2016-06-10 Fri

16 rare 2,140 year-old, Hasmonean period coins comprising of shekels and half-shekels were discovered by archaeologists in a crack of an ancient wall in Modiin, central Israel. Officials have stated that the coins were minted at Tyre, and features images of king, Antiochus VII and his brother Demetrius Israeli.

The site was a flourishing agricultural estate and was currently up for development of a new township. The hoard consisted of two coins from every year between 135 to 126 BCE which suggests that the person who buried the cache safely was a coin collector. An area with an olive press, storehouses and rock-hewn winepresses are currently being excavated.

Numerous bronze coins of Hasmonean kings like Yehohanan, Judah, Jonathan, Mattathias were also discovered. Mattathias was the head of the Counsil of the Jews suggesting that the family was Jewish. Many tunnels and hideouts were also uncovered at the site suggesting that the area could have been a part of the Bar Kokhba uprising.