Archaeologists in South Moravia in the Czech Republic uncovered a rare Roman military discovery—a fragment of a bronze wrist purse that is the oldest such discovery ever made in the Czech Republic. They discovered it on Hradisko Hill in January 2025 and dated it to more than 1,800 years old, offering a glimpse into the Roman soldiers’ private and logistical lives in the Empire’s outer frontier.
The purse fragment was unearthed at the site of a temporary Roman military camp once occupied by the 10th Legion in the Marcomannic Wars of the late second century CE. Although only around 30% of the original item has survived, experts instantly identified it as that of a Roman warrior’s forearm purse—a small, tension-secured money pouch worn around the left arm to leave the right hand free for combat. The discovery is significant because it was made outside the formal borders of the Roman Empire, in territory once considered hostile.