The Treasure of Tomares

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
The "Treasure" is made up of a large stash of 4th century Roman coins discovered under the portico of a villa in the province of Seville, Spain.

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One of the amphorae containing Roman coins found in Seville. (Source - Paco Puentes)

Andalusia, Southern Spain

In April 2016, a civil guard patrol arrived at a construction site at El Zaudin Park in Tomares. Heavy machinery came across 19 ceramic vessels filled with what appeared to be coins. They were hidden in a sealed area, covered with a few bricks and ceramic filler.

The excavator bucket broke some of the jars, however nine remained untouched and sealed.

In 2022, six years since the discovery, archaeologists from the University of Seville released a report about what was found on that spring day.

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Diocletian was emperor from 284 to 305 A.D.

Coin experts examined almost 6,000 pieces and found there was a total of 53,000 coins kept in the 19 amphorae. The hiding area was under an out building of a Roman villa that has yet to be discovered.

The estimated amount of coins was arrived at after examination of the contents, and it was found that there were 2,800 coins in each vessel.

​The coins were produced between the years 294 and 311 A.D, during the reign of the emperors Diocletian, Maximian, Constantius, Galerius, Constantine, Severus, Maximinus, Licinius and Maxentius. None of the coins go beyond the year 312.

They came from the mints of Rome, Carthage, Aquileia, Treveris, Ticinum, Lugdunum, Londinium, Siscia and Ostia. A smaller number of coins came from Alexandria, Cyzicus, Thessaloniki, Heraklea, Nicomedia and Antiochi. 

The majority have Emperor Diocletian on them, and were produced in Carthage. This could be due to the fact the Diocletian's coins had more silver in it.

After much debate, the stash was valued at $395,000 (£320k), which equates to $550,000 (£442k) today, and bought by the Museum of Somerset. 

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Roman amphorae found in 2016 at El Zaudín Park (Source - EFE)

The reason for the hoarding of the coins is theorized to be due to political uncertainty and social clashes of the time. For important financial transactions, a huge number of money was necessary. Inflation was eating Rome's wealth, which was addressed by producing more money of poorer quality.

The location of the Villa is on a plateau in El Aljarafe that overlooks the Guadalquivir countryside. This place has been inhabited since the Chalcolithic or Copper Age. 

Through hundreds of years, different cultures have left their mark as seen in single-chamber megalithic tombs, at a Phoenician sanctuary known as El Camabolo and the Roman city of Hispalis.

A survey carried out on the grounds of where the coins were discovered, found the remains of a building dating to between the 3rd and 4th centuries. The wall and buttresses were excavated and had elements of horreos (granaries).

The building had a portico supported by columns and paved with lime. The construction dates to the 1st century, and it was used until the 4th century which is when the coins were stashed under the warehouse entrance.

Two hundred years later the materials from the horreos were re-purposed, however the treasure remained hidden.

It's believed the granary belonged to a villa, which usually had adjacent buildings to store food, animals and living quarters for workers.

One has to wonder what happened to the person who hid this treasure. Did he forget, or most probably die unexpectedly before he disclosed his secret?

The ancient Romans definitely had a habit of hiding their most prized possessions. To date, 17,945 coin hoards have been unearthed in Europe, North Africa, and parts of Asia along with myriad other treasure troves, and chances are many are still out there waiting to be discovered.

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Iberian Celt

The Romans conquered the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) referred to as Hispania in 264 B.C. It was divided into 2 provinces, Hispania Ulterior (present day Andalusia, Extremadura, southern Leon and most of Portugal) and Hispania Citerior or Tarraconensis (northern, eastern and south-central Spain).

The name Hispania is derived from the ancient Celtic tribe of the Iberians who lived in the area prior to the Romans.

It was reported in August, 2024 that sites first identified  in the 1980s and 1990s, were revisited in 2023 with researchers from the University of Cadiz. Contrary to their initial expectations, they found 57 interconnected sites that were scattered across the regions of Arcos de la Frontera, Bornos Villamartin and Puerto Serrano, which had routes along the Guadalete River.

It's now believed all these settlements, and their strategic locations suggest a hidden empire existed during the Roman occupation.

The team was using ground-penetrating radar to find buildings beneath the surface. A Roman villa at El Cañuelo in Bornos with residential and workplace areas was discovered with this technology.

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Roman coins found off the coast of the island of Portitxol in Xabia c.2021

In September, 2021 two amateur free divers found a large collection of Roman coins off the east coast of Spain. They found 8 coins in pristine condition off the island of Portitxol in Xabia. Further dives by archaeologists recovered 45 coins. The perfectly preserved coins were dated to between the end of the 4th century to 5th century A.D. The inscriptions were legible and are from the reign of Valentinian I, Valentinian II, Theodosius I, Arcadius, Donrius and one unidentified one.

It's believed the coins were hidden by a wealthy landowner who wanted to protect his money from the Alans, Suevi and Vandals, barbarians who were looting the western Roman Empire.

Perhaps like the discovery in Tomares, the owner died before being able to collect their coins.

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