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The
treasure was discovered on Aug. 18, the Israel Antiquities
Authority said on Monday, by teenagers volunteering at an
excavation in central Israel where a new neighbourhood is
planned to be built.
"The person who buried this treasure 1,100 years ago must have
expected to retrieve it and even secured the vessel with a nail
so that it would not move. We can only guess what prevented him
from returning to collect this treasure," said excavation
director Liat Nadav-Ziv.
The area it was found in housed workshops at the time the
treasure was hidden and the identity of the owner is still a
mystery.
"It was amazing," said Oz Cohen, one of the volunteers who found
the treasure.
"I dug in the ground and when I excavated the soil, saw what
looked like very thin leaves. When I looked again I saw these
were gold coins. It was really exciting to find such a special
and ancient treasure."
Dating back to the ninth century Abbasid Caliphate period, the
425 24-carat pure gold coins would have been a significant
amount of money at the time, said Robert Kool, a coin expert at
the Antiquities Authority.
"For example, with such a sum, a person could buy a luxurious
house in one of the best neighbourhoods in Fustat, the enormous
wealthy capital of Egypt in those days," Kool said.
(Reporting by Rinat Harash; Writing by Maayan Lubell, editing by
Ed Osmond)
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