The Erfurt Treasure is a hoard of coins, goldsmith's work and jewelry that belonged to Jews, who secreted them hastily in 1349 at the time of the Black Death pogroms. The pieces were found in 1998 in the wall of a house in the medieval Jewish neighborhood of Erfurt, Germany.[1]
Similar treasures were hidden in times of acute distress for the Jewish community at Weissenfels, Lingenfeld, Münster and Sroda Slaska. The Erfurt treasure, however, is larger by an order of magnitude than any of the others. It contains two enormous silver ingots, large numbers of gold and silver coins, tableware in precious metals, and a very large quantity of jewellery. The jewellery in particular has drawn the attention of scholars, since little fourteenth-century jewelry survives, as jewelry was often melted down when it was deemed out of style and its value as bullion outweighed other considerations.
The treasure includes several magnificent jewelled brooches, and a set of eight silver cups designed to fit inside each other, dozens of belt buckles, a cosmetic set and seven brooches.
One outstanding piece is the gold wedding ring with a bezel composed of openwork Gothic tracery, capped by a facetted steeple. Made in the early fourteenth century, it is one of few existing medieval Ashkenazi wedding rings. The ring features a beautifully crafted, ornate, miniature version of a gothic tower and six engraved Hebrew letters that spell out mazal tov, meaning "good luck," on the tower's roof. In accord with Jewish tradition, the magnificent wedding ring is made entirely of gold without the addition of stones.[2]
Dozens of garment appliques are an extremely unusual find. These are small, silver sequins in various shapes, intended to be sewn onto garments. They were at the height of fashion in the fourteenth century, but, because they were made of solid silver, when the fashion changed all were melted down. The few surviving examples are almost all part of ecclesiastical textiles owned by churches. Erfurt provides rare evidence of the use of such ornaments in secular clothing.
An exhibition, "Trésors de la Peste Noire", at the Musée National du Moyen Âge in the Hôtel de Cluny, Paris, April-September 2007 brought objects from the treasure together with the Colmar Treasure.
An exhibition, "Erfurt: Jewish Treasures from Medieval Ashkenaz," was on display at the Yeshiva University Museum of the Center for Jewish History in New York City, September 9, 2008 - January 29, 2009.[3]
The treasure is scheduled to be displayed in London at the Wallace Collection and at Beth Hatefutsoth in Tel Aviv, before going on permanent display at the newly restored, eleventh century Erfurt Synagogue. [4]