Treasure hunting is a certain occupation, caused by an interest in adventure, and more recently, in the knowledge of the historical past. It has arisen since the time when some began to trust their material values to the earth or some secret places. Most often, such treasures were discovered by chance during excavation or construction work. But at all times there were people who made the search for the treasure the main business of their lives. In this case, the goal of "finding the treasure" was replaced by the process itself - its search. Treasure hunting attracted and attracts people of various professions and different levels of culture.
Treasure is a generally accepted definition and means something of value, once hidden from prying eyes. The word "treasure" comes from the words "put, fold, throw, dump, put things lying down." In the past, treasure was associated only with money and meant a hidden treasure, and therefore unexpected wealth.
In the modern scientific understanding, treasure is considered not only hidden valuable objects, but also long-stored things, folded in the attic or in the cellar, as unnecessary, but may still be useful. Due to some circumstances, they fell into the ground as a single complex, filled the “cultural layer” (the subject of archaeological research) and also became a treasure. Therefore, most often there are treasures consisting not of "silver and gold", but of tools, weapons and military equipment, kitchen utensils and other household tools.
This explains the classification of the storage complexes. Treasures are divided into cash, money and clothing and clothing. As for money, they are long and short accumulation. The first ones are characterized by the most variegated composition of coins, a significant time period of their minting, circulation and accumulation. In hoards of short accumulation, coins of the last years of minting or those belonging to the same period prevail, during which coins of the same weight, of the same standard, of the same denomination were minted, with a single system of denominations.
It is the treasures of money that have priority among the treasures of other types. Since the time people have learned to consciously value precious metals and to cast, mint or stamp coins from them, "silver and gold" have become objects of purposeful cover-up.
Hiding treasures has become common. As the role of money in society increased, its amount increased. Known treasures of Arab and Horde dirhams, European denarii, Prague pennies, silver ingots, the first "heavy" Russian money, later "Muscovites" and "Novgorodok", imperial rubles. All of them once went from hand to hand, and today they reflect the composition and characteristics of monetary circulation.
To hide valuables, the owner used different containers: clay or metal vessels (pots, jugs, bowls), caskets, tiles, chests, bundles of leather and birch bark, wax chambers and other household items. The choice of a place for hiding, as it turns out from the finds, could be the most unpredictable: a mound, a vegetable garden, a cellar, a wall of a residential building, and the like. We can definitely say that treasures have been found and will always be found where people lived and worked.
Finding the treasure always aroused keen interest and fueled the desire of others to embark on a search for it. As soon as news of the treasures, hidden or found, appeared, treasure hunters began to appear. At all times, the treasures were given to random people. Among them were peasants, townspeople, Cossacks, monks and even crowned heads.
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The age-old experience of treasure hunting was embodied over time in a kind of "theory" of finding a treasure. The basis for its creation was a simple opposition: someone is lucky, and someone is not, that is, not everyone is given a treasure. If the treasure was buried with a vow, then only the one who fulfills it will get it. From here come all kinds of storehouse legends that have survived in many localities.
The special features of the storage place known from ancient times turned out to be similar to modern concepts. True, now they do not look so mysterious: arable land, an old Russian settlement, the ruins of a manor house. In fairness, we note that, although not treasures, but individual finds, in such places are found.
Not only the signs have changed. The appearance of the treasure hunter has also changed. The search for treasure (or antiquities) began to be called instrumental. It is carried out with the help of technical means and resembles a demining operation. Now both archaeologists and search engines use the latest electronic metal detectors or metal detectors in their work.
Treasure is a multifaceted object to study. Improvement in research methodology often leads to a new "reading" of it. Treasures, no matter how small or large, dwarfs or giants, wherever they are found and whoever finds them, are the national and scientific heritage. The money was hidden by those who received a permanent salary. Clerks, clerks, clergymen, archers, merchants.
Strange as it may seem, but the numismatists of the 18th-19th centuries. the treasures were not particularly interesting. The hoards were a source of rare coins replenishment in numismatic collections. There are archival documents that tell about the fate of many treasures sent for melting. Only when numismatics turned from collecting into a science, and the subject of its study was not a coin as such, even if rare, but money circulation in its entirety, did the treasures come to the attention of numismatists. Numismatists have become treasure hunters. The search for treasures went everywhere: in archives, in old documents, in reports of archaeological expeditions, in newspapers. They were searched for by oral legends, by letters. All the data received were compiled into special reports and recorded on maps. Local ethnographers also continue to provide great assistance in the search for treasures.
The earth is full of treasures not only in our country, but also in Europe, especially in the south. That is, where there were wars, where there were very active trade routes.
And, of course, a huge number of treasures appear in the 18th century. These are treasures of copper five-kopeck coins, which is associated with the introduction of paper notes in 1769. It was money with a forced rate, and very soon it depreciated. The peasants began to bury the copper.
In Europe, the treasure was buried in the ground or hidden in secret places only in case of danger. With us - regardless of the situation in the country. Because everyone, from the last slave to the closest boyar, falconer or stableman, were absolutely powerless.
The merchants, of course, put money into circulation. And the man in the street just hid them. Plus the fact that Russia is a wooden country. Fires blazed, and with them property. The treasure remained.
And it is no coincidence that in Russia they found a special form for storing the treasure - a egg-capsule. Round such pots with a narrow neck. Black and polished as a rule. They withstood high pressure, did not allow moisture to pass (they were filled with wax or clogged with a wooden stopper).
Source: Internet media & "History.ru"
