12 May 2010 | An exhibition, titled “Found underneath a tree root: Ancient Greek Coin Hoards,” opened in the Athens Numismatic Museum and will be on display through December 31.

The exhibition contains 21 ancient Greek coin hoards, dating to between the fifth and first centuries BC, made up of 3,644 electrum, gold, silver, silver-plated and bronze coins. Two hoards from Epidaurus and Thebes, on loan from the IV and IX Ephorates of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities respectively, consisting of 549 coins and 498 pieces of gold jewellery, are also included in the presentation.

In archaeology, a hoard is a collection of valuable artefacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, usually with the intention of later recovery by the hoarder. However, since hoarders sometimes died, were displaced or forgot about their location before retrieving them, the hoards are often found much later by gold-diggers or archaeologists.

The exhibition in Athens, according to the ana.gr website, aspires to convey to the visitor the mythology surrounding the ancient treasures, with emphasis placed on the conditions of their discovery, the causes behind their concealment and information derived about their initial owners.

According to the publication, ancient hoards – buried inside walls, beneath floors, inside caves or in secret locations, are connected with historical events, offer information on the phenomenon of savings and attest to matters of coin circulation in Greece, focusing on savings at a time before banks and banking systems.

The Numismatic Museum of Athens, whose permanent collection boasts around 600,000 coins covering the ancient Greek world, the Roman and Byzantine periods, western Medieval times and modern times, is the only museum of its kind in the Balkans.

In addition to the coins, the museum’s collection also includes hoards – closed numismatic groups, weights, lead stamps, medals and precious stones, as well as thousands of volumes devoted to the field of numismatics, history, seals and archaeology and an extraordinarily rich archive of documents.

Housed in the Iliou Melathron (The Palace of Ilion), the home of Heinrich Schliemann, the Numismatic Museum’s building was created by German architect Ernst Ziller in the style of the Italian Renaissance adapted to the neoclassical spirit of the late nineteenth century. The building was inaugurated on January 10, 1881, and its inside walls are decorated with paintings on Pompeian themes and the finds of Schliemann at Troy and Mycenae.

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