Dr Rune Frederiksen, classical archaeologist with a PhD in archeology and ancient history who has been working as sackler fellow in the cast collection for the last three years which comprises of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in Oxford's famous Ashmolean museum extends an invitation to you to discover the treasures in the exhibition he has worked full time to develop. We caught up with him to find out more about what this exhibition has to offer…

The mesmerizing and enchanting combination of beauty and rarity is unique to all the 200 objects that are on display between 24th May 2006 and 31 December 2008 in the unforgettable “Treasure:Antiques,Eastern Art, Coins and Casts Exhibition” in the world renowned stunning, yet imposing and proud structure sitting in the heart of Oxfords' city centre called the Ashmolean.”The exhibition took eight months to plan and four months worth of full time work with the designer of the Ashmolean Graham Campbell to design and lay out,” says Dr Frederiksen.He goes on to tell us that the objects that have been chosen to be displayed are because of their individual importance and placed in a way so as to tell a story. “We came up with nine themes reflecting the basic functions of these objects and they represent more than thirty cultures dating back to the Paleolithic times to present day,” he explains.

The Ashmolean museum, founded in 1683,is one of Oxford city's main attractions; as Dr Frederiksen agrees, saying “its significance lies in its age; the fact that the story of the museum is also one about how the world is developing since it has acquired objects from centuries gone by and is a museum created around the Oxford University.”Therefore, it seems only fitting that the first of the two items we discuss in detail has links with Oxford and is one that has become a source of national pride.

Buried amongst a hoard of 5000 coins in Chalgrove which is 10 miles southeast of Oxford lay a coin on which was engraved a rare portrait which provided proof of the existence of the Roman emperor Domitianus in AD 271 and it is this coin which sits snugly as treasure number 110 in the exhibition. “The keeper of the coin room describes it as one of the most interesting Roman find ever in Britain. I myself am struck with the fascinating coincidences behind which this coin was found,” says Dr Frederiksen with great passion and marvel.

Treasure hunter Brian Malin stumbled across the hoard with a metal detector in 2003 and it was the curator of the coin room in the British Museum who cleaned the hoard and looked through all the coins, spotting a peculiar coin carrying an unknown bearded face and name along with three letters IMP, short for imperator or emperor. According to the 1996 Treasures Act Malin was obliged to report this find which was bought by the Ashmolean in 2005 for $75,000 around 30,000 pounds; the Domitianus coin accounting for nearly a quarter of the final price.Dr Frederiksen tells us that an identical coin was found in 1900 in the archives of a provincial museum in Southern France but was dismissed due to lack of supporting evidence and information as all that was known about Domitianus was that he was a rebel emperor. The secure circumstances in which the Chalgrove coin was found marked the authenticity of the coins, leading to the press lapping up the story and raising the coins' position to celebrity status and leading to speculation amongst archeologists who believed that Domitianus had never seen Britain and that the coin had made its way to Oxfordshire via trade routes or troop movements.

Unfortunately the story about Domitianus remains an unsolved mystery; the only sources of information being two historical texts written by unknown authors a century after Domitianus's reign and all that is said is that he was suspected of committing treason by Aurelian and was punished. Historians have termed the period which the coins come from as the third century crisis.”Domitianus probably wasn't in power for very long. In AD 271 an emperor Victorinus died and it was the period after his death and before the new emperor Tetricus ruled that Domitianus must have set himself up as emperor. Rebel rulers were not confirmed by the Roman Senate and were given the name tyranus.Coins were one of the media that they used to legitimize their power,” says Dr Frederiksen.

The double dinar coin in the ordinary Roman pot made of turned clay is bronze with less than 2% silver due to inflation.Dr Frederiksen believes that this hoard would have made someone very wealthy at that time and people hoarded coins because of the unrest in the Roman areas of Britain. The portrait on the coin may have been engraved by someone who never even saw Domitianus; but just carved the coin along the lines of the general representation of emperors at the time, especially the one who preceded him, Victorianus.

According to Dr Frederiksen “it is our luck that this coin is amongst us today and it puts all the information we have on the ancient world in a new light. More coins will definitely going to be found.”

The facts and qualities that make our second item worth mentioning are the age it was invented in, the circumstances it was found in and the implications its discovery had on important spheres of life such as religion, history and geography. The St Acheul hand axe stands out of the collection as the oldest item dating back to the Paleolithic times of the Old Stone Age which was categorized by the use of stone tools over 450,000 years ago and according to Dr Frederiksen it is “the most visually unattractive item in the exhibition.”

It was first discovered in St.Acheul, Somme in Northern France amongst fossilled animals buried in layers deep down in the earth and it was with these discoveries that Darwin's theory of evolution gained importance when people started to question the Creation and biblical chronology, with the idea that the planet was just 6000 years old, as surely the process of fossilization must have needed more time then that. Most people at that time rejected the evidence of the theory and for many years it was only a small part of the learned population which showed interest in these new discoveries. “The discovery of the axe”, says Dr Frederiksen,”lay the foundation for the idea that man had evolved over time and at some point been a primitive hunter or gatherer.” The19th century French archeologist Gabriel de Mortillet first used the term Acheulean to refer to remnants of a pre historic industry found near the town St.Acheuls in France. The Acheul hand axe is a large, oval shaped form pointing downwards and was made by striking a rough chunk of rock from a larger stone and removing flakes around its parameter. Experiments indicate that these tools were excellent for butchering activities but were general tools used for a broad number of activities such as breaking shells, killing fish, hunting animals, etc.They give us a picture of what sort of lifestyle man lead in those times.

“The axe sports a label reading Sir John Evans attained it from Southern France. He added it to his collection and later handed it to the museum in around 1850.The stand for the axe was locally made by people in the museum after four or five weekly meetings,” says Dr Frederiksen.He goes on to tell us that there was a very active archaeological community in the 19th century whereby universities and museums throughout Europe were in correspondence with each other and exchanged objects in order to increase the variety of their collections.” The Ashmolean is one of the biggest collections I have worked with and has meant a lot to my work as a archaeologist and for my career,”Dr Frederiksen admits. It is an exhibition worth visiting and you are guaranteed to walk out feeling like you have taken a walk down memory lane and witnessed the greatest unexplored treasure you have-your history.