Cordoba Treasure
Silver torc from the Cordoba Treasure as displayed in the British Museum
Material	Silver
Size	16 cm diameter
Created	100 BC
Present location	British Museum,London
Registration	P&EE 1932,0706.2

TheCordoba Treasure, orTesoro de Córdoba inSpanish, is the name of a majorIron Age silver hoard found on the outskirts of the city ofCórdoba, Spain in 1915. The entire treasure was purchased by theBritish Museum in 1932, where it has been on public display ever since.^[1][2]

The hoard of silver objects was found by chance in 1915 at Molino de Marrubial, a suburb of the city of Córdoba in the province ofAndalucia, Spain. The treasure had been buried in a pit for safe-keeping, but was never retrieved by its original owners. The Cordoba Treasure eventually came into the possession of theAmerican art collectorWalter Leo Hildburgh, who sold it to the British Museum in 1932. The treasure is one of the few Iron Age hoards from theIberian Peninsula to be in the collection of a museum outsideSpain orPortugal.

The hoard dates from the Iron Age and was probably buried around 100 BC. Even though this part of Spain had recently been conquered to become part of theRoman Empire, the style ofjewellery reflectsCeltic aesthetic traditions. The silver treasure includes a large circulartorc with terminals in the form of double cones, eight armlets withzoomorphic relief decoration, abrooch in the shape of two horses' heads, a conical bowl, over three hundred coins, two lumps of silver and other miscellaneous objects including rods andingots. Thecoins enable archaeologists to date the treasure, as 82 of them were locally made and 222 wereminted in a Roman city.

It remains unclear why thehoard was never recovered by the person or people by whom it was buried. The large amount ofsilver in the treasure could have meant that its owner planned to melt it down at one stage, but for some reason was unable to. Others have suggested it could have been avotive offering, following native practices.

• Arcillera Hoard
• Orense Torcs
• Braganza Brooch
• Snettisham Hoard

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  Silver armlets from the treasure
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  Silver bowl in which the coins were found
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  Silver torc, typical of Celtic art from Iberia at this time
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  Silver armlets, a brooch and other items from the treasure
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  Celtic and Roman coins from the treasure

• Megaw Ruth and Vincent, Celtic Art: From Its Beginnings to the Book of Kells, 2001
• M. Lenerz-de Wilde, 'The Celts in Spain' in The Celtic World (London and New York, Routledge, 1995)
• I. Stead, Celtic Art, British Museum Press, 1996

• Ancient Celtic metalwork
• Prehistoric objects in the British Museum
• Silver objects
• Torcs

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata