ID
8193
Permalink
Hoard name
CASTRO DE ALVARELHOS 1971
Data type
Hoard
Date of discovery (from)
May 1971
Total number of coins
5000
Summary
In May 1971, a large silver hoard containing nearly 5,000 Republican Roman denarii was discovered at the Castro de Alvarelhos. It all happened during stone quarrying operations, when a shovel struck a coarse-ware vessel; nothing suggested that within that pottery lay the most important Augustan treasure on the Iberian Peninsula.
Alongside the denarii, nine silver ingots were also found, two of them inscribed with the word “caesar.” Although one-third of the entire hoard was quickly dispersed, Torres, the author of the treasure’s publication, was able to document 3,476 denarii, and together with the five that Centeno later added, a total of 3,481 specimens were recovered.
The Alvarelhos hoard opens with four anonymous Republican denarii from the earliest issues (RRC 44/5) and a Republican sestertius of the same type, followed by a wide array of Republican denarii from various mints, including six quinarii—notably the one struck by Mark Antony and Octavian in 39 BC (RRC 529/4b)—and concludes with six denarii of Augustus bearing the caetra on the reverse (RIC I2 543a). As is only natural, there are denarii from many provenances—African, Gallic, and Eastern, including Mark Antony’s legionary denarii—as well as other Republican and Augustan denarii.
Our terminus post quem consists of six denarii whose typology, according to García-Bellido, leaves no doubt; these denarii with a shield or caetra, catalogued as RIC I2 543a, are Hispanic and, according to the author, are related to the bronzes of Lucus Augusti, suggesting a dating prior to 25–23 BC. Previously, Sutherland had placed these coins in Italian territory, proposing an emission date between 32 and 27 BC. Also noteworthy are Mattingly’s hypotheses, which located the denarii in Emerita and assigned them a more recent date: 22–19 BC. Giard, more cautiously, simply assigned them to Hispania, estimating an average chronology of 27–26 BC.
