Glasgow student finds 300-year-old coins on her first archeology dig

Lucy Ankers, an archaeology student at the University of Glasgow, uncovered a 300-year-old treasure hoard on her first ever dig in August of this year.

The hoard was found in August, in Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands, and the hoard seems to be linked to the Glencoe Massacre during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1692 – the coins were hidden under the hearth of a former hall belonging to a clan chief known to have been murdered during this massacre. The likelihood is that these coins would have been hidden away for safekeeping, but the owner never returned for them.

Speaking to The Tab, Lucy said that finding the hoard has made her “feel more excited” about what she is doing, and that it is encouraging her to stay in archaeology as a career path. She went on to praise the archaeology department at Glasgow University.

Lucy working on site at the Dig

The hoard of 36 coins includes silver and bronze coins from the reign of Elizabeth I through until the reign of Charles II, as well as a variety of foreign coins from across Europe.

Speaking to The Times, Lucy said that as a first experience of an archaeological dig, the experience was “amazing”, going on to say she thinks the feeling of “seeing the coins peeking out of the dirt” is something she “will never beat”.

Catriona Davidson, the curator of Glencoe Folk museum, when speaking to the Independent said that Lucy’s find “creates such a tangible connection to the people who occupied the Glen in the past”, and went on to describe to hoard as inspiring.

The pot Lucy discovered holding the coins, having just come out of the ground

Other artefacts found include a spindle for making thread, dress pins, European and English pottery, a musket and various ammunition remnants, as well as the remains of an impressive slab floor.

The co-director of the project in Glencoe, Dr Michael Given of the University of Glasgow, when speaking to the Sunday Times said that this hoard was a “rare glimpse of a single dramatic event”.

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