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Archaeologists Find Ancient Collector's Hoard of Hasmonean Coins
Haaretz ^ | June 10, 2016 | Nir Hasson

Posted on 06/14/2016 12:54:02 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

A rare cache of silver coins dating to the Hasmonean period, some 2,140 years ago, has been discovered in a salvage excavation in central Israel.

The 16 coins, shekels and half-shekels (tetradrachms and didrachms), date from around 126 BCE. They had been minted farther north, in the city of Tyre, and bear the images of the king, Antiochus VII and his brother Demetrius Israeli, stated Avraham Tendler, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority...

Closer analysis of the coins showed that the cache contains one or two coins from every year between 135 to 126 BCE...

Aside from the wall-ensconced cache, the archaeologist found numerous bronze coins minted by the Hasmonean kings at the site, bearing the names of the kings such as Yehohanan, Judah, Jonathan – and Mattathias, the High Priest and Head of the Council of the Jews...

Maybe one day they had enough, though, and participated in the first revolt against the Romans, that broke out in 66 CE. For one thing: some of the coins bear the date “Year Two” of the revolt and the slogan "Freedom of Zion".

For another, the inhabitants filled the rooms next to the outer wall of the estate building with big rocks, creating a fortified barrier, Tendler says. The archaeologists also found caves hewn into the bedrock underneath the floors of the estate house.

"These refuge complexes were connected by means of tunnels between water cisterns, storage pits and hidden rooms," Tendler says. "In one of the adjacent excavation areas a mikveh of impressive beauty was exposed; when we excavated deeper in the bath we discovered an opening inside it that led to an extensive hiding refuge in which numerous artifacts were found that date to the time of the Bar Kokhba uprising."

(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...


TOPICS: History; Travel
KEYWORDS: barkokhba; barkokhbarevolt; barkokhbauprising; coin; coins; didrachms; epigraphyandlanguage; freedomofzion; godsgravesglyphs; halfshekels; hasmoneans; jerusalem; letshavejerusalem; mikveh; romanempire; shekels; tetradrachms Comment #1 Removed by Moderator

another article, also interesting:

Cache of Hasmonean-era silver coins uncovered in Modiin
http://www.timesofisrael.com/cache-of-hasmonean-era-silver-coins-uncovered-in-modiin/


2 posted on 06/14/2016 12:56:05 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; decimon; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

3 posted on 06/14/2016 12:56:41 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: SunkenCiv
But...but Mahmoud Abbas didn't kick, scream and shout the the PLO was the official minting house BEFORE the Jews (Hebrews) minted them??

Plaeostinians: CONGENITAL LIARS since 1964...

4 posted on 06/14/2016 1:05:35 AM PDT by Netz
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To: SunkenCiv

Thanks for posting that.


5 posted on 06/14/2016 2:24:07 AM PDT by Cincinnatus.45-70 (What do DemocRats enjoy more than a truckload of dead babies? Unloading them with a pitchfork!)
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To: Netz
Plaeostinians: CONGENITAL LIARS since 1964...

Yes, indeed. Wonder if our ComDem Congentital Liars are related in some way? They like to support the so called Palestinian Liars today.

6 posted on 06/14/2016 2:49:50 AM PDT by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: Netz

the interesting thing is that many of the Palestinians will have Israelite blood as well - they and the Jewish people in Israel may very well be distant cousins


7 posted on 06/14/2016 3:27:00 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: SunkenCiv
“Can you spare a shekel for an old ex-leper?”
8 posted on 06/14/2016 3:43:30 AM PDT by ConservativeMind ("Humane" = "Don't pen up pets or eat meat, but allow infanticide, abortion, and euthanasia.")
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To: SunkenCiv

Just how many coins are considered a hoard? They sure aren’t going to make any Goldline commercials with just 16 coins.


9 posted on 06/14/2016 4:06:16 AM PDT by DAC21
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To: SunkenCiv

In before BCE tantrum folk. Nya Nya.


10 posted on 06/14/2016 5:17:47 AM PDT by Phinneous
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To: Netz

linking about that — the Hasmoneans converted forcibly a non-Israelite group to Judaism — the Idumeans, or, as bible readers would call them, Edomites. This was a curse for the future as Herod the Great, the King of the Judeans was an Idumean


11 posted on 06/14/2016 5:42:42 AM PDT by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
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To: SunkenCiv
Closer analysis of the coins showed that the cache contains one or two coins from every year between 135 to 126 BCE...

It must have been really interesting to be a coin collector back then.

"I just got a couple of the newly minted 132 BCE shekels. They're great, but I hear that the ones that will be coming out in 131 will be even more awesome"...

12 posted on 06/14/2016 6:09:24 AM PDT by Zeppo ("Happy Pony is on - and I'm NOT missing Happy Pony")
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To: SunkenCiv

When I read of the find of one of these coin stashes, I often wonder what the person went through to save that amount, and what led to the hiding of it, and why the person never returned to claim the stash.

In the past have been found...
Philistine pieces of silver.
Hasmonean-era silver coins.
Roman coins.
Byzantine gold coins.
Then there are the various Viking stashes found.


13 posted on 06/14/2016 7:29:37 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: SunkenCiv

Lots of hidden treasures scattered around the globe.


14 posted on 06/14/2016 9:18:23 AM PDT by Robert DeLong (u)
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To: Phinneous

;’)


15 posted on 06/14/2016 1:04:26 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: SunkenCiv

A proof set from that date range is very hard to come by.


16 posted on 06/14/2016 3:02:09 PM PDT by Sawdring
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To: Sawdring

LOL!


17 posted on 06/14/2016 3:12:27 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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