Hoard of Roman Coins Found After Hiker Stumbles Across Lost Ancient Site

Hoard of Roman Coins Found After Hiker Stumbles Across Lost Ancient Site
BY PANDORA DEWAN ON 3/10/23 AT 6:53 AM EST

While trekking through the Swiss Alps, a hiker came across an ancient Roman coin, buried in the rubble.

After reporting the finding to the local archeological unit, a whole hoard of ancient artifacts were found buried at the site, which archeologists now believe may have been a place of holy worship—a site to lay offerings to the Roman mountain gods.

The site was discovered in 2020 and excavations began in the summer of 2022 by a team of archeologists from the Education and Culture Directorate of the Canton of Bern, the capital of Switzerland. So far, the team has uncovered 100 coins, 27 small rock crystals, 59 Roman shoe nails, a broach and a fragment of a leaf-shaped votive plaque.


Hiker discovers hoard of Roman coins
Photo of the excavation site and the Roman coin, sticking out among the stones in the Swiss Alps.

"We do find single Roman coins occasionally in the Alps, but this site is unusual because of the amount of coins and the location," Regula Gubler, the study's scientific project manager, told Newsweek. "More common would be finds—coins, broaches—on mountain passes. This site however, is far from human habitation, today and in Roman times, at 2,590 meters above sea level [nearly 8,500 feet], and definitely not a pass."

Gubler said that the site sits on a plateau between the mountain peaks of Ammertenhorn and Wildstrubel, which she described as "pretty impressive."