ISRAEL: Ancient hoard containing 108 gold coins dating back to the Mamluk era has been discovered in coastal city of Herzliya

Record ID: 397418

  • Title: ISRAEL: Ancient hoard containing 108 gold coins dating back to the Mamluk era has been discovered in coastal city of Herzliya
  • Date: 9th July 2012
  • Summary: HERZLIYA, ISRAEL (JULY 9, 2012) (REUTERS) VIEW OF AREA EXCAVATED WHERE GOLD WAS DISCOVERED CARDBOARD CRUSADER FIGURES ON LOCATION VARIOUS OF PILES OF STONES VIEW OF BOAT OUT IN THE SEA MAN SHOWING GOLD AND HOARD FOUND ON CLIFF NEAR MEDITERRANEAN SEA VARIOUS OF ANCIENT GOLD FOUND DISPLAYED ON TABLE WITH BLUE CLOTHES VIEW OF MEDITERRANEAN AS SEEN FROM HERZLIYA (SOUNDBITE) (
  • Embargoed: 24th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Israel
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: History
  • Reuters ID: LVA23QRTF2ZW16JBJH6VY99TCEA2
  • Story Text: An ancient jar containing a collection of gold coins dating back to the Mamluk era was discovered at the Mediterranean shore in Herzliya near Tel Aviv.
    The gold cache was discovered a week ago in a dig at the Apollonia National Park a Tel Aviv university professor told Reuters on Monday (July 9).
    "In one of the rooms that we excavated we found a gold coin hoard. The hold was basically with coins from the Fatimi period, which are earlier, some 250 years before the crusaders ruled the country," Professor Oren Tal, from the Tel Aviv University said.
    The dig is a joint venture between Tel Aviv University and the Nature and Parks Authority in Israel and is aimed at exploring the layers of an almost destroyed crusader fortress on the shores of the Mediterranean sea.
    "We don't have that many circulation of gold especially hoard's gold from the crusader period and our finding is in a way a rare finding within the archaeology of Israel that is dedicated to the crusader period," Professor Tal said.
    "The coins again, they are Fatimi, and basically they were minted in Egypt probably in Alexandria and they still await further study because the finding is very recent," he added.
    The fortress on the coast line and the city beside it was one of the crusaders' most important strongholds in the area, according to archaeologists. The fortress was then captured by the Mamluk Sultan Baybars who stormed the city after 40 days of siege, historians say.
    "We are basically in this season of excavation are more focused on the latest days of the destruction of the site which belong again to the Mamluk army. Basically we are uncovering occupation periods of the crusader period, layers of destruction that was caused by the Mamluk army," Professor Tal said.
    The cache consists of 108 gold coins, 93 of them containing four grams of gold and 15 coins containing one gram. Professor Tal has said he believes that these coins where hidden by a crusader just before the fortress fell to prevent the Mamluk army from finding it and perhaps with the hope of coming back to retrieve it some day.
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