KANACKI
Bronze Member
- Mar 1, 2015
- 1,445
- 5,926
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Hello All.
In reality most treasure legends are just legends evolved from a miss mash of stories being repeated over and over. Where does the fiction ends and where the truth begins? The following story comes from region in Normandy with invariable long history conquest and looting. Such areas are full of stories. One such treasure legend was based on vague stories about an ancient treasure and mysterious temples of Roman Gaul.
Was it romanticized wishful thinking or residue memory passed through the local generations through the centuries? One thing for sure the odd discoveries inflamed imaginations over years of the locals creating wild stories.
You could rightfully imagine such stories gave the hardworking rural poor a little ray of hope of a dream of making a big discovery? But the horrible reality even with best of research it is still in effect a lottery.
Yet in 1830 a poor farmer in Villeret a small rural hamlet, while plowing a field, the plow came across some old roman tiles.
Well versed in the old local legends of treasure he decided to explore further.
If anyone was going to discover a fabulous treasure this poor farmer aptly named "Prosper Taurin" Was the lucky finder.
Digging under the roman tiles in faint hope of finding some thing. He discovered perhaps one of the greatest finds of Roman silver in history?
As you can see below.
Under French treasure trove laws any treasure found on private land is shared between the finder and landholder. Prosper Taurin under French treasure trove laws at the time still followed Napoleonic law on treasure trove. And the laws states the finder and landholder owns what is found on a 50/50 basis. So Prosper Taurin won on all accounts.
There was no need to secretly sell the items or melt down the treasure for the silver. As you could see in the following picture would of been travesty. To destroy such historical artifacts for its silver content.
The authorities bought the find off him for 15000 francs. Some say he was duded but if you you look in the concept of 1830 prices 15000 francs may of been a lot of money back then. Today the Roman Gaulish treasure today is priceless. As you can see the quality in some of items below.
The majority of treasure was silver but there was some gold as well as seen below.
Here is a more detail of exquisite design.
The treasure it appears was hidden during collapse of the Roman Empire. The Statues was believed to be presentation of Roman God Mercury.
The collection is housed in national museum of France. But I believe a few years ago the collection make its first trip to the United States touring some of largest museums other there.
So while indeed most legends are most likely just legends and it would be fool hardly to believe all such treasure legends to be real. It is also fool hardly to right off some treasure legends not having a grain of truth in some of them also.
Kanacki
In reality most treasure legends are just legends evolved from a miss mash of stories being repeated over and over. Where does the fiction ends and where the truth begins? The following story comes from region in Normandy with invariable long history conquest and looting. Such areas are full of stories. One such treasure legend was based on vague stories about an ancient treasure and mysterious temples of Roman Gaul.
Was it romanticized wishful thinking or residue memory passed through the local generations through the centuries? One thing for sure the odd discoveries inflamed imaginations over years of the locals creating wild stories.
You could rightfully imagine such stories gave the hardworking rural poor a little ray of hope of a dream of making a big discovery? But the horrible reality even with best of research it is still in effect a lottery.
Yet in 1830 a poor farmer in Villeret a small rural hamlet, while plowing a field, the plow came across some old roman tiles.
Well versed in the old local legends of treasure he decided to explore further.
If anyone was going to discover a fabulous treasure this poor farmer aptly named "Prosper Taurin" Was the lucky finder.
Digging under the roman tiles in faint hope of finding some thing. He discovered perhaps one of the greatest finds of Roman silver in history?
As you can see below.
Under French treasure trove laws any treasure found on private land is shared between the finder and landholder. Prosper Taurin under French treasure trove laws at the time still followed Napoleonic law on treasure trove. And the laws states the finder and landholder owns what is found on a 50/50 basis. So Prosper Taurin won on all accounts.
There was no need to secretly sell the items or melt down the treasure for the silver. As you could see in the following picture would of been travesty. To destroy such historical artifacts for its silver content.
The authorities bought the find off him for 15000 francs. Some say he was duded but if you you look in the concept of 1830 prices 15000 francs may of been a lot of money back then. Today the Roman Gaulish treasure today is priceless. As you can see the quality in some of items below.
The majority of treasure was silver but there was some gold as well as seen below.
Here is a more detail of exquisite design.
The treasure it appears was hidden during collapse of the Roman Empire. The Statues was believed to be presentation of Roman God Mercury.
The collection is housed in national museum of France. But I believe a few years ago the collection make its first trip to the United States touring some of largest museums other there.
So while indeed most legends are most likely just legends and it would be fool hardly to believe all such treasure legends to be real. It is also fool hardly to right off some treasure legends not having a grain of truth in some of them also.
Kanacki
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