The Ryedale Hoard: A Roman Mystery
Now open until 3rd March 2024!
Included in general admission
The Yorkshire Museum welcomes you to visit an exciting new exhibition; The Ryedale Hoard: A Roman Mystery.
The Ryedale Hoard contains some of Yorkshire’s most significant Roman objects including an 1,800 year old bust of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. For the very first time in Yorkshire, visitors will be able see this exciting new discovery and explore the mystery of who buried the Hoard and why.
The 13cm bust is part of a collection of bronze objects found by metal detectorists James Spark and Mark Didlick in a field near Ampleforth in Ryedale, North Yorkshire, in May 2020.
The purchase of the Ryedale Roman Hoard was made possible largely thanks to the generosity of American donor Richard Beleson, with additional funding through Art Fund and a number of individual donors. This enabled York Museums Trust to make the purchase from David Aaron, who originally acquired the hoard at auction.
Free Online Talks
Below is our programme of free online talks delivered by a wonderful variety of experts. To get reminders straight to your inbox for the talks, sign up here.
All Expert Lectures start at 4.30pm and are free of charge.
23 May 2022 – Dr Michael Lewis: Treasuring the Past – when is a ‘treasure’ Treasure? Find out more here
21 July 2022 – Dr Owen Humphreys: Metals, making and magic: The smith in Roman Britain. Find out more here
29 September 2022- Prof. Martin Millett: The context of the Ryedale hoard in Roman Britain. Find out more here.
17 November 2022 – Antony Lee: Dead gods? Presenting Romano-British religious experiences in museums. Find out more here.
26 January 2023 – Adam Parker: Toil and Trouble: Magic, Roman Britain, and the Ryedale Hoard. Find out more here.
16 March 2023 – Dr John Pearce: Gods in bronze: the pantheon of Roman Britain and the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Find out more here.
All Curatorial talks start at 5:30pm and are free of charge
16 June 2022 – Up close with The Ryedale Hoard. Find out more here
18 August 2022 – Roman Emperors in York. Find out more here.
20 October 2022 – Worshipping Mars, the God of War. Find out more here.
15 December 2022- Roman Yorkshire’s metalworkers. Find out more here.
16 February 2023 – Living in the Roman Countryside. Find out more here.
3-D Scanning
The hoard was digitised and 3-D scanned using state-of-the-art technology by Central Scanning. You can read more about this process here.