The Berthouville treasure is a hoard of Roman silver uncovered by ploughing in March 1830The 21 March, by Prosper Taurin, according to Auguste Le Prévost, who had been born nearby at Bernay (Prévost, Mémoire sur la collection de vases antiques trouvée en 1830 à Berthouville (arr. de Bernay), Caen, 1832:6); Archives relative to the acquisition of the Berthouville Treasure, B.N. 8 AMC 35 (1830) . at the hamlet of Villeret in the commune of Berthouville in the Eure département of Normandy, northern France. Purchased at the time of discovery for a modest 15,000 francs, the treasure is conserved in the Cabinet des Médailles at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.Ernest Babelon (director of the département des monnaies, médailles et antiques, BN), Le trésor d'argenterie de Bertouville près de Bernay (Eure) conservé au Département de médailles et antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale, Paris 1916; Ruth E. Leader-Newby, Silver and Society in Late Antiquity: Functions and Meanings of Silver Plate (Ashgate) 2004; D.E. Strong, Greek and Roman Gold and Silver Plate (London 1968)

Discovery

The Berthouville hoard was discovered in early 1830 when farmer Prosper Taurin struck a Roman tile while ploughing his field near the village of Berthouville, in Normandy, France. Once dislodged, the tile uncovered the hastily buried temple treasureOn Roman temple treasures in general, see A. Henwood Griffiths, Temple Treasures: A Study Based on the Works of Cicero and the Fasti of Ovid (Philadelphia 1943). a mere beneath the modern surface.

The treasure belonged to a sanctuary of Mercury Canetonensis. In the mid-1st century BC, Julius Caesar had identified Mercury as one of the main deities of Gaul.Caesar, Commentaries on the Gallic War vi. §17. In his Gallo-Roman form Mercury is frequently found with a Gaulish epithet.

The trésor de Berthouville is one of only three known collections of valuable objects definitely associated with a local religious cult in Gaul or Britannia.Leader-Newby 2004:72. The other two are the Notre-Dame d'Allençon Treasure and the Thetford Hoard.

The treasure

The treasure consists of silver and other metalwork, of varying type, quality and dates in the 1st to late 2nd centuries AD. The hoard was hidden in the late 2nd or early 3rd century, but contained heirloom pieces like the repoussé silver jug that was made in Italy in the 1st century AD. The find totalled 93 items, some of which were dissociated handles and silver appliqués, with a total weight of . Most of the items are bowls, cups and jugs, but there is also a phiale for libations.

There are also two silver statuettes of Mercury (the larger tall) and a silver bust of a goddess, probably his mother Maia,Ruth E. Leader-Newby, Silver and Society in Late Antiquity: Functions and Meanings of Silver Plate Ashgate; 2004; p. 73 perhaps representing Romanized versions of Gallic deities. The pairing of a Roman god with a Gallic goddess would be characteristic of Gallo-Roman religion.Rosmerta, for instance, was frequently associated with Mercury in Gaul.

Four of the bowls have incised emblematic designs associated with Mercury, and the formulaic Latin initialism VSLM, standing for votum solvit libens merito ("He fulfils his vow freely, as is deserved").Ruth E. Leader-Newby, Silver and Society in Late Antiquity: Functions and Meanings of Silver Plate Ashgate. 2004. Nine of the vessels form a group of luxury domestic silver of 1st century dateSimilar to silver found at Boscoreale and in the House of the Menander at Pompeii, overwhelmed by the eruption of 79 CE, and similarly composed of drinking vessels (Leader-Newby). with iconographic connections to Dionysus rather than to Mercury, marked as votive offerings (vota) of one Q. Domitius Tutus; they include a matching pair of silver drinking cups (scyphi) with Dionysiac imagery of centaurs, and a pair of silver wine-jugs.

Excavations near the find-spot in 1861-1862 and 1986Noted in Leader-Newby 2004:114 note 64.A bust of Hermaphroditus was discovered at Bernay in 1864 occasioned some correspondence with M. Cornu of Bernay in 1864-65 (Archives, B.N., 12 AMC 12, 12 AMC 14 ). revealed a Gallo-Roman theatre and a shrine that may have been the shrine to which the silver objects had been dedicated.

Conservation The Berthouville treasure left France for the first time to be studied and conserved at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California, as part of collaborative multi-year conservation project between the Getty and the Cabinet des Médailles. Study of the objects revealed previously obscured fine details on the works, and increased understanding of the interaction between Roman and Gallic cultures in what is now northern France.

The restored treasure was exhibited at the Getty Villa from November 2014 to August 2015, then went on tour in the US and Europe before being returned to Paris.

Notes

Further reading