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Tuesday 13 November 2018

Treasure

Treasure is a concentration of wealth that  has been hoarded up. It often originates from ancient history.

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In England, a treasure trove is any gold or silver or other valuables found concealed in a house or the ground the owner being unknown. Normally, treasure originally hidden, and not abandoned belongs to the Crown, but if the treasure was casually lost or intentionally abandoned, the first finder is entitled to it against all but the true owner. Objects buried with no intention of recovering them, for example in a burial mound, do not rank as treasure trove, and belong to the owner of the ground.

The world's oldest gold treasure, dating back more than 6,000 years, was discovered in the Varna Necropolis burial site in Bulgaria.

Grave offerings on exposition in Varna Museum. By ChernorizetsHrabar

Egyptian Pharaohs were believed to be descended from the gods.When a Pharaoh died, all the treasure that they owned would be buried with them.

King John of England lost his treasure while fording the Crosskeys Wash in Lincolnshire in 1216. Among the items lost were his crown and his baggage, 52 rings encrusted with rubies and sapphires, 132 silver cups, the Crown Jewels of Germany and plenty of swords and trinkets.

Sir Francis Drake's trip round the world between 1577 and 1580 included sacking a Spanish treasure ship. His captured treasure, especially silver was worth £600,000, a return to investors of 4,700 per cent on their capital.

Pirates spent their loot as soon as they got it, on account of their short lives—there are only a few documented cases of buried treasure. The pirate most responsible for the legends of buried treasure was Captain Kidd. The story was that Kidd buried treasure from the plundered Indian ship, the Quedah Merchant, on Gardiners Island, near Long Island, New York. The treasure included satins, muslins, gold, silver, an incredible variety of East Indian merchandise, as well as extremely valuable silks.

Kidd was arrested and returned to England, where he was put through a very public trial and hanged in 1701. The belief that Kidd had left buried treasure contributed considerably to the growth of his legend. Since then there has been constant treasure hunts conducted on Long Island where Gardiner's Island is located and elsewhere. Nothing has been found except a small cache of treasure on Gardiner's Island in a spot known as Cherry Tree Field.

Pirates burying Captain Kidd's treasure, from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates

The Louvre was converted into an Art Museum in 1793 during the French Revolution with an exhibition of 537 paintings. Most of its exhibits at the time consisted of treasures confiscated from the royal family or the Church.

In 1908, railway workers in Brussels dug up 150,000 medieval coins – the biggest hoard ever discovered.

Britain's biggest ever hoard of Roman treasure was discovered by metal detectorist Eric Lawes on November 16, 1992 on a Suffolk farm. The hoard was buried as an oak chest filled with items in precious metal, with some in smaller wooden boxes and others in bags or wrapped in fabric. The 15,000 gold, silver and bronze coins were worth £1.75 million -which Lawes shared with the farmer. It is the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth century found anywhere in the Roman Empire.

Reconstruction of the oak chest By Photograph by Mike Peel

In June 2011, the Supreme Court of India directed the authorities to open the secret chambers of Padmanabhaswamy Temple. They discovered $22 billion in treasure including, golden idols, golden elephants and idols wearing 18 foot diamond necklaces, as well as countless bags of gold coins from around the world.

In 2013, the largest known discovery of buried gold coins, valued at $10,000,000, was found on a couple's private property in rural California. Known only as John and Mary, the couple has no idea who buried the coins, and they remain anonymous to prevent treasure-seeking trespassers.
In the state of Pennsylvania, it's illegal for a fortune teller to tell where to dig for buried treasure.


Source Hutchinson Encyclopedia


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