They Were Supposed to Be Building a Highway. Instead, They Found a Town Full of Treasure.
Archaeologists scouting a new motorway route in the Czech Republic stumbled upon a second century B.C. Celtic settlement.
In one of the largest archaeological hauls ever from Bohemia, crews located hundreds of gold and silver coins and precious amber.
The production of luxury ceramics at the site cements it as a key part of the famed Amber Road trade route.
A Celtic settlement from the second century B.C. discovered in modern-day Czech Republic has yielded an impressive haul of opulence, from hundreds of gold and silver coins to precious amber and luxury ceramics (and even a production facility that was likely churning them out over 2,000 years ago).
The find came as archaeologists conducted surveys ahead of construction of the D35 motorway, turning a routine construction requirement into what the team from the Museum of East Bohemia in Hradec Kralove dubbed 'one of the largest collections of artifacts ever found in Bohemia,' according to a translated statement.
The precious coins and materials weren't simply strewn about. Crews discovered plenty of ancient buildings making up an entire settlement from the La Tene period, likely a Celtic community.
'The entire site is unparalleled in its scale and character in Bohemia,' the statement reads. 'The settlement was a supra-regional trade and production center connected to long-distance trade routes, as evidenced by the finds of amber, gold and silver coins, and evidence of the production of luxury ceramics.'
The team found gold and silver Celtic coins, coin dies, fragments of ceramic vessels, dwelling foundations, production facilities, and at least one religious sanctuary. With 22,000 bags loaded with artifacts from the area, it is one of the largest ever collections discovered in Bohemia comprising both everyday objects and an 'extraordinarily rich collection of jewelry.'
Tomas Mangel, a professor at the University of Hradec Kralove and the excavation co-leader, told Live Science there could be several hundred coin pieces and that the jewelry features 'pieces of bronze and iron brooches, fragments of armlets, metallic components of belts, glass beads, and armlets.'
One thing the team hasn't yet found were any inscriptions to pinpoint which Celtic group settled the area, although Boii were known to live in the region. 'Bohemia is traditionally really connected with [the] Boii,' Mangel told Live Science. 'But the research [done recently] shows that we can only say that [the] Boii were settled somewhere in Central Europe.'
The archaeologists said they were surprised by the unusually high density of finds in the topsoil. 'The information potential of the original surface of the settlement in the topsoil and subsoil horizons is completely beyond the standard,' they wrote. To their additional, and fortuitous, surprise, the site hadn't been looted.
The lack of fortification at the 62-acre Iron Age site, which is located near Hradec Kralove in modern-day north-central Czech Republic, shows the settlement from the La Tene period was likely a key trading route and was active in the second century B.C. before the emergence of larger fortified settlements with central functions.
The volume of fine pottery, coin production, and amber only furthers the belief Celtic settlement played a pivotal role along the Amber Road trade route, a connection of settlements from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean Sea that enabled trade across all of Europe.
With such a rich history, the museum plans a display in late 2025 to celebrate all things gold, silver, and amber.
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