The Golden Empire: Geological Expedition and Analysis Programme

In collaboration with Rick Spurway Film & Television, we have jointly organised a series of archaeological expeditions to Roman gold mines in Austria, Bosnia, Serbia, Romania, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal to collect geological samples. We have taken gold and mineral samples from over twenty Roman gold extraction sites.

In collaboration with Prof. Walti Caseri and Dr Elena Tervoort-Gorokhova of ETH Zurich, we are analysing and imaging these samples using various microprobe techniques. This will allow us to fully understand the chemical composition and the morphology of the ‘raw’ gold the Romans were extracting from these sites. This will enable us to show how chemically different gold from different Roman mining regions really was, and to compare and contrast these patterns with those we see in the gold coinage.

Both the archaeological fieldwork and the scientific analyses of the coined and raw gold will feature as part of Spurway Film & Television’s The Golden Empire documentary series.

Funding and Material Support

The Leverhulme Trust

Spurway Film & Television

Department of Materials, ETH Zurich

The Shuffrey Fund and Michael Zilkha Trust, Lincoln College

The Craven Fund, Faculty of Classics, University of Oxford

The Meyerstein Fund, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford

Partners and Collaborators

Prof. Walti Caseri
Dr Elena Tervoort-Gorokhova
Prof. Paul Stavrinou
Mr Heimo Urban
Frank Stremke Archaeology
Priv.-Doz. Dr Brigitte Cech
Prof. Andrew Wilson