Foraging badger inadvertently uncovers a hoard of more than 200 Roman coins dating back to the 3rd century in a Spanish cave

UK Daily Mail ^ | 10 January 2022 | Jonathan Chadwick

[Scarlett156]

A foraging badger has uncovered a trove of 209 Roman coins dating as far back as the third century in a Spanish cave, scientists report.

Hailed as an 'exceptional find', the coins include some 'from the distant mints' of London, Constantinople and Antioch, an ancient city once located in what is now modern-day Turkey.

Researchers think they were hidden in the cave before the arrival of the Suebi, a Germanic people who invaded the Iberian Peninsula in AD 409, known for their infantry and ambush tactics.

[Scarlett156]

'In April 2021 it was located and rescued through a small emergency archaeological intervention financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Principality of Asturias, which up to now constitutes the largest Roman cave treasure in northern Spain,' they said.

[Scarlett156]

They found the coins awhile back, but only are just now reporting on it.

[z3n]

Enterprising forager!

[Blueflag]

What constitutes a “small archaeological intervention”?

Intervention???

[DannyTN]

Related News: Badger reports hoard of Roman coins stolen from burrow.

[NautiNurse]

Who wrestled the badger for the hoard of coins?

[Vendome]

[DannyTN]

"What constitutes a “small archaeological intervention”?"

• Stopping someone from reading the ancient script out loud.
• Stopping someone from bleeding on the ancient crypt.
• Stopping someone from removing silver crosses, or Bibles from ancient crypts.
• Stealing from enterprising badgers to remind them of their place in the animal kingdom.

[Scarlett156]

They opine the badger was desperately foraging because there had been a big storm in the area - instead of food, he found some worthless coins!!

[no-to-illegals]

This is a sad story. The enterprising badger had the coins “rescued” away by weasels

[Scarlett156]

I wondered about that. Did the guy who found the coins take them home, so they had to send an armed team of “archaeologists” to “intervene”...?

[Bigg Red]

😉

Love the use of the word “inadvertently” in the headline. I guess the writer wanted to ensure that the reader would not think that the badger was a treasure hunter.

[teeman8r]

never never reveal where they came from...

shoot. shovel. shut up.

melt the gold down...

make one ounce coins with your face on it... call it what you want...sell it for cash.

200 coins, 100 ounces at 1200 an ounce... 120,000 bucks...

[Hot Tabasco]

I don’t know, that looks like a leprechaun cave to me..

[dayglored]

From the article:

Although no badger was seen, the leading hypothesis is that Storm Filomena, which deposited snow across the Iberian Peninsula in January 2021, ramped up the creature's search for food, El País newspaper reports. This hypothesis is largely due to the fact the collection was found mere feet away from a badger's burrow.

OMG it was the Fearsome Spanish INVISIBLE BADGER!!

[Scarlett156]

I found a guy who had committed suicide in a field once. I saw his truck first parked by the road, and then him lying on the ground a short distance away.

For some reason, his truck was FULL of cartons of cigarettes. People on the internet that I talked to at the time gave me holy hell for not taking the cigarettes, if not the truck: “YOU BLEW AN OPPORTUNITY!!”

Friends. Aren’t they great?

[oldvirginian]

Of possible interest.

[Jewbacca]

Nobody expects the Spanish badger.

[Bratch]

Obviously NOT a honey badger.

[PLMerite]

“Obviously NOT a honey badger.”

No, this one’s a MONEY badger.