accredited metal detectorist who was scanning in a field near Leipzig, Germany, found the earliest coin ever discovered in the state of Saxony. The 2,200-year-old gold coin, called a “rainbow cup,” is an uncommon example of imported Celtic currency.
“The gold coin is a tangible piece of our history and provides new insights into trade with the Celts,” Saxony’s state minister, Barbara Klepschstated in an equated declaration Oct. 27.
Celtic rainbow cups– called after the German term “regenbogenschüsselchen,” which equates to “tiny rainbow finger bowl” — were called for their curved shape and for the superstitious notion that treasure might be discovered where a rainbow touched the ground, according to the declaration. They were produced by the ancient Celtsstrong warrior people who resided in mainland Europe and later on sacked Rome.
The front of the Gundorf Rainbow Cup portrays the elegant head of a stag or comparable animal, while the back reveals an open neck ring with thickened ends (potentially a Celtic torc or torque), a star with rounded corners, and a sphere.
Saxony state archaeologist Regina Smolnik stated in the declaration that the 2-gram (0.7 ounce) coin– about the weight of a U.S. penny– remained in “almost mint condition” and not likely to have actually remained in flow as currency. “Rather, it was likely a status symbol or a store of value belonging to an upper class person with trade relations with the Celts,” Smolnik stated.
A number of rainbow cups have actually been recuperated just recently in Germany, painting a photo of trade relations in between the Celts and Germanic-speaking individuals prior to the Roman intrusion
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In 2021, archaeologists found a stash of 41 plain rainbow cups in the northeastern German state of Brandenburg. These coins, which were minted in the very first century B.C., were likewise presumed to have actually been obtained through trade, as the Celts didn’t reside in Brandenburg. And in 2023, archaeologists in the German state of Bavaria revealed the discovery of a single rainbow cup with an uncommon four-pointed star decor on the within, potentially lost by somebody taking a trip along an ancient roadway close by.
The Gundorf Rainbow Cup is just a single coin, its discovery in Saxony, along with other examples of the coin somewhere else in Germany, has actually offered “further evidence of regular contact and connections” in between the Celts and individuals residing in Saxony more than 2 centuries earlier, according to Smolnik.
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Kristina Killgrove is a personnel author at Live Science with a concentrate on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her short articles have actually likewise appeared in places such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological sociology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, in addition to a B.A. in Latin from the University of Virginia, and she was previously a university teacher and scientist. She has actually gotten awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science composing.
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