Ancient Jerualem Bar-Kochba Coin Discovered

The Israel Antiquities Authority informs us that a rare Bar-Kochba Revolt period has been discovered.  And hwere?

At the Foot of the Temple Mount, north of the City of David and it bears the inscription 

“Year Two of the Freedom of Israel,” 

with the reverse side featuring a palm tree and the word “Jerusalem.”

It is the only coin from the period of the Bar Kokhba revolt bearing 
the name “Jerusalem” ever discovered within Ancient Jerusalem.

As the Authority explains:

Coins from the period of the Bar Kokhba revolt, which declared the rebels’ purpose - to liberate Jerusalem from Roman occupation after the destruction of the city - are well-known in archeology. Discovering such coins helps researchers map out the revolt, which took place approximately 1,900 years ago. It is interesting to note that the rebels minted these revolt coins on Roman regime coins with stripped or damaged faces, possibly out of defiance of the Roman occupation. The revolt coins featured the Temple facade, trumpets, a harp/violin, as well as the inscriptions: “Redemption of Israel” and “Freedom of Israel.”

The coin:

Perhaps a Roman soldier who had picked it up as a souvenir, dropped it at camp.

Photo credit:  Photo: Koby Harati, City of David Archive (Koby is a friend)

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Thar's Gold In Those...Archaeological Excavations

The IAA, Israel Antiquities Authority informs us that a "treasure trove comprising c. 140 gold and silver coins together with gold jewelry was probably hidden by a wealthy lady at a time of impending danger during the Bar Kokhba Revolt" and was found:

A rich and extraordinary hoard that includes jewelry and silver and gold coins from the Roman period was recently exposed in a salvage excavation in the vicinity of Qiryat Gat...The rooms of a building dating to the Roman and Byzantine period were exposed during the course of the excavation. A pit that was dug in the earth and refilled was discerned in the building’s courtyard. To the archaeologist’s surprise, a spectacular treasure trove of exquisite quality was discovered in the pit wrapped in a cloth fabric, of which only several pieces remained on the artifacts.

According to archaeologist, Emil Aladjem, the excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The magnificent hoard includes gold jewelry, among them an earring crafted by a jeweler in the shape of a flower

 

and a ring with a precious stone on which there is a seal of a winged-goddess,

 

two sticks of silver that were probably kohl sticks, as well as some 140 gold and silver coins. The coins that were discovered date to the reigns of the Roman emperors Nero, Nerva and Trajan who ruled the Roman Empire from 54-117 CE...Saʽar Ganor, District Archaeologist of Ashkelon and the Western Negev for the Israel Antiquities Authority, adds “the composition of the numismatic artifacts and their quality are consistent with treasure troves that were previously attributed to the time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt. During the uprising, between 132-135 CE, the Jews under Roman rule would re-strike coins of the emperor Trajan with symbols of the revolt...This is probably an emergency cache that was concealed at the time of impending danger by a wealthy woman who wrapped her jewelry and money in a cloth and hid them deep in the ground prior to or during the Bar Kokhba Revolt. It is now clear that the owner of the hoard never returned to claim it.

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Tel Shiloh and A Coin Find

Today, the excavation at Tel Shiloh revealed what is known as a Bar Kochba coin [?]and see pgs. 6-8 here) [but please see UPDATE below]:

As soon as I get a better quality photograph, it will go up. [see below]

I thought it was not to be publicized but it came across my screen so you, too, now know.

The coin has the famous "For the Redemption of Jerusalem" inscription, it seems, although what year of the Second Great Revolt against Rome, I do not know.

Questions:

- was Shiloh involved in the Revolt? were there Jews here at that time?

- did Jews flee from Judea to hide from the Romans (and di they, out of desperation, head for a former sacred location, where the Tabernacle once was?)?

- did the coin belong to a Roman who dropped it here (why was he here?)?

- was it passed down to a Byzantine monk (a bit improbable but not impossible)?

Since I do not know in what layer of earth, whether in a piece of pottery, or a wall, or a room, you'll just have to wait, along with me.

In any case, it is just great that it was found two days before Jerusalem Day celebrations.

Remember, to get to Jerusalem one needs to go through Shiloh first.

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UPDATE

Have just been informed the following:

Two coins were uncovered today in a water cistern.  On one coin could be discerned two Hebrew letters:  ש   ת   and the archaeologist thinks actually this is from the Great Revolt period, not Bar Kochba [or at least minted at the time.  whether the coin was dropped at that time or later, we cannot know for sure (unless it was found in a jug or with another artifact that can be reliably dated)].  They are bronze and quite worn away.  We'll have to wait for laboratory cleaning.  In the cistern were considerable pieces of pottery from the end of the Second Temple period as well as glass pieces and additional bronze artifacts attesting to a Jewish presence. The assumption is that from the First Temple period until the Bar Kochba Revolt, a Jewish community maintained a presence at Shiloh in a continuous fashion [we know the Bible story in I Kings 14 of Achiyah at Shiloh during Yerov'am's reign. And, too, the men of Samaria and Shiloh going to Jerusalem, according to Jeremiah 41, "4 And it came to pass the second day after he had slain Gedaliah, and no man knew it, 5 that there came certain men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even fourscore men, having their beards shaven and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with meal-offerings and frankincense in their hand to bring them to the house of the LORD"].

New, better pictures:

P.S.  It seems my incorrect original information stemmed from an unauthorized source who had taken an unauthorized picture and Favebooked it from where yet a thrid party picked it up and then passed it along.

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Literally, Arabs Stealing Jewish History

Palestinians busted trying to sell 2,000 year-old Hebrew scroll

Two Palestinians were arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing a rare antique Hebrew scroll and attempting to sell it for millions of dollars...The rare historical document, handwritten in Hebrew on papyrus paper and estimated to be more than 2,000 years old, is a bill surrendering property rights. The document was written by a widow named Miryam Ben Yaakov, and hails from a period in which the people of Israel were exiled from the area and very few Jews remained.

The scroll also, unusually, clearly indicates a precise date on the first line: "Year 4 to the destruction of Israel". The intention is, presumably, either to the year 74 C.E. (the year when the Second Temple was destroyed during the Great Revolt) or to 138 A.D. (the annihilation of the Jewish settlement following the Bar Kokhva revolt).

...The document was apparently stolen from a cave within Israel's borders where antiquities raiders were digging...Police investigator Eli Cohen said Wednesday that officers was looking into how the suspects arrived at the scroll, and were they involved in other antiquities robberies.

BBC has a picture:



From AFP:

Amir Ganor, who heads the Israel Antiquities Authority's robbery prevention unit..."The document is very important from the standpoint of historical and national research. Until now almost no historic scrolls or documents from this period have been discovered in proper archaeological excavations."

"What we have here is rare historic evidence about the Jewish people in their country from 2,000 years ago," said Ganor.