Avenches – Roman Museum – Permanent Exhibition

First Floor Trade and Money
The Monetary System from the 1 st to the 3 rd Century
7. Gladiator armed with a trident and a knife. Terra-cotta oil lamp.
8. Two gladiators fighting each other. Terra-cotta oil lamp.
9. Bowl in terra sigillata, with gladiator scene. Late 1st century AD.
10. Ceramic drinking vessel decorated with a bull. Second half of the 2nd century AD.
11. Hunting scene. Terra-cotta oil lamp.
12. Ceramic pottery bowl, decorated with a lion. Second half of the 2nd century AD.
Music was ever-present in everyday Roman life. It not only accompanied plays
and combat, but also public and private festivities, banquets, weddings, funerals,
triumphal parades, processions and religious sacrifices.
The organ fragments (display case 14, no. 7) discovered in Aventicum are
particularly important since, to date, only three instruments of this type have been
found within the boundaries of the Roman Empire.
Display case 14
1-2. Small bronze cymbals.
3. Arm of a lyre (?) made of antler. Early 1st century AD.
4. Sitting Cupid, playing the cithara. Ivory medallion.
5. Sitting Cupid, playing the cithara. Terra-cotta oil lamp (2).
6. Ivory cithara. This object may have served as a decorative element on a piece of
furniture.
7. Bronze parts of a water organ (3). Chest and bronze key showing the figure VIIII, which
identifies it as the ninth key. Derrière la Tour Palace.
8. Plectrum, probably made of tortoise shell, used for playing the strings of a lyre or
cithara.
9. Right arm of a bronze statue. The thumb and index finger are holding a plectrum in the
shape of a lion’s paw.
10. Right hand of a bronze statue representing a flute player; found in the refuse dump of
a bronze smith.
Trade and Money
(Display case 15)
The Monetary System from the 1 st to the 3 rd Century
Reorganised by Augustus, the monetary system of the Roman Empire was
comprised of gold, silver, brass and copper coins. The relationships between
these metals and the coin weights were clearly defined (display case 15, no. 1).
Therefore, the different values of the coins could easily be distinguished (display
case 15, nos. 2-8) by the colour of the metal. The brass coins (sesterces and semis),
for instance, were worth twice as much as the copper coins (as and quadrans).
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First Floor
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