Amazing Find Near the Dead Sea [ Petra Drachma coins, Bar Kochba revolt ]

Netscape.com ^ | August 2010 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

When Israeli archaeologists began excavating caves near the Dead Sea, they found a real treasure: nine rare silver coins that are believed to date back to a failed Jewish rebellion against the Romans in the second century A.D... archaeological finds relating to the three-year rebellion are rare, and these coins help tell the story of the families that Shimon Bar Kochba led into the caves of the Judean Desert at the end of the second Jewish uprising against the Romans to escape brutal repression -- a move that resulted in their exile... Only 2,000 such coins are known to exist, so finding nine more is considered a great treasure. One of the nine coins is particularly rare. Called the Petra Drachma, it is a half-ounce of silver and is the largest Jewish coin ever issued... one side of the coin shows Jerusalem's second Jewish temple, destroyed by the Romans during the first Jewish rebellion in the year 70. The other side shows another important Jewish symbol, the image of four plants, known as the four species, used during ceremonies for the festival of Sukkot. "Bar Kochba never minted his own coins, so what we have here is a Roman coin with the temple and the four species stamped over the portrait of the Roman emperor," Hanan Eshel, who led the digs and is the head of the Jewish Studies and Archaeology Department at Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University, explained... "It appears the people first hid their money before fleeing to caves farther in." The monetary value of the coins was high enough to buy a house. He assumes the money was abandoned in the cave because it was useless in the barren desert.

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

• Bar-Kochba Treasure Discovered in Judean Hills -- The largest-ever known number of coins from the time of Bar-Kochba, the Jewish leader against Roman invaders, has been discovered in the Judean Hills by cave researchers from Hebrew and Bar-Ilan Universities. [2009]
• Harrari Harps Recreates Biblical Instruments -- The kinor is taken from the Bar Kochba coin, the money used in the time of Shimon Bar Kochba and the Roman occupation. It has the imprint of a little kinor on it. In the Talmud it says there were ten strings. In the psalms, many times it says upon a harp of ten strings I will praise thee Hashem. There's something special about the number ten. [2008]

[SunkenCiv]

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
	Gods Graves Glyphs	To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
·Dogpile · Archaeologica · Mirabilis.ca · LiveScience · Biblical Archaeology Society · · Discover · Bronze Age Forum · Science Daily · Science News · Eurekalert · PhysOrg · · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · Archaeology · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · · History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword · ·

[nmh]

Very interesting!

“Because of where the coins were found—an empty cave and hidden under a large rock—Eshel says they tell a story: “It appears the people first hid their money before fleeing to caves farther in.” The monetary value of the coins was high enough to buy a house. He assumes the money was abandoned in the cave because it was useless in the barren desert.”

Thanks for the picture too!!!!

[InABunkerUnderSF]

There have been a number of finds recently, mostly gold, mostly “medallion” size pieces all in immaculate condition. It’s enough to make an old coin collector suspicious.

[Michel12]

You do still find a lot of these coins near the dead sea...

[SunkenCiv]

There’s been doubt about a number of the unremarkable finds in eastern Europe as well — the someone commonplace (and usually in poor condition) Roman and Byz. bronzes emerging from their long hiding due to the proliferation of good metal detection equipment in the former Warsaw Pact. But no one wants to spend days or weeks busting ‘em out and NOT find any silver or gold surprises. Used to be legit uncleaned masses of coins (and lost of dirt and whatnot) could be had for fairly little money on eBay etc.

[SunkenCiv]

It was either that, or get the “useless without pics” complaints. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

I hope to check it out sometime.

[Michel12]

It’s an amazing area... You’ll enjoy it.

[masadaman]

I’m thoroughly puzzled. How can their be “Jewish coins” from 2000 years ago when according to the MSM, Iran, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, the Arab League, Hamas and Hezbollah as well as most of Europe and our State Dept., the land was Palestine which rightfully belongs to the Palestinians?

[nmh]

Thanks again!

:)

[wildbill]

I think the reason the coins were left in their buried state has more to do with the fate of the rebellion than the fact that they weren’t of use in the desert. I don’t buy that usefulness explanation at all.

Hard money is always of use at some future time and that’s exactly why it is buried. The owner doesn’t want it on hs person, but expects to use it later when whatever danger prompts him to bury it is over.

It is more likely that the Romans eventually winkled out the rebels hidden in the caves and either sold them into slavery or killed them. Thus no one was left to go back for the buried coins.

[cryptical]

Less than 4.5 ounces of silver was enough to buy a house?

[Ancesthntr]

I also found that statement about the purchasing power of the coins to be quite fantastic. We’re not talking about a 6,000 s.f. McMansion with a 4-car garage, electricity, runnig water, etc., but that still seems incredible. That means that a $10 roll of pre-’65 quarters (about 7.2 oz.) would have bought a substantially larger home, something that strains belief.

[Ancesthntr]

We have 2 legitimate explanations for these coins - either it is time-traveling, imperialist Zionist criminals that planted them there, or else the Romans were among the earliest paricipants in the conspiracy against the Moose Limbs.

[SunkenCiv]

So much for “hard money” currency systems.

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2571021/posts?page=17#17

[Sherman Logan]

In the NT, Christ uses the denarius (.15 oz.) as the standard daily pay of an agricultural laborer.

If 4.5 oz. was enough to buy a house, then a day laborer of the time earned enough to buy a house in less than a month.

[jalisco555]

"Bar Kochba never minted his own coins, so what we have here is a Roman coin with the temple and the four species stamped over the portrait of the Roman emperor," Hanan Eshel, who led the digs and is the head of the Jewish Studies and Archaeology Department at Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University, explained to AP.

Is that right? I thought I'd read somewhere that Bar Kochba did mint coins. They said "Year 1 of the freedom of Jerusalem", "Year 2 of the freedom of Jerusalem", etc. I'm going from memory here but does anybody know for sure?