Ride 1A - October 19th - The Ryedale Hoard

My response to Rogers Q on 1a whatsapp. I don't think it's an offering, perhaps more a lost bundle of samples from a Roman traveling salesman. There is evidence of a Roman goldsmith in Malton, (the Norton tablet inscription). These craftsmen did travel to clients and potential customers or took pieces to local markets. We know of farms and villas across the Howardian Hills, some signs of affluence, eg the Hovingham Hall bath house. A metalworkers hoard was found in 1985 at Snettisham in Norfolk. This was in a small jar. There is no evidence of a jar for the Ryedale Hoard. Perhaps they were in a fabric bag or roll, long since rotted away.
Romans were very superstitious. There is lots of evidence for large and small votive offerings, formally at temples and often at roadside shrines. Occasionally at "natural" spiritual sites, rivers, certain trees etc. Offerings were often coins, images of gods or of the emperor. Romans, particularly amongst the legions, tended to follow a cult of emperor. Forts had their own sacred space and households had a larium for the family gods.
We don't know enough about the site of the Ryedale Hoard find to know if it was a shrine or other sacred space. To me it feels a bit too random to be a formal offering. Hence my inclination to lost samples from a craftsmen as he trecked across the network of roads between Eboracum, Derventio and Isirium.