Researchers unearthed 160 coins belonging to the second king of the Hasmonean dynasty, the University of Haifa’s Zinman Institute of Archaeology announced on Monday.
Shay Bar, Yoav Farhi, and Mechael Osband, who led the excavation, discovered the 80/79 BCE-style coins on Friday – the third day of Hanukkah.
Gelt, meaning gold or money, is traditionally gifted at Hanukkah. While now it is common for children to receive chocolate coins, the archaeology team discovered far rarer relics.
“All of our students and volunteers were very excited to find this Hasmonean relic, especially during Hanukkah,” Bar said. “This gave the holiday an added sense of significance, especially during this difficult time for the Jewish people. I hope that people will be drawn to visit this place and it will become a protected archaeological heritage site in Israel.
“We believe that the coins were discovered at a way station, which we didn’t know about until this excavation,” Bar added. “The site included a purification mikveh, a pool and other buildings and was located along the Tirza River Valley on the main road that leads to the Sartaba fortress which was built by King Jannaeus.”
A piece of Israel's history
The Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus – a descendant of Jewish royalty whose Hebrew name was Jonathan – ruled over the Kingdom of Judea from 103 to 76 BCE, the statement said. Jannaeus was the great-nephew of Judah Maccabee and the great-grandson of Matthias, who led the 167 BCE revolt against Antiochus’s armies.
Not many coins belonging to Jannaeus have been discovered, the statement said, making this “extremely rare” and one of the largest coin finds in Israel.
Farhi, a curator at the Israel Eretz Israel Museum, said on one side, each coin has an eight-pointed star and an Aramaic inscription reading, “King Alexander, Year 25.” The other side displays an anchor and a Greek inscription reading, “[Coin of] King Alexander.”
The Hasmonean kingdom – named after Hasmon, a distant ancestor of the Maccabees – lost its independence to the Romans in 63 BCE, and Roman governors later ruled directly over Judea. In 37 BCE, the Hasmoneans fell to Herod the Great, a Roman of Edomite descent, and the Herodian dynasty began.
Zachary Keyser contributed to this report.