Originally published at: Hiker sees something sparkle on the trail, only to discover Roman coins buried over 2,000 years ago | Boing Boing
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Nice to see someone do the responsible thing for once and call the archaeologists before ripping everything out of the ground and out of context
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Someday in the future somebody will stumble upon a cache of pennies, dimes and nickels and will look down and say “meh” and continue on.
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Taking a better look, he discovered a few half-buried Roman coins and decided to call archaeological experts to investigate.
Well done, that chap.
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“Yep, that’s definitely all the golden coins that were there when I came by and there definitely wasn’t an ornate jeweled chalice with them at all.”
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In the very least they should make an effort to name & fame the hiker that reported the discovery.
…hopefully in addition to a reasonable reward (…as well as lifetime admission to all nationally owned/run museums & parks).
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Turns out he is a member of the Livorno Paleontological Archaeological Group.
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“Obviously a ritualistic collection, or a religious artifact.”
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Today, I picked up a 10 Yen coin off the ground, so I can relate.
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“a very turbulent historical period” for the ancient Roman empire
I’m being pedantic here, but there was no roman empire back then.
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Man, that is why I wish I could metal detect in Europe. 
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You disturbed the site? Destroying context?! You monster! 
This reminds me of an episode of Time Team, where they’d arranged to dig in a graveyard in an early European settlement in America. The American archaeologist asked them if they uncovered similar finds in graveyards dating from the same period in the UK. The slightly sheepish response was that they generally didn’t touch such sites, as, in European terms, they were historical rather than archaeological.
I guess that Pre-Columbian sites don’t yield much for metal detectorists.
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Some friends of my ex-MIL from Poland came to visit and said that in the forest this one guy worked at (IIRC he was a forester) they find all kinds of stuff in the woods.
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Well, you might be surprised.
Although most of the really extraordinary ones were probably looted or excavated long ago.
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That’s cool. 
Is this a situation where they go poking around in the local woods and find the Lost Legions of Publius Quinctilius Varus?
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