A 2,000-year-old Roman hoard which includes a bust of emperor Marcus Aurelius has gone on display for the first time since being discovered in North Yorkshire by two metal detectorists. The incredible collection of “nationally important” artefacts are expected to fetch up to £90,000 when they go under the hammer next month. The bronze items were discovered last year by metal detectorists James Spark, 40, and Mark Didlick, 44, in a field in Ryedale. The Ryedale Ritual Bronzes include a perfectly preserved bust of Marcus Aurelius, who was played by Richard Harris in hit 2000 film Gladiator. As well as the bust, which would have been mounted as the head of a priest’s sceptre, the hoard contained an equestrian statuette of the God Mars, a horse head knife handle and a large bronze pendulum.
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A bust of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius is among a collection of 2,000-year-old bronze artefacts dug up in Yorkshire – and set to sell for around £100,000.
The fantastically preserved 6 inch (13cm) bust of Aurelius, who ruled the Roman Empire from AD 161 to AD 180, depicts him with hair and beard flamboyantly curled.
As well as the bust of Aurelius, the collection includes a statuette of the god Mars on horseback and the handle of a knife shaped as part of a horse.
The items were discovered last year by metal detectorists James Spark and Mark Didlick in a field in Ryedale, North Yorkshire.
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An eleventh-century Chinese coin unearthed in Hampshire provides new evidence of a bustling trade in luxury goods from the Far East more than 700 years ago.
The copper coin, which was found by a detectorist at Buriton, Hampshire, around nine miles from the coast, weighs 0.12 ounces (3.6g) and has a diameter of just under an inch (25mm).
Researchers believe it was minted between 1008 and 1016, during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Northern Song dynasty, and arrived in Britain around the 13th or 14th century, when luxury Chinese pottery was being widely imported.
The coin has the inscription Xiangfu yuanbao (祥符元寶) in traditional Chinese characters on one side and a central square hole, allowing multiple coins of its type to be strung together.