1 00:00:15,970 --> 00:00:19,810 [Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.] So welcome everyone to the first meeting for this Hillary term. 2 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:29,910 And I'm really delighted that Lauren Morris has accepted an invitation to give us a kind of archaeological view on buried valuables. 3 00:00:31,130 --> 00:00:35,780 Lauren Morris studied classical archaeology and ancient history at the University of Sydney in Australia, 4 00:00:36,110 --> 00:00:45,320 and earned her PhD at Ludwig Maximilian University in 2017 with a dissertation Re-evaluating the famous Pilgrim Hoard from Afghanistan. 5 00:00:46,340 --> 00:00:53,130 She was also a doctoral fellow at Munich's graduate school. Distant worlds between 2017 and 2023. 6 00:00:53,150 --> 00:01:00,050 She was a postdoctoral researcher on the ELC project Beyond the Silk Road at Albert Ludwig Universitat Freiburg. 7 00:01:00,890 --> 00:01:07,400 Since 2023, she's been a senior researcher at the Institute of Classical Archaeology at the Charles University in Prague. 8 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:14,640 Her specialisation is in the antique period of southern Central Asia, with particular interest in economic history. 9 00:01:14,940 --> 00:01:22,620 The Kushan period, cultural change, interaction across Africa, Eurasia and the intellectual history of archaeology in Central and South Asia. 10 00:01:23,490 --> 00:01:28,500 She has participated in fieldwork in Cyprus, Spain, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, 11 00:01:28,500 --> 00:01:34,620 Pakistan and Uzbekistan, has undertaken archival research in France and research in Afghanistan. 12 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:37,550 She is principal investigator of the project. 13 00:01:37,570 --> 00:01:43,930 Rural life in a Changing World new light on economic development and inequality in Central Asia under the Christian Empire. 14 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:47,620 This project is funded through the Primus research program, 15 00:01:47,770 --> 00:01:53,170 with fieldwork in Uzbekistan conducted under the auspices of the Czech Republic Archaeological Expedition. 16 00:01:54,110 --> 00:01:57,410 So many thanks for coming. And over to you. 17 00:01:59,780 --> 00:02:02,950 Okay. Can you hear me? Yep, yep. 18 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:06,020 Nothing should have changed since then, right? Yeah. Okay, great. 19 00:02:06,230 --> 00:02:11,570 So good evening, and thank you so much for this kind introduction and the invitation to speak in your, um, seminar. 20 00:02:11,990 --> 00:02:17,540 Um, so my brief, as I understand it, uh, was to say something about how treasure is dealt with archaeologically. 21 00:02:17,930 --> 00:02:21,650 Um, so this will, of course, diverge a little bit, uh, from your usual purview in this series. 22 00:02:22,130 --> 00:02:24,550 Um, but I do hope it will be stimulating or useful. 23 00:02:24,590 --> 00:02:29,209 Uh, what I do present, because this series is also, um, certainly adjusted the way that I think about this topic. 24 00:02:29,210 --> 00:02:39,200 And I'm sure your comments in the discussion will, too. So, uh, before I continue, um, and I should probably very good before I continue, 25 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,739 I should, uh, perhaps just give a brief disclaimer about what I'm trying to do here. 26 00:02:42,740 --> 00:02:51,080 Um, and what I'm not trying to do. So this talk is a somewhat general explanation about some of the issues with interpreting treasure in archaeology, 27 00:02:51,350 --> 00:02:54,770 uh, which can, among other things, refer to deposits of valuable objects. 28 00:02:54,980 --> 00:02:59,030 And this is pivoting around what I learned as a result of my doctoral research on the background hoard. 29 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:01,550 Um, so I published a bit of this, um, 30 00:03:01,730 --> 00:03:07,070 in more or more of this more specific topic in my dissertation and an article a couple of years ago in studio her senior, 31 00:03:07,310 --> 00:03:13,219 which you're welcome to look up for more details. Um, but today I'm not attempting any kind of systematic, complete, 32 00:03:13,220 --> 00:03:17,540 or fully up to date review of this topic because that would be an enormous undertaking indeed. 33 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:22,729 Uh, instead, my approach is rather deliberately eclectic, drawing from different contexts and periods, 34 00:03:22,730 --> 00:03:28,850 and based on my experience working in a field of archaeology where these kinds of issues were not really ever so seriously, 35 00:03:28,850 --> 00:03:34,670 um, and systematically interrogated. Um, so therefore my talk will progress in the following way. 36 00:03:35,150 --> 00:03:38,590 Um, so I'm going to talk about, briefly a couple of working concepts. 37 00:03:38,600 --> 00:03:42,510 Um, so, you know, in terms of the game, and then I'll talk a little bit more about the background, 38 00:03:43,100 --> 00:03:45,800 um, and potential, some problems that arise from that material. 39 00:03:46,100 --> 00:03:52,909 Um, and then I will switch gears to look at other approaches to deposits of valuables over time in archaeology and looking particularly, 40 00:03:52,910 --> 00:03:55,960 um, at some of the scholarship on Bronze Age Europe and in numismatics. 41 00:03:55,970 --> 00:04:01,490 So, um, the study of coin hoards. Uh, then we'll return to Bagram again and I'll add a few comments about, um, 42 00:04:01,490 --> 00:04:05,660 how this literature, um, you know, encouraged me to see this material in a different way. 43 00:04:05,990 --> 00:04:10,129 Um, of course, with closer analysis of it and then, um, thinking last of all, 44 00:04:10,130 --> 00:04:14,810 just a brief comment on some possible universal insights that we can start to pull out of this, 45 00:04:14,810 --> 00:04:19,990 um, body of literature and, um, possible compatibility with, um, treasure traditions. 46 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:25,250 Um, when we are lucky enough to have, uh, sources, um, telling us about these kinds of things. 47 00:04:26,210 --> 00:04:30,470 So when I ask, uh, what does treasure mean in archaeology? 48 00:04:30,650 --> 00:04:38,330 Uh, this is not an, um, exactly easy question to answer, because it is a, first of all, not a really beloved word I would say in academic circles. 49 00:04:38,630 --> 00:04:48,860 Um, it seems to add the er of how to say generality, um, of spectacle, of, um, not so much academic focus, I must say, 50 00:04:48,860 --> 00:04:55,280 um, when it is applied to, um, major finds and um, this is, um, you know, a ideas that are very well explored. 51 00:04:55,280 --> 00:05:00,980 Far better than I could in this recent volume. And, um, on a conference about the public archaeology of treasure, which I encourage you to look at. 52 00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:07,550 Um, so basically, as also explored in that book, um, when we think about treasure, we have varying reference. 53 00:05:07,910 --> 00:05:13,850 Um, so when I Google, you know, Google images, archaeology treasure, you're going to be thinking usually of things like this. 54 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:20,959 Um, so we have, you know, spectacular finds of usually, uh, gold and silver often just found, uh, 55 00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:28,370 something uh, you see, sort of decontextualised wholes perhaps, or arranged material in an aesthetic way. 56 00:05:28,670 --> 00:05:34,010 Um, things like, uh, coin hoards and jaws. Um, this is, you know, quite, quite nice and typical. 57 00:05:34,250 --> 00:05:38,360 But treasure can also mean all kinds of things, too. Um, so there are legal definition. 58 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:43,490 So when you think about treasure trove, uh, laws, uh, about the monetary value of this treasure. 59 00:05:43,500 --> 00:05:52,370 So, um, people often talk about how much, uh, a treasure that was found by chance recently by a farmer has a value of £20,000 or so. 60 00:05:52,790 --> 00:05:56,220 Um, treasure can have cultural and historical significance. 61 00:05:56,240 --> 00:05:59,390 So we can talk about national treasures, for example. 62 00:05:59,750 --> 00:06:03,410 Um, we can treasure things personally. They can be our own personal treasures. 63 00:06:03,830 --> 00:06:07,190 Um, and we can also talk about treasure in a metaphorical sense as well. 64 00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:16,640 Um, so not just, um, so in terms of like, uh, you say this, the treasures of the material, um, the treasures of the heritage of this country. 65 00:06:16,850 --> 00:06:17,540 Things like this. 66 00:06:17,900 --> 00:06:25,370 So treasure can refer to many different things that it usually takes to bring up a major image of these kinds of finds or valuable objects. 67 00:06:26,210 --> 00:06:29,600 Um, so then briefly on the terms, and I won't go too much more into this. 68 00:06:30,080 --> 00:06:33,590 Um, I'm mentioning sort of three kinds of terms today or bodies of terms. 69 00:06:33,630 --> 00:06:39,080 Um, so we have first treasure. Um, the second is hoard and the third is special, etc. deposits. 70 00:06:39,110 --> 00:06:46,399 Um, and I say etcetera, because there are many options. Um, for terminology we can use to talk about things that aren't really normal refuse. 71 00:06:46,400 --> 00:06:54,500 They're not grave goods. Um, they're not material that's deposited, um, you know, as a result of a disaster like the eruption of Vesuvius, of Pompeii. 72 00:06:54,770 --> 00:06:58,399 There's something that's, um, something intentional or interesting is going on. 73 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:04,559 That's not the. Not usual, basically. Um, so each of these sets of terms or terms has many reference. 74 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:11,760 But what is interesting about all of them is that here they can partly overlap in referring to the same phenomenon of deposits or valuable objects. 75 00:07:12,060 --> 00:07:18,210 And we also see terminology in other languages doing this kind of, um, variable, um, referential, um, 76 00:07:18,750 --> 00:07:23,160 uh, capacities as well as the trades or in French wards and shots in German and clad in Russian. 77 00:07:23,560 --> 00:07:28,110 Some of the work that I had to read mostly, um, just like those examples. 78 00:07:28,470 --> 00:07:33,810 So today I'm just going to consider these terms as vaguely equivalent, because I'm talking about deposits of valuable objects, 79 00:07:34,230 --> 00:07:39,000 um, which would be the main thing that is, um, come to mind when we talk about treasure in archaeology, I would say. 80 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:48,060 So just a few more concepts that are relevant to this. Um, so we have, uh, these kinds of, um, um, deposits, treasures, 81 00:07:48,060 --> 00:07:51,760 hoards that are coming into the archaeological record through various depositional processes. 82 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:56,700 So what I just mentioned before, but, um, emphatically, for example, not related to refuse. 83 00:07:56,700 --> 00:08:00,030 So these are, you know, quite distinguishable from rubbish at the very least. 84 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:06,660 Um, and usually they concealed in some way. So but when you start splitting hairs about definitions, all kinds of problems occur. 85 00:08:06,660 --> 00:08:13,260 But that's just a very basic perspective. Um, another point is that value is obviously very much culturally contingent. 86 00:08:13,270 --> 00:08:16,350 Um, it can be personal, it can be dynamic, changing over time. 87 00:08:16,740 --> 00:08:19,229 Um, but again, um, what we're dealing with, um, you know, 88 00:08:19,230 --> 00:08:24,900 we have we can define them as valuable because they're usually things that are, um, not discarded or perceived as refuse. 89 00:08:24,900 --> 00:08:32,790 And. Okay, that's, um, a good base point to start from. Um, and then we're also going to talk about intentionality, um, versus the accidental loss. 90 00:08:32,790 --> 00:08:39,060 So an element of intentionality is perceived as important in talking about these deposits of, uh, of valuables. 91 00:08:39,450 --> 00:08:46,739 Um, and so often we talk about hoards, um, or treasures having more than one object because, um, seeing two objects, uh, 92 00:08:46,740 --> 00:08:53,729 is a more reliable way of trying to determine intentionality in the deposit rather than just one which could be deposit intentional. 93 00:08:53,730 --> 00:08:59,940 Um, intentionally, but we kind of are lacking epistemological access to that in many cases, unless it's very big and very obvious. 94 00:09:00,570 --> 00:09:00,930 Yeah. 95 00:09:01,230 --> 00:09:09,690 Another point is that, um, if recovery was presumably intended, um, for a certain kind of hoard, um, perhaps some deposited for safekeeping purposes, 96 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:18,989 um, and non recovery of that hoard may in fact be intentional or unintentional so people can abandon the things that they buried for various reasons. 97 00:09:18,990 --> 00:09:24,420 Coins that are deposited in a hoard, for example, might become monetarily worthless after a coinage reform. 98 00:09:24,750 --> 00:09:32,130 Or the classic unintentional example is, uh, people depositing their values having to an abandoned the city because of external pressures, 99 00:09:32,370 --> 00:09:39,089 um, warfare, any kinds of threats like this, um, so they never get to return to recover them or they simply lose them to. 100 00:09:39,090 --> 00:09:43,380 It's also possible. So yeah, we're covering lots of different things here. 101 00:09:43,860 --> 00:09:48,179 And so then we might ask, well, what why is this something really worth interrogating? 102 00:09:48,180 --> 00:09:54,870 Because this seems like a topic that is, in fact, potentially so large that it might be, um, questionable whether it's, it's worth, 103 00:09:54,870 --> 00:10:02,490 uh, um, not splitting it down into smaller into smaller subjects or if we're really talking about a coherent unit of analysis. 104 00:10:03,030 --> 00:10:10,560 Um, but I would say that something about having having worked on treasure, um, for some time, um, I, I felt, um, 105 00:10:10,830 --> 00:10:17,850 it was something that, again, had a sort of, um, air of, um, spectacle in the generality, um, in, in archaeology. 106 00:10:18,210 --> 00:10:20,640 But actually treasures are important for these kind of reasons. 107 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:25,500 First, um, they are often just a source of incredible finds that really don't usually survive. 108 00:10:25,500 --> 00:10:29,550 Typical object biographies of use recycling and find discard. 109 00:10:29,760 --> 00:10:36,180 So like the classic example of um metal hoards for example, of um, precious metals like silver and gold, um, 110 00:10:36,180 --> 00:10:40,409 metal doesn't really survive through the archaeological record terribly well because people like to recycle it, 111 00:10:40,410 --> 00:10:42,510 for example, and melt it down and make new things. 112 00:10:42,810 --> 00:10:49,680 And so this is sort of a typical, um, thing that sort of, you know, uh, disrupts the flow of objects into the archaeological record. 113 00:10:49,950 --> 00:10:53,010 And with hoards, we somehow have different access to this kind of material. 114 00:10:53,430 --> 00:11:01,350 And so when we look more closely, it finds that it deposited usually sometimes in relatively good condition, with important exceptions. 115 00:11:01,710 --> 00:11:04,920 Uh, we can benefit from closer analysis of these finds in many ways. 116 00:11:04,920 --> 00:11:09,750 So we can do more technical analysis like so argument track, uh, kinds of analysis. 117 00:11:10,050 --> 00:11:12,540 Um, look at manufacturing provenance. 118 00:11:12,540 --> 00:11:18,930 We can also have more sources for compreender for doing, uh, classification or typological art historical studies. 119 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:22,980 So, you know, hoards a providing some of the good material for us. 120 00:11:23,430 --> 00:11:30,330 Um, what's also in treasure to say, um, can also inform us about various social, racial and economic and historical phenomena. 121 00:11:30,540 --> 00:11:34,650 So just to be very brief, for example, they can tell us about practices of safekeeping. 122 00:11:34,860 --> 00:11:39,990 They can tell us about forms of ritual activity. They can tell us about patterns of monetary circulation. 123 00:11:40,190 --> 00:11:45,060 When you look at coin hoard, so which coins are circulating around the same time and when? 124 00:11:45,450 --> 00:11:52,560 Um, we can think about possible relations between unrecovered deposits of valuables and periods of unrest, although that's a controversial topic. 125 00:11:53,100 --> 00:11:58,890 Um, but what's important is that while we have these great benefits of looking at this material, realising this capacity. 126 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:08,280 Um, it implies the necessity to interpret the context and the nature of these deposits, which in turn then depends on what data we have available. 127 00:12:08,850 --> 00:12:14,669 So the problem is that many famous treasures, yeah, so to speak, are chance finds. 128 00:12:14,670 --> 00:12:19,860 Um, so the classic thing that you will find in the news on the BBC, um, you know, um, uh, 129 00:12:19,890 --> 00:12:23,879 or detectorists have found something like this, you know, um, a result of illicit excavation. 130 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:29,340 Sometimes treasures are often chance finds and or a relatively poorly documented. 131 00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:32,610 And so that's kind of one of the main challenges that we have with this kind of material. 132 00:12:33,270 --> 00:12:38,790 So this brings me actually relatively nicely into our next sort of historical context we're going to think about, 133 00:12:38,790 --> 00:12:42,929 which is, um, the Kushan Empire, which is, uh, depicted here on this map. 134 00:12:42,930 --> 00:12:48,209 Um, it's rough, uh, boundaries at its greatest extent in the second century C.E. and this is, um, 135 00:12:48,210 --> 00:12:56,520 briefly put a post nomadic empire in southern Central Asia and North and South Asia, uh, so stretching for about three centuries, 136 00:12:56,520 --> 00:13:03,089 um, uh, you know, from the very beginning to the end of it and really, this was in many ways sort of a capture an empire that, 137 00:13:03,090 --> 00:13:07,469 um, sat on top of, you know, pre-existing structures and administration and society. 138 00:13:07,470 --> 00:13:14,400 And so it's, uh, um, I think there's not so much more I need to explain now about that, but it's just, uh, this is the historical context. 139 00:13:15,300 --> 00:13:19,709 And if we look more closely, Bagram, you would say it was located right here in the middle, 140 00:13:19,710 --> 00:13:23,970 uh, in the region part of Miss Die or Kapisa in the smaller region. 141 00:13:24,300 --> 00:13:28,410 And this became an important city in the Kushan Empire, as we would understand it. 142 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:33,900 Um, so this area, as you can see, um, it had rich agricultural, pastoral and mineral resources. 143 00:13:33,900 --> 00:13:39,210 It was in this, uh, uh, plain, relatively fertile, um, in this sort of Piedmont zone. 144 00:13:39,540 --> 00:13:42,689 Uh, it perhaps it hosted the royal court and some, um, it's a long story, 145 00:13:42,690 --> 00:13:47,400 but perhaps also then politically and ceremonial important, um, was also the seat of a local governor. 146 00:13:47,700 --> 00:13:52,200 And it was also the location of the main copper, one of the main copper mines of the Kushan Empire, one of the most active ones. 147 00:13:52,200 --> 00:13:56,580 So, um, this is, uh, really sort of important area for many reasons. 148 00:13:56,910 --> 00:14:01,319 And it's been also investigated, um, intermittently, but for rather a long time. 149 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:04,830 So relatively early in the 19th century, for example, um, 150 00:14:05,050 --> 00:14:10,110 the we know there was early antiquarian activity there, picking up some 80,000 coins on the plain here. 151 00:14:10,110 --> 00:14:14,640 So quite densely settled, lots of things going on, a wealthy, prosperous place. 152 00:14:15,630 --> 00:14:23,520 So the reason Bagram is so famous in archaeological, uh, literature is because of its work, um, at the site by the delegation, 153 00:14:23,520 --> 00:14:29,850 um, the French archaeological delegation, Afghanistan, uh, who did um, excavations there between the 30s and 40s, 154 00:14:30,090 --> 00:14:35,850 but is especially famous for the, uh, the excavations led by, uh, um, under the directorship of Joseph Aitken, uh, 155 00:14:35,850 --> 00:14:42,870 especially the so-called a side of shanty or two, uh, this so-called new royal city, this southern tapa here at Bagram. 156 00:14:42,870 --> 00:14:47,609 And so here are the excavators to, um, what is very unfortunate is that, um, 157 00:14:47,610 --> 00:14:52,950 all three of the lead excavators, in fact, uh, died in 1941 after the conclusion of the excavation. 158 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:57,570 So, uh, there's very problematic data surrounding it, but I can talk more about that in a minute. 159 00:14:58,140 --> 00:15:07,110 So essentially, um, this is the culprit. We have a very, uh, large, um, earliest structure, um, at this, um, at this, uh, you know, working site two. 160 00:15:07,350 --> 00:15:14,610 And what we've got here is, um, you can see a plan that collapses and includes sort of multiple phases of, um, construction. 161 00:15:14,610 --> 00:15:21,240 This is a later colour. We don't need to talk about this. Um, this is, you know, uh, later rebuilding on top of it, which complicates the picture. 162 00:15:21,510 --> 00:15:25,230 But what we're really focusing on in here, um, you can see the middle part here. 163 00:15:25,500 --> 00:15:33,470 So, um, we have room ten, room 13, and a room T, and this is also another view of the site and what was, um, significant here. 164 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:38,760 I think you can probably just say, um, is that these doorways, when needed to be blocked off, 165 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:45,090 um, with mud bricks and, um, also doubling walls here, um, indicated on the plan. 166 00:15:45,390 --> 00:15:50,520 Um, but the documentation of these actual blockages is extremely limited in date, but they did exist in some form. 167 00:15:51,060 --> 00:15:54,990 Um, so room ten and 13 was sealed, apparently in these various ways. 168 00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:58,440 There was a corridor here, and apparently room T was unsealed. So. 169 00:15:58,530 --> 00:15:59,670 Okay. That's interesting. 170 00:16:00,240 --> 00:16:07,260 Um, so the main material from back from the so-called background here derives from famously these two rooms here in the middle, so ten and 13. 171 00:16:07,590 --> 00:16:16,150 And, um, it had really sort of exceptional material, uh, from all over the world at the time between the first of all centuries A.D. 172 00:16:16,440 --> 00:16:23,280 So we've famously got, you know, Roman glass and bronzes, uh, we've got these large, uh, brass, uh, dishes as well. 173 00:16:23,610 --> 00:16:26,909 Um, we have a word. Ostrich edge in the form of cups. 174 00:16:26,910 --> 00:16:32,760 We've got, um, um, this, um, mobile aquarium which has moving fins, you know, 175 00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:37,140 a very unique object that was probably imported from the the Roman Mediterranean world. 176 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:43,790 Uh, we have alabaster vessels and porphyry in the next room, and famously, this ivory, uh, furniture, 177 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:48,930 um, that is presumably, uh, from around the, I would say central to West India produce there. 178 00:16:48,930 --> 00:16:56,340 Originally we have footstools, as you can see here, indicated in this rough plan, which, uh, looks more accurate than in fact, it is. 179 00:16:56,700 --> 00:17:02,240 Uh, but it's kind of a reconstruction. Okay. You can see that dispersed around this room, and they should be the blockages. 180 00:17:02,510 --> 00:17:05,930 And these were published in this excavation volume here very rapidly in date. 181 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:11,420 Then we have in room 13, uh, excavated, uh, just a scant two years later. 182 00:17:11,660 --> 00:17:15,980 Uh, all these, uh, plaster casts again from the, um, Roman world. 183 00:17:16,340 --> 00:17:24,080 Um, we have, uh, lack aware vessels from Han China, which are really exceptional, um, and relatively poorly preserved. 184 00:17:24,090 --> 00:17:29,870 We have porphyry vessels, again, more ivory furniture, rock crystal, perhaps locally made vessels, 185 00:17:30,260 --> 00:17:35,960 um, more, uh, Roman, um bronze statue rises, um, and Greco Egyptian god. 186 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:41,870 And we have also detached elements from pieces of um composite articles of metal wear and also, 187 00:17:41,870 --> 00:17:46,460 um, quite, you know, exceptional pieces of um, ceramic production, probably from northern India. 188 00:17:46,760 --> 00:17:50,150 So this is already a lot of really, um, significant material. 189 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:54,390 Um, and of course, extremely exciting, a completely unique, uh, when it was discovered. 190 00:17:54,410 --> 00:17:56,900 Um, so it was a huge deal. 191 00:17:57,050 --> 00:18:05,600 And then in this last room, which is sort of less, um, well studied or acknowledged, we also do actually have a large number of similar objects. 192 00:18:05,600 --> 00:18:13,340 So, um, but more restricted in content. So like detached elements from metalwork and some statuettes, things like this also found in room tea. 193 00:18:13,670 --> 00:18:17,090 Um, and they were also excavated a little bit later by Roman Gershman to. 194 00:18:17,090 --> 00:18:22,850 But I'll come back to that in a minute. So essentially, as I just said, what we have here at Bagram, um, 195 00:18:22,850 --> 00:18:29,630 immediately appearing is incredible objects demonstrating the vast connectivity of the world in the early centuries of the common era. 196 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:34,280 Um, but the main problem is that we have very, very serious limitations in these data. 197 00:18:34,730 --> 00:18:38,300 So to again, say very briefly, these were not modern excavations. 198 00:18:38,330 --> 00:18:45,080 Um, by any standards, I don't think they were really even particularly methodologically, uh, groundbreaking for the 1930s. 199 00:18:45,290 --> 00:18:50,300 But that being said, they are idiosyncratic, but do follow their own sort of logical consistency. 200 00:18:50,420 --> 00:18:53,990 So it's possible to do something with them, but you just sort of have to know how they're working. 201 00:18:54,560 --> 00:19:02,090 As I mentioned before, we also have the death of the main excavators in 1941, which impacted the publication of this material in many ways. 202 00:19:02,540 --> 00:19:07,310 Uh, we also have limited provided information about the flying context specifically of this material. 203 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:15,080 Uh, we have also these final plans were only drawn later dispersed for the publication, as there was no final synthesis until I, 204 00:19:15,500 --> 00:19:20,660 uh, really brought it together in my dissertation out of, um, with, which took a lot of energy. 205 00:19:20,990 --> 00:19:24,070 Uh, the fines were also split between Paris and Kabul, which makes, um, 206 00:19:24,080 --> 00:19:27,560 studying the material in a holistic way also more difficult, but understandable. 207 00:19:28,100 --> 00:19:31,640 Um, and there are also some serious mistakes in the actual publication record. 208 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:36,770 Um, so, for example, I noticed, um, during my archive research them during the publication, 209 00:19:36,770 --> 00:19:40,940 all the fine spots for fines from 1940 were shifted and nobody ever noticed. 210 00:19:41,540 --> 00:19:48,290 So indications in the catalogue. So then very briefly, um, so what do people have, what have they been debating about the background hoard. 211 00:19:48,620 --> 00:19:52,700 So the main questions are really um two. 212 00:19:52,710 --> 00:19:56,420 So the first one is date and the date of the hoard when it was deposited. 213 00:19:56,810 --> 00:20:01,129 And it refers to two dominant positions, um, that have been in the literature. 214 00:20:01,130 --> 00:20:04,940 And so this is mostly said in reference to the compreender for the hoard objects. 215 00:20:05,270 --> 00:20:08,390 Um, which is problematic because many of them are extremely unusual. 216 00:20:08,660 --> 00:20:14,030 Uh, it usually don't pay much attention to context because we don't have much data, although we don't have none for sure. 217 00:20:14,420 --> 00:20:20,150 And also, the debate often just ignores, uh, gosh. Months later, proposed date for the end of the relevant archaeological phase. 218 00:20:20,540 --> 00:20:22,340 So it's a little bit of a mess. 219 00:20:22,350 --> 00:20:29,150 Um, but essentially the two positions, uh, the late date, like the late long date or the earlier, shorter date in various iterations. 220 00:20:29,420 --> 00:20:37,160 And, uh, this is the one that I actually do think is correct. But this is interesting because this early date was very dominant in recent scholarship. 221 00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:44,630 And, um, you'd often find arguments that, well, these, uh, you know, deposited in the same, uh, find as this other thing which is relatively datable. 222 00:20:44,810 --> 00:20:47,900 And therefore we can date the unusual thing by virtue of this thing. 223 00:20:48,200 --> 00:20:53,240 And actually, it just really doesn't seem that they can really fall into a narrow chronological frame. 224 00:20:53,570 --> 00:21:00,729 So. Okay. Um. The other thing about the background horde is the question of its nature. 225 00:21:00,730 --> 00:21:07,750 So what is it? And I will say that it's been called, variously, a treasure rich resource since the 1930s by various people. 226 00:21:08,170 --> 00:21:12,280 Um, and that's why we also find it in English called the background hoard to a background treasure. 227 00:21:12,550 --> 00:21:19,930 But we, interestingly, have only a few very brief explanations as to what was really happening at this site and what led to this, um, situation. 228 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:26,040 So the first, uh, the main two interpretations, again, uh, either it was a glacial treasure, uh, 229 00:21:26,050 --> 00:21:32,379 that was deposited in anticipation of a putative Sassanian invasion in the mid third century, say, or another moment of crisis. 230 00:21:32,380 --> 00:21:37,150 And it was never recovered. So meant for safekeeping associated with the palace. 231 00:21:37,510 --> 00:21:43,990 Um, and, you know, never recovered. Okay. So the other ideas that it could be a by-product of transit trade through Bagram. 232 00:21:44,020 --> 00:21:50,170 Um, so, for example, representing customs duties, um, extracted in kind from luxury trade passing through the site. 233 00:21:50,500 --> 00:21:53,260 Um, the idea was already mooted by Wheeler in the mid 20th century. 234 00:21:53,650 --> 00:22:00,910 Um, also more recently, a popular interpretation was that it was a merchant's cache of goods intended for distribution along the so-called Silk Road. 235 00:22:01,090 --> 00:22:04,950 And then for some reason, abandoned or compounded or something like this. 236 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:12,430 It's not really ever explained. And, uh, one thing that was used to support that, um, that argument by Mandalay was, uh, 237 00:22:12,430 --> 00:22:17,380 the lack of precious metal objects, um, to be a point against a palatial interpretation. 238 00:22:17,650 --> 00:22:19,420 So I'll come back to that, like shortly. 239 00:22:19,420 --> 00:22:25,420 But basically, I will note that this has been very influential in the last decades, and I'm afraid that I also do think it's wrong. 240 00:22:25,870 --> 00:22:33,520 So anyway, I'll come back to that shortly. Um, just briefly for now, um, we can see some of the kind of main implications arising from this. 241 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:39,580 So number one, um, we have to ask, what does this fine, then tell us about if we don't know what the nature of this deposit is. 242 00:22:39,760 --> 00:22:46,450 Does it tell us about transit trade patterns? Does it tell us about the taste of local elites, or does it tell us about something else also? 243 00:22:46,450 --> 00:22:52,000 Or does it tell us about some of those ways and overlapping some of those matters and in overlapping ways? 244 00:22:52,510 --> 00:22:56,800 Um, the other question is, are these interpretations actually convincing? 245 00:22:57,100 --> 00:23:01,209 Um, did anyone really put any effort into, uh, to arguing them in a serious way? 246 00:23:01,210 --> 00:23:06,580 And I would say, in fact, not really. Um, and we'll see this as a similar pattern, um, somewhat later. 247 00:23:07,060 --> 00:23:11,080 And then the third question related to that is how have others dealt with similar problems, 248 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:15,130 um, in archaeological research, because it was clear to me that, 249 00:23:15,550 --> 00:23:21,910 you know, um, these kinds of questions weren't being raised, um, very often in this field, um, in Central Asian archaeology. 250 00:23:22,300 --> 00:23:26,350 Um, even though we have a very sophisticated work that talks about coin hoards and things like this, 251 00:23:26,530 --> 00:23:33,760 background is I think it was seen as something unique and, um, something that wasn't really that didn't really need to be explained in some way. 252 00:23:34,180 --> 00:23:39,249 And so then I was very happy to learn, um, throughout my studies, that, in fact, 253 00:23:39,250 --> 00:23:44,290 people in other fields of archaeology have thought about the topic of treasure and hoards and things like this a great deal, 254 00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:51,590 and so I can benefit from them instead. Um, so the two main sort of fields I kept coming back to for various reasons, uh, 255 00:23:51,610 --> 00:23:56,679 but probably because then and then feel most relevant their findings to what I was thinking about with background, 256 00:23:56,680 --> 00:24:00,970 but also, um, because they kind of had some interesting, like, similar trajectories but also diverged. 257 00:24:01,390 --> 00:24:05,650 Um, I'm talking about Bronze Age, um, hoards in Bronze Age or prehistoric Europe. 258 00:24:05,650 --> 00:24:10,210 So often they talked about together a little bit separately and also coin hoards and numismatics. 259 00:24:10,570 --> 00:24:15,340 So in the Bronze Age, um, this just refers to the ubiquitous deposits of bronze artefacts. 260 00:24:15,340 --> 00:24:18,940 We find, um, very, very much everywhere ubiquitous. 261 00:24:18,940 --> 00:24:23,889 Right. Um, and this can, uh, refer to a variety of, um, certain kinds of objects. 262 00:24:23,890 --> 00:24:27,700 So it can be, um, whole objects can be fragmented objects. 263 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,660 We can include also uncaused, uh, metal, waste metal. 264 00:24:31,870 --> 00:24:39,370 And these can be found deposited in various, um, very, um, different kinds of contexts, including many non retrievable locations like bodies of water. 265 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:44,660 Um, so what's good about that, um, body of scholarship is that it has a very strong theoretical basis. 266 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:51,080 It's developed over more than 150 years. And, uh, it navigates often also pretty poor quality data. 267 00:24:51,100 --> 00:24:56,200 Um, because of the nature of these chance finds. Um, and the second point, um, point is about coin hoards. 268 00:24:56,210 --> 00:25:01,930 Um, there are various kinds of these are known as found in pots, bags, holes, things like this, but not exclusively. 269 00:25:01,930 --> 00:25:07,600 And I'll just come back to that shortly because, um, that will make more sense, so to speak, 270 00:25:07,600 --> 00:25:14,890 briefly about how scholarship on classifications of hoards from the Bronze Age and study, um, these holds in the framework of prehistoric Europe. 271 00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:19,780 Um classification attempts basically start since around the mid 19th century already. 272 00:25:20,070 --> 00:25:27,070 And uh, the traditionally looking towards ritual versus utilitarian um interpretations according to the contents and so in place. 273 00:25:27,340 --> 00:25:34,659 Um, so this is the main sort of thing that permeates uh, through, um, much of this scholarship for decades, um, throughout the 20th century. 274 00:25:34,660 --> 00:25:41,590 Uh, we then have further classifications developed so people start to pass apart more, uh, what these, uh, items could mean. 275 00:25:41,890 --> 00:25:47,230 So we have now talking about, uh, votive offerings, uh, personal valuables, even in times of danger, 276 00:25:47,410 --> 00:25:53,100 traders hoards for convenient and safe storage of wares and the remnants of smithing activity, for example. 277 00:25:53,110 --> 00:25:57,140 So these are some categories that start to be more defined based on, uh, interpret. 278 00:25:57,210 --> 00:26:03,280 Rotation of the content of this material. Unfortunately, sometimes these seem to have depended very much on faulty assumptions. 279 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:08,690 So I thinking of an article written by Hanson 2016, which talked about these, uh, so-called projects. 280 00:26:08,700 --> 00:26:12,659 What uh, um, they were earlier alleged to be related to, uh, 281 00:26:12,660 --> 00:26:16,620 smoothing activity rather than voting vote of activity, and now they're seen as more vote of activity. 282 00:26:16,620 --> 00:26:17,850 So. Okay. 283 00:26:18,360 --> 00:26:25,170 Um, and another thing that, um, is clear is that there are also very interesting regional divergences in scholarship in class victory schemes. 284 00:26:25,470 --> 00:26:30,330 Um, despite dealing with rather similar evidence, that was a problem in the 20th century, too. 285 00:26:31,110 --> 00:26:37,860 Um, another point that I'd like to add is that it was also a frequent assumption in the literature of hoards containing contemporaneous objects. 286 00:26:38,190 --> 00:26:42,630 Um, and therefore they would be useful for dating these objects and creating a typology. 287 00:26:42,900 --> 00:26:47,400 Right. So this reminds of the issue with the background hoarding dating back to on the basis of its material. 288 00:26:47,820 --> 00:26:50,340 Uh, the problem is that this is definitely not a rule of thumb. 289 00:26:50,370 --> 00:26:59,070 Um, especially when people are depositing objects in, uh, in hoards or treasures, according to, um, you know, divergent selective criteria. 290 00:26:59,250 --> 00:27:02,820 Uh, for example, you can deposit an heirloom that might be hundreds of years old. 291 00:27:03,060 --> 00:27:05,969 And so this kind of, uh, thing is being hard to prove. 292 00:27:05,970 --> 00:27:13,500 Um, uh, well, in many ways, um, without strong typological basis, but our key metric analysis or scientific analysis, um, uh, 293 00:27:13,500 --> 00:27:22,080 compositional analysis, um, uh, archaeological dating, um, so scientific dating is a useful for intervening in these kinds of problems. 294 00:27:22,470 --> 00:27:28,800 And we can find many examples where points include objects that are much older than the final sort of date of the deposition. 295 00:27:29,670 --> 00:27:36,629 So, uh, then we have more even, um, perhaps useful or applicable frameworks begin to be developed with from a more regional perspective. 296 00:27:36,630 --> 00:27:40,380 So they seem to be more successful when, um, you're thinking sort of more specifically, 297 00:27:40,740 --> 00:27:44,129 uh, so for example, um, that, uh, I remember Janet Levy's book, 298 00:27:44,130 --> 00:27:50,340 um, had this sort of useful approach for distinguishing between ritual and non ritual hoards in the framework of Bronze Age Denmark. 299 00:27:50,670 --> 00:27:53,760 Um, and so she observed, uh, polarities in the following categories. 300 00:27:53,760 --> 00:27:58,140 So location, the types of objects, the condition and arrangement of objects. 301 00:27:58,560 --> 00:28:04,320 And so um, under location, um, we can think about some things as ritual and some things looked more non ritual. 302 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:10,560 So ritual might be things um, with uh places, um deposits in places with limited retrieve ability. 303 00:28:10,890 --> 00:28:19,950 Um, non ritual um, might be dry or marked, places we might seen ritual deposit um objects like ornaments, weapons and ceremonial objects. 304 00:28:20,130 --> 00:28:23,790 In non ritual we might see a broader range of types, tools and raw materials. 305 00:28:24,090 --> 00:28:29,820 Uh, and for the condition arrangement objects for ritual, we might see complete or near complete objects formally arranged. 306 00:28:30,180 --> 00:28:33,629 Um, and non rich, we might say fragmented, damaged and broken objects. 307 00:28:33,630 --> 00:28:40,260 But again this is not a prescriptive rule of thumb. Uh, it was contextually developed, uh, for certain region. 308 00:28:40,620 --> 00:28:45,960 And then indeed, uh, in, um, this uh, landmark work by Richard Bradley, 1990. 309 00:28:46,230 --> 00:28:52,500 Uh, contextual approaches, um, became really, um, fully advocated to exploring this phenomenon, um, as well as, 310 00:28:52,500 --> 00:28:58,530 um, the beginning to more seriously problematise ritual versus utilitarian classifications of a strict dichotomy. 311 00:28:58,980 --> 00:29:05,280 Um, so, um, in Bradley's work, he tracks the distribution patterns of these similar kinds of holds over land and water scapes. 312 00:29:05,580 --> 00:29:09,810 And he problematise is dry and wet versus utilitarian and ritual dichotomies. 313 00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:14,880 Um, later. Also, um, is it a more general perspective on hoards in ancient Europe? 314 00:29:15,210 --> 00:29:19,890 He also, um, I found, amusingly, he noted, uh, typical anecdotal explanations of hoards. 315 00:29:20,280 --> 00:29:26,729 Um, so this is when you read, for example, um, somebodys, um, three sentence speculation about a treasure that, oh, 316 00:29:26,730 --> 00:29:35,340 it would probably belong to a wealthy Roman landowner, um, or, uh, and then there was an invasion and it was buried, and he never came back. 317 00:29:35,550 --> 00:29:40,170 So things like this, um, that don't really offer much more, uh, sort of substantive detail. 318 00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:46,620 And these anecdotal explanations can become, you know, very, um, um, uh, very colourful sometimes too. 319 00:29:46,620 --> 00:29:56,099 And it's sort of a funny quirk of this scholarship. Um, otherwise, uh, um, the, um, book challenges also purely practical explanations of hoards now. 320 00:29:56,100 --> 00:30:02,940 So, um, really the wonder of, um, whether these really are utilitarian in many ways at all or practical, um, 321 00:30:02,940 --> 00:30:09,450 pointing to the predictable locations of their deposition and as combined with their, uh, frequency of survival. 322 00:30:09,450 --> 00:30:12,330 So I had some data on that which I think is productive. 323 00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:17,460 Um, and then essentially, what seems to emerge in literature is a strong association with ritual activity. 324 00:30:17,670 --> 00:30:21,180 But again, the ritual utilitarian dichotomy also continues to be broken down. 325 00:30:22,080 --> 00:30:26,190 In the meantime, some more recent approaches include, uh, these kinds of work. 326 00:30:26,190 --> 00:30:34,019 So we have, um, some more turns to, uh, um, more theoretical approaches to the formation of hoards, 327 00:30:34,020 --> 00:30:38,820 um, as entire assemblages and biographical approaches, for example, have been quite popular. 328 00:30:39,090 --> 00:30:43,200 Um, thinking about the context arrangement formations of these hoards, looking at things like use, 329 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:48,180 wear, repairs and fragmentation of objects to tell a story about their accumulation in the deposition. 330 00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:56,700 Um, and then also even more recently, we seem to find more approaches attempting to um, sort of theoretically, actually also technically blend both. 331 00:30:56,850 --> 00:31:02,400 Actual and utilitarian aspects of this. Uh. Um, you know, of, of this, uh, interpretation in this discourse. 332 00:31:02,730 --> 00:31:07,020 So, um, for example, Fontaine's uh, book um, explores that. 333 00:31:07,020 --> 00:31:10,110 So quantum is a distraction, explores the role of value, um, 334 00:31:10,110 --> 00:31:15,059 in these practices more broadly and argues that practice creates cultural value by transforming economic 335 00:31:15,060 --> 00:31:20,160 value and maintaining a balance between short term individual actions and long term social and moral order. 336 00:31:20,160 --> 00:31:22,710 So also kind of a response to crisis. 337 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:30,389 Um, and it can be, you know, this is um, pointing to, of course, a ritualised kind of behaviour, but it could also have, um, utilitarian aspects too. 338 00:31:30,390 --> 00:31:35,280 I mean, this is uh, um, and sort of encompassing definition or approach. 339 00:31:35,700 --> 00:31:41,999 Um, and then we have also more recently kind of a socio technological study, um, considering communities of practice via geometric analyses. 340 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:46,080 And then finally, in playing um, this article in nature that just came out relatively recently. 341 00:31:46,530 --> 00:31:53,010 So that's kind of the landscape. Um, otherwise thinking about treasure in other fields, uh, we can think about coin hoards too. 342 00:31:53,370 --> 00:31:58,739 Um, so I will note that coin hoards often aren't actually just knockoff and sometimes aren't just coin hoards. 343 00:31:58,740 --> 00:32:05,070 They also can contain other objects too. Um, but that's, um, you know, something that's, uh, worth seeing on a case by case basis. 344 00:32:05,490 --> 00:32:12,750 And of course, there is a large volume of scholarship from the, uh, 20th century onwards that explores how to, um, interpret coin hoards. 345 00:32:12,750 --> 00:32:17,069 But I must say there is a very strong tendency towards utilitarian interpretations, because, 346 00:32:17,070 --> 00:32:21,600 of course, uh, these are usually viewed from a monetary perspective, uh, by numismatists. 347 00:32:22,140 --> 00:32:27,959 Uh, so classifications were developed in the 20th century and then usually based on the content, because coin holds very much, 348 00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:34,020 often do not have, uh, a real reported archaeological context or documented in any meaningful way. 349 00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:38,729 Um, of course, they discovered during excavations, but, uh, very commonly, um, as a result of, 350 00:32:38,730 --> 00:32:44,040 you know, uh, digging in your backyard, um, illicit excavations, metal detecting, things like this. 351 00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:48,180 So a lot of coin hoards don't really have meaningful context. So people look at a lot of contents. 352 00:32:48,570 --> 00:32:54,149 Um, so Grierson, for example, um, divided hallways between accidental light losses of hoards. 353 00:32:54,150 --> 00:33:03,840 So, uh, emergency one, savings ones, um, and then abandoned ones, uh, Casey and 96 are struck the the context of abandoned. 354 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:12,600 Um, and then we have, for example in um Richard racist work in 1987, uh, who thoroughly criticised the whole enterprise and principle. 355 00:33:12,900 --> 00:33:17,520 Um, but um, of the of the validity of these kinds of classifications based on contents. 356 00:33:17,730 --> 00:33:22,830 And for example, one issue that was raised was that, uh epistemologically, um, 357 00:33:23,130 --> 00:33:28,500 distinguishing between so-called emergency and personal IDs, uh, via content relatively impossible. 358 00:33:29,130 --> 00:33:35,100 Uh, at the same time, we also have, um, attempts to correlate the known recovery of coin hoards, 359 00:33:35,100 --> 00:33:38,790 uh, with, uh, known instances of historical wars or to, 360 00:33:39,090 --> 00:33:45,600 um, or to assume them from, uh, the distribution of, like a large number of, uh, known recovered coin hoards. 361 00:33:45,900 --> 00:33:50,250 Um, but the validity of this approach has been sort of debated. Um, yes and no. 362 00:33:50,250 --> 00:33:56,400 And, uh, it seems like it may well be, but it's sort of an open question in case by case basis and requires pretty good data. 363 00:33:57,210 --> 00:34:01,470 Um, and will briefly note about depositional behaviour, about the practice of actually, 364 00:34:01,470 --> 00:34:06,480 um, uh, how to say, um, depositing uh, things like coin hoards in the ground. 365 00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:11,220 Uh, the classic example that is cited for this, um, is the dyer Samuel Pepys. 366 00:34:11,580 --> 00:34:16,409 Um, so, um, if of course, um, what happens in this, in this text is that, um, 367 00:34:16,410 --> 00:34:20,850 when the Dutch fleet is advancing up the Thames to extract gold coins from his wealth in London, 368 00:34:21,060 --> 00:34:25,620 and he has it sent back to his, um, for his wife to bury on the family estate in Northamptonshire. 369 00:34:26,070 --> 00:34:33,270 Um, but later it was recovered with some difficulty, um, because the bag had rotted and he couldn't really find out where his wife buried it, so. 370 00:34:33,270 --> 00:34:38,700 Well, um, so easily. Um, so that is sort of a classic example that people point to when they talk about the practice of, 371 00:34:38,700 --> 00:34:42,240 of like concealing your wealth for later recovery in times of crisis. 372 00:34:42,630 --> 00:34:47,880 Uh, but I will note that, um, uh, Aitchison, for example, considers the analogy invalid for antiquity. 373 00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:51,750 Um, considering the specific social and economic context of Restoration England. 374 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:58,830 So we'll come back to that, um, a little bit later. Um, of course, clean water can also be associated very strongly with ritual activity. 375 00:34:59,070 --> 00:35:03,810 So in the 80s onwards, we see an increasing acknowledgement of the ritual associations of coin hoards. 376 00:35:04,170 --> 00:35:07,440 Uh, so, for example, all that picture is gone a bit too large. Well, here we go. 377 00:35:07,770 --> 00:35:15,509 Uh, we have, uh, you know, everyone can think of examples of, um, people throwing coins into wells as some kind of a ritual practice. 378 00:35:15,510 --> 00:35:20,159 Um, broadly staters, um, we also see, uh, coins deposited into springs, too. 379 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:26,760 So, um, this is some kind of, um, uh, this is a practice that is, uh, not, um, in fact, so remarkable. 380 00:35:27,060 --> 00:35:35,280 Uh, the Frome Hoard as well was also, um, determined to be, uh, how to say, um, a product of, uh, ritual activity for many reasons. 381 00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:39,629 And I recall that, um, one reason was that it was, uh, far too heavy to ever retrieve, 382 00:35:39,630 --> 00:35:44,190 uh, without, um, having, um, without breaking the jar and destroying it. 383 00:35:44,190 --> 00:35:45,929 And so you can say this is when we have, 384 00:35:45,930 --> 00:35:52,110 like an excavated context for to some degree and they've done a micro excavation of the coin layers to try and understand the process of, 385 00:35:52,110 --> 00:35:55,950 um, deposition, which is fantastic, a very high quality, uh, standard of data. 386 00:35:56,490 --> 00:36:05,770 Um. And so, um, there's also, um, etchings work about, um, deposits in hoards, um, in, you know, various funerary and, uh, ritualistic, uh, context. 387 00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:10,870 Um, and it's interesting because they show selectivity, but not always according to monetary criteria. 388 00:36:11,110 --> 00:36:15,670 So this is sort of interesting, acknowledging the fact that coin hoards can very much have ritual functions to, 389 00:36:15,970 --> 00:36:19,270 um, which has implications that, I must admit, don't really seem usually. 390 00:36:19,270 --> 00:36:25,720 Uh, uh, so, um, openly noted, um, in classic studies of coin hoards by numismatists. 391 00:36:25,750 --> 00:36:32,709 Um, so, okay, um, so to turn back to Bagram, um, to make some brief comments about, um, like, you know, 392 00:36:32,710 --> 00:36:37,830 what I was thinking about, like, reflecting on this literature and, uh, one thing I did know, for example, 393 00:36:37,830 --> 00:36:43,240 was that, uh, many of the objects in the hoard, despite the, uh, sort of imperfect side of the documentation, 394 00:36:43,450 --> 00:36:48,430 it was very clear that they were deposited in relatively poor, fragmented and incomplete condition. 395 00:36:48,820 --> 00:36:56,260 Um, so, for example, parts of this, uh, ivory chair back out, this back rest, um, seems to have been stored elsewhere somewhere. 396 00:36:56,260 --> 00:37:00,220 First, um, had some plaques fallen out of it, and then they were deposited in the other room. 397 00:37:00,370 --> 00:37:02,559 You know, so first we have action going on in here, 398 00:37:02,560 --> 00:37:08,290 and then we have this being a sort of whether the residue is put or something like this, um, while the door was still unblocked. 399 00:37:08,770 --> 00:37:16,270 So we also have, um, notably missing ships of, um, entire of a otherwise very well preserved vessels like this rock crystal. 400 00:37:16,270 --> 00:37:20,140 Uh, can Ross this cup, um, as well. So just some examples of that. 401 00:37:20,620 --> 00:37:25,329 Um, I also noted, um, the very high diversity of finds, um, in these rooms. 402 00:37:25,330 --> 00:37:32,830 Uh, 1013 and so besides the very well known objects, we also have, uh, numerous fragmented and detached elements from metal. 403 00:37:32,830 --> 00:37:37,270 Works are also highlighted than before. Um, we have some strange glaze pottery. 404 00:37:37,570 --> 00:37:43,810 Um, just a couple of nice examples. Uh, we have some raw materials that carpet, um, coral and a small piece of lapis, 405 00:37:44,050 --> 00:37:48,220 some copper alloy coinage to which, um, turns out was very, very important for, 406 00:37:48,220 --> 00:37:55,810 um, confirming that the deposition date, uh, in fact, occurred after the mid third century A.D., which is rather later than most people believed. 407 00:37:56,290 --> 00:38:00,670 Um, so I was, uh, you know, involved with re identifying those and sort of republishing them. 408 00:38:01,090 --> 00:38:06,159 Uh, we also had some locally made copy vessels and some utensils like, uh, tools in pot and incense burner. 409 00:38:06,160 --> 00:38:09,969 So there are a lot of things going on. Also arrowheads and dagger force and and fitting. 410 00:38:09,970 --> 00:38:14,710 So these are things that already do not fit very well into the model of pristine trade goods that are, 411 00:38:15,010 --> 00:38:18,409 uh, you know, being concealed, um, on, on their way to future destinations. 412 00:38:18,410 --> 00:38:25,450 This is very clear. Yeah. Um, the question of the function of the use of this building and its main phase also, um, 413 00:38:25,450 --> 00:38:29,140 became interesting to me, although it was very hard to reconstruct on the basis of the data. 414 00:38:29,380 --> 00:38:32,500 But we actually do have objects outside of these rooms as well. 415 00:38:32,740 --> 00:38:39,040 Um, so also in the corridor, for example, this bronze element and this, uh, interesting little bronze shrine as well, 416 00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:42,520 that seems to be detached from the larger composite objects that were deposited in here. 417 00:38:42,970 --> 00:38:48,340 And also you read, um, throughout the reports, we have clusters of material throughout other parts of this structure, 418 00:38:48,580 --> 00:38:56,080 including many copper coins, uh, ceramics, and especially goblets, apparently in pretty good condition, um, some spindle halls and loom weights. 419 00:38:56,090 --> 00:38:58,510 So, um, nothing really specific. 420 00:38:58,510 --> 00:39:06,130 It could be, uh, ritual or, um, um, or domestic context, but loom I it's not a big deal because also you can kind of find everywhere, 421 00:39:06,490 --> 00:39:10,140 but we also had, uh, two gold pendants, um, that are mentioned in the literature. 422 00:39:10,150 --> 00:39:14,860 Um, one was probably found around here. Uh, this candelabrum element here I pointed to. 423 00:39:14,860 --> 00:39:20,560 It's a miniature shrine. So things are turning up outside also, uh, these blocked off doors, which is interesting. 424 00:39:20,740 --> 00:39:26,979 So why? Um, I also mentioned before we have different phases of, uh, renovation visible here. 425 00:39:26,980 --> 00:39:33,760 So I would just also note that, uh, you can see, for example, with this plan, uh, we have, um, uh, you know, building additions added on. 426 00:39:33,760 --> 00:39:39,459 And, um, you know, you can say the, the orientation of the walls are different and slightly smaller. 427 00:39:39,460 --> 00:39:42,910 So that's useful for understanding more the history of this, uh, this um, 428 00:39:42,910 --> 00:39:46,959 structure over time and also floor levels that indicated in the archaeological data. 429 00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:51,040 So we seem to have some kind of pseudo stratigraphy and occupation over time happening in this area. 430 00:39:52,060 --> 00:39:57,879 I would also note that in room 13, it was rather special room, because we have at least two layers of wall paintings. 431 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:01,570 And this earlier motive with the colonnade was, um, reported in here. 432 00:40:01,570 --> 00:40:10,090 And you can see one of these pictures and we can see also a second layer up here with some remains of figure figural imagery, which is very exciting. 433 00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:14,470 Um, and then we may ask if this is really actually a domestic context at all. 434 00:40:14,860 --> 00:40:21,309 Um, so I thought for a long time, um, because also nobody else ever really challenged it, um, that, well, it could be read as a domestic context. 435 00:40:21,310 --> 00:40:24,640 And I think you really can if you you can if you want to really insist upon it. 436 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:28,750 Um, so room ten and 13, for example, could be central reception rooms. 437 00:40:29,140 --> 00:40:30,129 Um, and again, 438 00:40:30,130 --> 00:40:36,820 the size of the structure and its position in the city sort of suggests an important and important function as well as all these objects here. 439 00:40:37,210 --> 00:40:40,270 But then we might start to wonder, but does this really make sense? 440 00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:44,530 Uh, so we have rather indirect access to these rooms, for example, 441 00:40:44,530 --> 00:40:48,640 which would be rather strange for reception rooms just to begin with without mentioning all the other issues. 442 00:40:49,090 --> 00:40:54,820 And we might also ask if the ceiling of these certain doors and passages actually make sense from a safekeeping perspective. 443 00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:58,260 So I don't think, uh, anyone. Really ever asked that so much? 444 00:40:58,420 --> 00:41:00,520 Uh, but, uh, you see, we have the doubled up. 445 00:41:00,520 --> 00:41:06,490 Uh, well, here we have this strange feature here, uh, not further down the corridor than it blocked off this much. 446 00:41:06,700 --> 00:41:07,809 This part is blocked off. 447 00:41:07,810 --> 00:41:14,890 It sort of doesn't seem to follow, um, something that you would expect if you were trying to hide reasonably, uh, some material. 448 00:41:15,490 --> 00:41:20,860 Uh, so the question emerged as whether this site two structure could actually refer to a sacred space. 449 00:41:21,220 --> 00:41:24,700 And so, um, it was brought to my attention, a possible parallel from that, 450 00:41:25,090 --> 00:41:30,180 which was a, um, an important, uh, urban site in the Swat Valley, um, in Gandara. 451 00:41:30,250 --> 00:41:32,020 So not so far away, as you can see on the map. 452 00:41:32,440 --> 00:41:38,530 And, uh, it was also originally interpreted as, uh, you know, actually formerly was in fact, uh, residential context. 453 00:41:38,860 --> 00:41:43,300 Uh, but these get transformed in the later part of the city into urban Buddhist cult spaces. 454 00:41:43,630 --> 00:41:52,030 Uh, so including the shrines in the courts with long structures, um, and the back rooms as well, um, comparable perhaps to, uh, the background ones. 455 00:41:52,030 --> 00:41:58,450 Uh, these could be similar back rooms. And uh, one, for example, was even found with deposits of valuables in this kind of room. 456 00:41:58,660 --> 00:42:01,570 So this is actually an extremely promising avenue of inquiry. 457 00:42:01,810 --> 00:42:06,340 Um, already on that basis, even though, um, the situations aren't entirely perfectly parallel. 458 00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:11,860 And I would note also that, I mean, of course, if there was material in this body like this assemblage that, 459 00:42:12,100 --> 00:42:17,860 you know, screamed unquestionably that we're looking at a ritual context, then people would have noticed already. 460 00:42:18,010 --> 00:42:22,210 So there isn't. And that's that's pretty clear. But some could be right in this way. 461 00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:27,760 And so we can think, for example, um, about some material suggesting possible rituals. 462 00:42:28,090 --> 00:42:36,520 Um, for example, uh, we I was inspired by um, uh, and I feel against article on non Buddhist customs of Buddhist people who talked about, 463 00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:45,010 uh, uh, drinking practices, um, and uh, religious festivals were related to wine consumption, um, and drinking in Gandhara. 464 00:42:45,340 --> 00:42:50,860 And so I wonder if, um, you know, if this is really, truly referring to a sacred context, 465 00:42:51,100 --> 00:42:55,250 then, um, this kind of the some of the material background, the high quantity of, uh, 466 00:42:55,270 --> 00:42:59,620 luxury drinking vessels, chairs, footstools, that elaborate furniture, uh, 467 00:42:59,620 --> 00:43:04,870 it recalls kind of similar things to me in this way, not necessarily implying that we're looking at exactly the same thing. 468 00:43:05,740 --> 00:43:11,410 Um, so put very briefly, I would just say, so how would I interpret the background would reflect doing all these things? 469 00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:16,330 Um, I would say, look, we're probably dealing most plausibly with a temple context. 470 00:43:16,330 --> 00:43:20,709 Um, although I think it's a really quite ambiguous material and sort of difficult to be very certain, 471 00:43:20,710 --> 00:43:22,540 but I think that's the most plausible explanation. 472 00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:30,490 And what we're looking at is the series, um, the result of a series of decisions around the abandonment of the city after a long decline. 473 00:43:30,670 --> 00:43:37,090 Um, so this wasn't a sudden abandonment. Um, you know, in the face of the Sassanian army, uh, this is a longer process. 474 00:43:37,090 --> 00:43:42,460 And it was also probably a bit later than everyone expected. Um, except for Gershman, who already predicated that. 475 00:43:42,700 --> 00:43:48,069 But anyway, um, we see the gathering and sorting of, uh, properties and probably offerings. 476 00:43:48,070 --> 00:43:55,630 I would say if this is truly, uh, a temple, it could refer to the material in its treasury or past offerings that had been kept and, uh, stored. 477 00:43:56,050 --> 00:44:01,870 Uh, then we could see the possible removal of items and elements representing a high value, portable, easily convertible. 478 00:44:01,870 --> 00:44:05,740 Well, so, for example, we don't see any precious metal coinage, jewellery plate. 479 00:44:06,070 --> 00:44:10,310 Um, you know, anything much like that, except a few small fragments of, um, 480 00:44:10,330 --> 00:44:14,320 items with gold and silver in this whole assemblage and also outside the area. 481 00:44:14,500 --> 00:44:18,880 So they had access to gold and silver and things like this, but it seems to have been removed. 482 00:44:19,570 --> 00:44:24,040 Moreover, um, then we have the deposition of most of the remaining goods in room 13. 483 00:44:24,070 --> 00:44:30,970 Um, so the selection of this material and then room um, ten and these seem to be carefully and systematically sealed in these two rooms, 484 00:44:31,300 --> 00:44:34,660 uh, following a specific logic and then subsequently abandoned. 485 00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:40,630 And my, my, uh, interpretation of this activity is that we are probably dealing with both in these, 486 00:44:40,690 --> 00:44:45,100 in these respects, ritual and utilitarian considerations, uh, in these series of events. 487 00:44:45,940 --> 00:44:48,670 So I'm just going to wrap up as briefly as I can. 488 00:44:49,210 --> 00:44:56,920 Um, so I started to wonder if they were able to eventually access some universal insights for approaching, uh, treasure archaeologically. 489 00:44:56,920 --> 00:45:00,400 And I think reaching those insights would require a great deal more work. 490 00:45:00,670 --> 00:45:03,640 But, um, here some sort of a kind of a starting point, right. 491 00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:11,770 Um, so I first point, uh, for approaching church archaeologically is that a thorough examination of content and context is absolutely critical. 492 00:45:11,950 --> 00:45:16,239 No question. Uh, second, high quality data. Uh, definitely ideal. 493 00:45:16,240 --> 00:45:20,770 Um, and quite important to be able to say something, um, that seems, uh, robust. 494 00:45:20,770 --> 00:45:27,219 And the more the better. And when you're looking at larger phenomena, uh, archaeology, um, is also growing in importance. 495 00:45:27,220 --> 00:45:31,810 So the scientific study of, you know, composition of objects or their dating things like this, 496 00:45:32,050 --> 00:45:35,800 I think this will only grow more in importance with studies of hoards in the future and treasures. 497 00:45:36,250 --> 00:45:40,180 Um, we also dealing, um, uh, when we deal with hoards, 498 00:45:40,180 --> 00:45:45,759 they clearly can't be treated as simplistic data sets for, uh, approaching chronology or classification. 499 00:45:45,760 --> 00:45:50,110 So again, it was the same issue with background, the same issue identified in the Bronze Age in Europe that, 500 00:45:50,440 --> 00:45:53,730 uh, these things really aren't necessarily even roughly coeval. 501 00:45:53,740 --> 00:45:56,290 It's deposited in the same deposit. Right. So. 502 00:45:56,690 --> 00:46:02,929 Uh, those who wish to date material based on other material and treasures and don't know much about the, 503 00:46:02,930 --> 00:46:06,860 uh, the ideology forming, um, their deposition. 504 00:46:06,870 --> 00:46:10,459 So beware. Right. Uh, we should also be careful. 505 00:46:10,460 --> 00:46:14,600 It seems, uh, to not impose our values onto, um, the material that we're looking at. 506 00:46:14,600 --> 00:46:22,459 So, uh, one note that I picked out of the literature, too, is that we, um, there is a sort of, um, critique that somehow, uh, 507 00:46:22,460 --> 00:46:29,990 we shouldn't impose rational, modern economic behaviour and mindsets, especially Western ones, onto ideas about interpreting these words. 508 00:46:29,990 --> 00:46:34,819 So, for example, for safekeeping and, uh, uh, from a utilitarian perspective, 509 00:46:34,820 --> 00:46:39,260 because the logic they may follow may be different to ours, uh, even in those terms. 510 00:46:39,530 --> 00:46:44,599 Value, of course, is also contextual, um, and needs to be examined on a case by case basis. 511 00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:50,540 And sort of one of the main themes is this, uh, ritual utilitarian dichotomy does not seem very stable at all. 512 00:46:50,870 --> 00:46:55,579 Um, and this relates to this point above, of course, that classification is often arbitrary, 513 00:46:55,580 --> 00:47:01,490 contextual related to this, and may indeed be a futile enterprise in many, uh, in many regards. 514 00:47:02,000 --> 00:47:05,360 Um, but conceptualising a spectrum activity between, you know, 515 00:47:05,360 --> 00:47:10,579 ritual and utilitarian behaviour might be better in the sense that all of our behaviour is not, 516 00:47:10,580 --> 00:47:14,720 you know, strictly rational or strictly or strictly ritual, you know, um, in these terms. 517 00:47:15,470 --> 00:47:21,290 Right. And so one of these kind of conclusions as well is that treasure also does seem still a little bit like, 518 00:47:21,290 --> 00:47:24,740 um, again, not a beloved word, uh, in academic literature. 519 00:47:25,130 --> 00:47:28,340 And so one sort of should probably try not to use the word treasure. 520 00:47:28,340 --> 00:47:34,970 I've also seen reticence and even referring to hoards as well, although I don't necessarily think it, um, impedes the discussion. 521 00:47:35,420 --> 00:47:40,520 Uh, however, I do wonder actually if we could probably be a little bit more lenient about this. 522 00:47:41,060 --> 00:47:46,730 And this is because of the realities of finding treasure in ancient and early medieval normative texts and legal codes. 523 00:47:46,730 --> 00:47:54,110 And by this I mean, uh, deposited, uh, burials, for example, of, uh, you know, goods that were presumably kept for safekeeping. 524 00:47:54,320 --> 00:48:02,840 Then somebody forgot about where they are. And, uh, now somebody um, now we the rediscovery of it, uh, has all kinds of implications for property law. 525 00:48:03,170 --> 00:48:08,450 Um, so this is already, um, a well known phenomenon in the Roman world, for example, with treasure trove law. 526 00:48:08,450 --> 00:48:12,710 So I won't get more into that. Um, but clearly it actually is a more widespread phenomenon. 527 00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:17,059 So I noticed, for example, that, um, we also see, you know, the, The Book of Manu. 528 00:48:17,060 --> 00:48:21,139 Well, I might mention Smriti. So, um, you know, the Sanskrit text. 529 00:48:21,140 --> 00:48:30,360 Um, uh huh. Well, uh, so, uh, the dating of this, I mean, somebody else in the audience can probably explain this better than I do, but, you know, so, 530 00:48:30,380 --> 00:48:39,050 I mean, major first millennium, say, and, uh, we see here the prescriptions for what happens when you do find a treasure trove and who owns it. 531 00:48:39,050 --> 00:48:42,020 Right. And interestingly, also, um, it's using the word um, 532 00:48:42,020 --> 00:48:47,810 Sanskrit nowadays are a very polyvalent and complex term as, uh, I think you are more well aware than I am. 533 00:48:48,440 --> 00:48:52,219 Uh, the other one I noticed also was, uh, for example, from the perspective of China, 534 00:48:52,220 --> 00:48:56,960 we have the time codes or 17th century again, um, normative legal texts. 535 00:48:56,990 --> 00:49:02,380 Um, and I mentioned also just briefly here, we also have requirements for buried treasure as well. 536 00:49:02,390 --> 00:49:08,600 What is happening? Like, uh, what is required, um, to do in terms of property law when something like this is found. 537 00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:14,620 And this is interesting because it just shows, uh, pretty clearly, uh, that these kind of situations where, uh, 538 00:49:14,630 --> 00:49:18,590 frequent enough that there were even ideas and legal frameworks about how to deal with them, 539 00:49:18,860 --> 00:49:23,420 uh, with, uh, you know, hidden, concealed, uh, recovery of valuables were recovered again. 540 00:49:23,930 --> 00:49:29,090 So, um, I didn't want to just briefly say then some conclusions about treasure. 541 00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:34,160 Um, what can I say? It's a fraught term in archaeological practice, which is polyvalent. 542 00:49:34,550 --> 00:49:40,340 Uh, but as I also I hope to have just pointed to briefly now, it's also a real concept in, 543 00:49:40,340 --> 00:49:43,970 uh, many historical context, which just, um, just deserves more exploration. 544 00:49:44,330 --> 00:49:48,710 And I think this is why the work of your, your seminar and the presentations are interesting because they, 545 00:49:49,070 --> 00:49:52,129 uh, explore in indeed this very treasure tradition. 546 00:49:52,130 --> 00:49:59,840 And, uh, there's also, you know, folklore about treasures, um, buried treasures, um, recovered treasures from, uh, all over the world. 547 00:49:59,840 --> 00:50:04,370 And, uh, this kind of thing, uh, deserves, you know, more exploration, of course. 548 00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:08,930 And I was wondering that, um, at one point, a cross-cultural examination of, uh, 549 00:50:08,930 --> 00:50:16,100 treasure traditions and folklore and comparison with archaeological approaches will be quite fruitful because I do perceive some overlap. 550 00:50:16,100 --> 00:50:25,850 For example, in, um, need, for example, um can refer in Sanskrit to uh, treasures deposited or um, in sacred contexts, uh, things like this. 551 00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:30,110 But also it clearly can refer to, uh, relatively profane ones as well. 552 00:50:30,380 --> 00:50:32,180 Um, so hoards perhaps for safekeeping. 553 00:50:32,510 --> 00:50:40,100 And I was thinking of this, um, parallel between, um, our eventual realisation that this dichotomy between ritual and utilitarian motives, 554 00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:44,330 um, that, you know, perhaps, um, these are blended together in human activity, 555 00:50:44,540 --> 00:50:48,019 but this may also be reflected, um, in the, in the textual traditions, 556 00:50:48,020 --> 00:50:54,020 when we're lucky enough to be dealing with a society that, in fact has documented these beliefs for us, uh, so explicitly. 557 00:50:54,560 --> 00:50:57,610 So I think that's it for me. I've just gone a bit over time. 558 00:50:57,610 --> 00:51:01,840 My apologies. And, uh, thank you for your attention and I look forward to your comments.