Pantelleria is a dot on the map, a tiny island located about midway between Sicily and Tunisia. But 2,000 years ago, it was likely the site of danger and drama, as a hoard of recently discovered Roman coins, possibly hidden in haste during an ancient pirate attack, suggests.
This trove of almost 30 Roman denarii, stashed away inside a wall and under a boulder, stands as an exciting find, and it’s only the latest incredible discovery on the tiny island of Pantelleria.
The Roman Coin Hoard Discovered On A Remote Sicilian Island
Ufficio Stampa Regione SiciliaThe coins were dated to between 94 and 74 B.C.E.
According to a government statement, the trove of 27 silver Roman denarii were discovered during a larger cleaning and restoration project of the Acropolis of Santa Teresa and San Marco on Pantelleria.
Archaeologist Thomas Schäfer of the University of Tübingen, who led the project, explained that some of the coins were exposed after heavy rains caused the earthen wall in which they were hidden to deteriorate, while others were found beneath a boulder. The coins were minted in Rome, and have been dated to between 94 and 74 B.C.E., and they were found right near another trove of 107 coins that was discovered in 2010.
So how did they get there? Despite its remote location, Pantelleria has a rich archaeological history. And Schäfer suspects that the coin hoard was hidden in a moment of desperation. Roughly 2,000 years ago, pirate attacks frequently occurred in the region, even as the Roman general and statesman Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus sought to neutralize the threat.
Ufficio Stampa Regione SiciliaThe coins found on Pantelleria may have been hidden 2,000 years ago during a pirate raid.
“There were frequent raids against the villages along the coast and it is easy to imagine that someone hid the nest egg when the ships arrived, without being able to recover it,” the government statement notes.
But Pantelleria was not always a place of fear and destruction. Its long history, intertwined with that of ancient Rome, has led to other great archaeological discoveries in the past.
The Archaeological Treasures Of Pantelleria
Luce61/Wikimedia CommonsThe coast of Pantelleria, as seen in 2014.
Over the years, archaeologists have made a number of remarkable finds on Pantelleria.
“We have been excavating for twenty-five years now in San Marco,” Schäfer said in the statement, “it is a wonderful site, fortunately intact, it has never been touched over the centuries.”
The acropolis on Pantelleria even includes a “comitium,” a place where elected representatives and Roman cavalry officers would have once gathered. These, Schäfer noted, are extremely rare.
“There are only five in all of Italy and this is the one in the best conditions,” he said.
In recent years, archaeologists also made another stunning find on the island: three marble heads of significant Romans. These included Julius Caesar, the Roman emperor Titus, and a woman who may have been Agrippa the Elder, a granddaughter of Augustus, or Antonia the younger, a daughter of Mark Antony. The busts were found near the coin hoards.
These coins, meanwhile, are just the latest in a series of similar artifacts discovered throughout the region in recent months, including the trove unearthed in Claterna, the hoard found in Sardinia, and the cache uncovered in Livorno.
A bust of Julius Caesar that was found on Pantelleria a few years ago — near where the coin hoard was discovered.
According to Francesco Paolo Scarpinato, the councilor for Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity, the coins found on Pantelleria add to the island’s rich archaeological heritage.
“This discovery,” he remarked, “in addition to the intrinsic value linked to the finds, offers precious information for the reconstruction of events, commercial contacts and political relations that marked the Mediterranean in the Republican age.”