Abstract

During the 2001 field season of the Mugello Valley Archaeological Project, excavators working at the west end of the Poggio Colla acropolis discovered a black-glaze olpe filled with one hundred Roman silver victoriati. This find was rare and remarkable considering its archaeological context in a sanctuary. Also significant was the discrete stratigraphic context of the deposit. The pit that held the coins had been excavated through the fallen remains of the last major phase of activity on the site, indicating that whoever buried them did so not while the sanctuary was active, but rather after it had been destroyed in the late third century BCE. This article explores the broader implications of the discovery and date of the victoriati for the site and the region as a whole.