Thousands of years ago, there were no banks. People couldn’t just deposit their gold and other valuables into a safety deposit box. As such, they dug a hole and buried their treasures until they were ready to come back for it.
Realistically, buried treasure is all over the place – and some have treasure maps while others don’t.
It’s rare that anyone actually finds buried treasure, however.
In Livorno, Italy, a volunteer was hiking in 2021 when they noticed something shiny. It was a few old coins that were scattered among the leaves.
Soon, an investigation took place by the Livornese Paleontological Archaeological Group to see exactly what was there.
An entire excavation has since taken place. So far, 175 ancient Roman coins have been discovered – and these date back over 2,000 years. Many were in groups, and there were also fragments of a container.
One of the archaeologists made a comment. Lorella Alderighi confirmed that the coins were hidden. “The easiest way to hide valuables was to bury them underground, away from homes where no one could find them.”
It is possible that the coins were from a soldier who was returning from home or from a wealthy merchant. Regardless, that individual never came back for their treasure. And it took over 2,000 years for someone to stumble upon the hiding place.
That’s the thing about Europe and its rich history (pun intended). Treasure is more likely to be found there than in the United States, especially because there wasn’t much happening 2,000 years ago in the US.
There’s no telling if the volunteer was rewarded for their find. Hopefully, the archaeological group tossed them a few coins for what they were unable to unearth.
