QUICK FACTS
Name: Athena bowl
What it is: A silver bowl with gold accents
Where it is from: Hildesheim, central Germany
When it was made: Figure of Athena (second century B.C.), bowl (first century A.D.)
In 1868, soldiers from an Imperial Prussian Army regiment discovered a hoard of dozens of ancient silver artifacts while constructing a new shooting range near the city of Hildesheim in central Germany. The Hildesheim treasure included elaborate and expensive tableware, including the Athena bowl, that may have belonged to Publius Quinctilius Varus or another Roman military commander who fought against Germanic tribes in the first century.
