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The mystery of why the world’s largest iron age Celtic hoard was buried on the south-east coast of Jersey more than 2,000 years ago may have been solved by archaeologists.
When about 70,000 silver coins, 11 gold torques and jewellery were unearthed in a field at Le Câtillon in the Grouville district in 2012, experts were unable to explain why it had been transported to a remote and unpopulated area with dangerous coastal reefs.
Now a geophysical survey around the site has identified a possible Celtic settlement, which means Jersey was no isolated backwater in the mid-first century BC.
A study of the site is published this week by the magazine Wreckwatch, with support from the educational Highlands Foundation of Jersey.The detectorists Reg Mead and Richard Miles had immediately reported their discovery to Jersey Heritage. As a crown dependency, it was processed under the England, Wales and Northern Ireland Treasure Trove Act 1996, leading to its acquisition by Jersey’s government for £4.25m. The finds are displayed at La Hougue Bie Museum in Jersey.
The detectorists have joined experts in researching the hoard, which is believed to have originated in the ancient French region of Armorica, which is modern-day Brittany and Normandy, as almost all the coins are linked to the Coriosolitae tribe, whose name may derive from the Celtic corios, meaning army or troop.
Archaeologists believe the riches were hurriedly transported overseas to Jersey to ensure they did not fall into the hands of Julius Caesar’s Roman army during the Gallic wars.
In the geophysical survey, the team found linear anomalies spanning several tens of metres, parallel and perpendicular to each other, some with subdivisions that resemble late iron age rural Celtic settlements in northern France.
Dr Hervé Duval-Gatignol, Société Jersiaise’s archaeologist, said: “This could represent part of a rectilinear enclosure consistent with known forms of rural settlements of late iron age date in Armorica.”
Small magnetic anomalies suggest pits and postholes of buildings.
Dr Sean Kingsley, Wreckwatch’s editor-in-chief and an archaeologist who has explored more than 350 shipwrecks in the last 30 years, said the Celts were innovative boatbuilders and sailors: “By the time Caesar attacked Brittany in 56BC, the Celts’ seaborne trade was a well-oiled machine. Practical knowledge about low and high water times, the locations of shoals, winds, weather and landing places had long been passed down from generation to generation.
“In light of the dangerous shoals in the approaches to Jersey, it is possible that the Câtillon II hoard was shipped on a hide-boat vessel resembling the gold model of a boat from Broighter in Northern Ireland. This first century BC seacraft was equipped with a sail, steering oar pivoted near the stern and, crucially, nine oars on each side, which would have been invaluable to overcome unfavourable wind and steer clear of reefs. Ships built with hide or leather waterproof coverings fastened to a framework of light timbers sound flimsy but could be strongly constructed, light and flexible, ideal to ride the crests of high waves in the unpredictable Atlantic seas or for landing in almost any cove.”
He added: “Another new take is that we believe the landscape was sacred to the Celts, with ancestral power going back millennia, linked to a Neolithic megalithic tomb perched on the hilltop above the hoard discovery site.
“There’s something incredibly special about these fields. The spiritual power of the ancestors is likely to have been a big reason why the hoard was brought to Jersey.”
The Wreckwatch issue is accompanied by a video.
