Archaeologists said that a treasure trove of 200 Roman-era coins was found in northwestern Spain thanks to the efforts of a hungry badger.
The Journal of Prehistory and Archaeology published details of the discovery of the coins in La Cuesta cave in Bercio in the Asturias region.
The badger dug the coins up during the January snowstorm in Spain.
A luckless mammal only found a few inedible metal discs when it was unable to find food, as many other creatures struggled to find food.
The archaeologists found the coins with more inside on the floor of the cave after finding the coins in the sand at the entrance of the sett.
Most of the coins were from the north and eastern Mediterranean, but at least one came from London, they wrote.
The quantity of coins recovered, as well as the archaeological interest of the transition to the early medieval period, make the find at Bercio an exceptional find.
The researchers said that the coins were likely moved there in the context of political instability because of the invasion of the Suebians, a Germanic people, who pushed into the northwestern part of the Iberian peninsula in the 5th century.
Agence France-Presse.
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