Posted on 09/21/2025 6:52:51 PM PDT by fidelis
Archaeologists found a 1,600-year-old coin hoard dating to the final Jewish revolt against Romans.
Archaeologists have unearthed a rare hoard of 1,600-year-old copper coins in Galilee, and the coins may have been stashed there during the last known Jewish revolt against the Romans.
Researchers found the 22 copper coins in a crevice within a tunnel complex deep underneath a settlement known as Hukok. The tunnels were used by Jews as a hiding place in two early rebellions against the Romans: the Great Revolt (A.D. 66 to 70) and the Bar-Kochba (also spelled Bar-Kokhba) Revolt (A.D. 132 to 135). However, the newfound coin hoard didn't date to either of those rebellions, the archaeologists found.
Instead, the coins had depictions of the emperors Constantius II (ruled from A.D. 337 to 361) and Constans I (reigned from A.D. 337 to 350). These dates indicate that the coins were hidden during the Gallus Revolt (A.D. 351 to 352), an often-overlooked rebellion that was the last Jewish revolt against the Romans, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).
"This shows that hundreds of years after these tunnels were dug out, they were reused," Uri Berger, an archaeologist at the IAA, and Yinon Shivtiel, a professor at Zefat Academic College and an expert in cave archaeology, said in an IAA statement. "The hoard provides — in all probability, unique evidence, that this hiding complex was used in one way or another during another crisis — during the Gallus Revolt — a rebellion for which we have only scant historical evidence of its existence."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
Ping! ⚱️
What a find. They are in remarkable condition.
The Jewish revolts against the Romans were about 2000 years ago, not 1600 year ago.
I found a handful of those and used them in a gumball machine. Was that wrong?
Read the article. This was a later Jewish revolt, one that is less known than 70 AD and Bar-Kochba.
What a find. They are in remarkable condition.
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And they still have value….I don’t think a stash of paper dollars or Bitcoins would fair very well after centuries…strange how funny our “ money” has become.
I'm sure the dude that emptied the coins from the machine appreciated it! 😁
Great points!
The interesting thing is that many think Jews were kicked out of the land in 70 AD.
but no, Jerusalem was destroyed, the end of the world for most Jews, but they remained in the countryside.
After the Bar kochba (the moniker of the rebellion’s leader who was called “Don of the star”=”Bar Kochkba” ehich means messiah. Yes, it eas a messianic uprising and Simon Bar Kochkba was supposed by the Rabbinate to be the messiah), Jews wer kivked out of the cities but remained in the countryside.
They even helped the Iranians conquer Judea in 612 AD creating a very brief Jewish state.
Jews have never completely left the land of Israel
People buried coin hoards for many reasons.
Wow, the Gallus Revolt, thanks for the ping!
Someone didn’t “Render unto Caesar” .............
I always think, “What happened to the person that buried these coins?”...........
Or maybe they did. 😊
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantius_Gallus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_revolt_against_Constantius_Gallus
Probably by now they’ve died. Most likely. The wikiwacki page notes that thousands were rounded up and killed at the end of the revolt.
I did something similar... thank goodness not quite as historic... on TWO occasions as a moronic little kid who only cared about playing and wrecking and the next distraction... we used a Reggie Jackson autographed baseball (belonged to my new step-dad, basically a gaffe straight out of the movie Sandlot!), and I broke an antique radio by trying to take it apart to see the insides... How I survived beyond the tween years is beyond me.
What a revolting development that was!..............
Pretty much.
That’s true. We can speculate based on what evidence we have, but unless they documented it (”I hid this pot of coins here because...”), we can’t be entirely sure of someone’s motive, especially from that long ago.
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