New Clues About Burial of Largest Celtic Hoard

JERSEY, CHANNEL ISLANDS—According to an Artnet report, the mystery surrounding the Câtillon II hoard, the largest Iron Age Celtic hoard ever discovered, may finally be solved. In 2012, two metal detectorists searching fields in Grouville on the island of Jersey located a massive cache consisting of 70,000 coins, 11 gold torcs, and an assortment of other valuables and jewelry. There was immediate confusion about why such a monumental hoard would have been hidden on a remote and sparsely populated island 12 miles from the mainland, far away from Celtic settlements and trade routes. However, a new study conducted by La Société Jersaise and the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) has shed more light on both the site and the objects themselves. An intensive geophysical survey of the fields around where the discovery was made revealed outlines of Iron Age buildings, suggesting the area was not nearly as uninhabited as once thought. A review of the coins indicated that most of them belonged to the Coriosolitae, a Celtic tribe that inhabited the region of Amorica on the French mainland. In the 50s b.c., the Coriosolitae, like other Celtic tribes, were under threat from the invading Roman armies of Julius Caesar. Researchers now speculate that the tribal leaders may have stashed their wealth on the island to keep it from falling into enemy hands during the Gallic Wars. For more on the discovery, go to "Hidden in a Coin Hoard."