Participating in an excavation as part of their mandatory national service, two young Israelis discovered a trove of gold coins from the 10th century CE, when the Baghdad-based Abbasid caliphate ruled most of the Middle East, including the Land of Israel. The Jerusalem Post reports:
“The cache, deliberately buried in the ground inside a clay jug, held 424 gold coins, with most dated to the early Islamic period and the Abbasid dynasty,” explained Liat Nadav-Ziv and Eli Hadad, the administrators of the dig. “The person who buried his treasure 1,100 years ago definitely expected to come back to take it, and even fixed the vessel with a nail so that it would not move.”
It’s unknown why the person who buried the coins didn’t return to get them.
Robert Cole, a coin expert at the Israel Antiquities Authority, explained that the coin cache was one of the oldest ever found from the Abbasid period. The coins were made of 846 grams of solid 24-karat gold. “A significant amount of money in those days,” explained Cole. “For example with a sum [of cash] like this, a person could buy a fancy house in one of the best neighborhoods in Fustat, the capital of Egypt” [where Moses Maimonides would later make his home].
Read more on Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/hundreds-of-1100-year-old-solid-gold-coins-found-in-central-israel-639730