Eureka!

A rare treasure trove of gold coins was found by teenagers in an archeological dig in Israel this summer.  The coins are said to be in excellent condition.  The find includes coin fragments where coins were cut and used to make change.  The find substantiates a relationship between Byzantine Empire and Abbasid Caliphate.

The cache as well as the coins’ condition is considered extremely rare and was discovered by teenage volunteers at an archaeological excavation in Israel.  The Israel Antiquities Authority made the announcement earlier this week.

The exact location of the site was not given, for the obvious reasons.  Giving the exact location of a gold-find would not be beneficial to an archaeological site.  One of the teens is quoted as saying,

“I dug in the ground and when I excavated the soil, saw what looked like very thin leaves.  When I looked again I saw these were gold coins.”   

The excavation is being led by Liat Nadav-Ziv and Dr. Elie Haddad.  Their assumption is whoever buried the coins, most likely, expected they would be able to retrieve them easily.  This discovery could indicate there was an international trade by the area’s residents.  The coins are made of pure gold.  Since gold does not oxidize in air, they’re condition is excellent.  There are no blemishes, aging, etc. 

A coin expert at the Israel Antiquities Authority said that the total weight of the cache was close to 30 ounces of pure gold.  It is valued at approximately $60,000 USD.  This amount of gold would also be of significant value 1,100 years ago.  It could have afforded a person a large house in the wealthiest part of Egypt.  The region where the coins were found was part of the Abbasid Caliphate.  This area stretched from Persia (modern-day Iraq) to North Africa. 

Interestingly these gold dinars also contain about 270 small gold cuttings.  As mentioned previously, there are cut pieces of the Dinars used to make change.  One of those cuttings is extremely rare and never before found in excavations in Israel.  This is a fragment of a gold solidus of the Byzantine emperor Theophilos (829 – 842 CE), minted in the empire’s capital of Constantinople.

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, the existence of the fragment in a trove of Islamic coins serves as evidence of the connections between the two rival empires. This rare treasure will be a major contribution to research. Discoveries from the Abbasid period in Israel are rare. Further research of these coins should provide valuable information about this mysterious period in Persian history. A time where we still have little information.