Finding Gold Coins Emilia Angelov

The Site

On this excavation I was in Rome, Italy. It was a pretty hot day with a nice breeze. We were digging in the Ancient City of Rome and there were lots of tourists. Because there were lots of people in and out of the area, we had to put caution tape around the hole to make sure nobody would get hurt. This discovery was made in the Summer during an excavation to a certain part of Rome.

The Site

Formation

In the ancient city of Rome, we had already found a Gladiator's helmet, so we started digging around the area. It became a source when we realized what it was and what it could have been used for. The coins were made in Spain and Eastern Europe. The coins were introduced to Rome, Italy around 44 BCE. It may have been left there after someone may have traded something or maybe even stolen the coins. We discovered this source on its own about 9 feet deep and about 2 feet away from a Gladiator's helmet. This object looks like gold coins. From my knowledge the gold coins were probably used as some type of money. It probably could have used it to buy things like food or maybe you got coins as a reward for working. It was made out of gold and they probably made it after finding gold. There were also what appeared to be different markings or faces on the coin like a quarter would be like today.

Excavation

We were able to get the coins without damaging them because there was a wooden chest that held the coins. The coins were discovered during a dig when we found a helmet about 9 feet deep. We were digging layer by layer and recording the other object we found. The dirt was pretty rough to get through and the coins were in a chest. Because the coins were 9 feet deep, it took us a while to get through all the dirt. When we got through a few layers of dirt we felt something hard underneath so we dug around it and realized it was a chest. We picked the chest up and it was pretty heavy, so a few people had to help lift it up. When we opened the chest there was a large silver bowl with lots of gold coins inside. The coins were preserved because they were in a wooden chest. The coins were a little rusty but we were able to clean them up so that we could see the markings more easily. We were trying to find artifacts because it was in the Ancient City of Rome so we were thinking of finding something valuable and we did. We were on a dig and we were just going to find some artifacts but we had not really heard about many other artifacts in the area.

Dating

We would like to date this item because it is a primary source. The gold coins are also an artifact because it is not a fossil or a bone. It is a mixture of a non-written source and a written source because there is still some writing on the coins so I think it can still be both. We will use absolute dating. Absolute dating is a dating method used for dating objects of rock material and it is able to calculate how old the object is. The coins were made around 44 BCE because that was around the time when they were introduced to Italy. I would say they are almost about 2,000 years old because on a few of the coins, Julius Caesar was engraved.

Interpretation

I think that the coins were probably used as money. It also could have been used as a reward or a way to pay someone back. It may also have been a decoration. For example, many people collect quarters from the United States because each state has a different coin. I think this because today we still use some coins as money so we probably got the idea from ancient times. Also some people use coins as decoration today because

collecting coins is very common. The coins were most likely used as a money source.