The discovery of a hoard of Roman silver in the grounds of Wettingen monastery in 1633 coincided with a general shortage of silver as a result of the Thirty Years War. It therefore comes as no surprise that the antique silver vessels were melted down. The fate of the coins at the time can now no longer be established. The decision to have drawings made of these silver vessels nevertheless shows that their archaeological worth was recognized. Matthaeus Merian first published his copperplate of these eight vessels and four coins in Topographia Helvetiae in 1642.

The drawings on which this copperplate was modelled entered the collection of the Swiss National Museum by way of Zurich's Society of Antiquarians.

Instigated and led by emeritus Prof Dr Stefanie Martin-Kilcher of the University of Bern, these drawings and contemporary and subsequent accounts were the subject of a research project undertaken at the Swiss National Museum in conjunction with the Archaeology Office of the Canton of Aargau and other researchers. The results are due to be published in a double issue of the Zeitschrift für Schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte in 2024.

Project participants

• Emeritus Prof Dr Stefanie Martin-Kilcher, University of Bern
• Emeritus Prof Dr André Holenstein, University of Bern
• Emeritus Prof Dr Regula Frei-Stolba, University of Lausanne
• Dr Matthias Flück, Archaeology Office of the Canton of Aargau
• Anna Jurt, Swiss National Museum
• Dr Annemarie Kaufmann-Heinimann, University of Basel
• Emeritus Prof Dr Rudolf Wachter, University of Lausanne
• Prof Dr Marie-Thérèse Rapsaet-Charlier, Université libre de Bruxelles
• Andrea Schaer, Archaeokontor
• Tamara Mattmann, Römerstadt Augusta Raurica
• Dr Mylène Ruoss, curator, Swiss National Museum
• Dr Christian Weiss, curator, Swiss National Museum