Last stand: The coins were buried by Christian soldiers of the order of the Knights Hospitalier as the Crusaders faced an unstoppable attack by a huge Muslim army
More text, many pictures, and a video at source.
Posted on 07/11/2012 6:56:15 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
A pot of gold from the Crusades worth up to $500,000 has been found buried in an ancient Roman fortress in Israel.
The coins were buried by Christian soldiers of the order of the Knights Hospitalier as the Crusaders faced an unstoppable attack by a huge Muslim army. The knights were annihilated in April 1265.
The coins - worth a fortune even in 1265 when they were thought to have been buried - were deliberately hidden inside a broken jug to prevent them being discovered.
The fortress was destroyed in April 1265 by forces of Mamluks who overwhelmed the Crusaders - and the treasure only survived due to the quick thinking of one of the defenders.
'It was in a small juglet, and it was partly broken,' Oren Tal of the University of Tel Aviv told Fox News. 'The idea was to put something broken in the ground and fill it with sand, in order to hide the gold coins within. If by chance somebody were to find the juglet, he won’t excavate it, he won’t look inside it to find the gold coins. Once we started to sift it, the gold came out.'
The Roman fortress in Apollonia National Park has yielded a huge number of archaeological treasures - but scientists excavating layer from the thirteenth century were stunned to unearth a literal pot of gold.
The clay container had more than 100 gold dinals from the time when the Crusaders occupied the fortress, originally built by the Romans.
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(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Last stand: The coins were buried by Christian soldiers of the order of the Knights Hospitalier as the Crusaders faced an unstoppable attack by a huge Muslim army
More text, many pictures, and a video at source.
Btt for later
Full title is:
The Crusaders’ last stand: Pot of gold worth £300,000 found in fortress where it was buried by doomed force of Christian knights
Ping for later
Interesting. Actually presents the Crusades in context, rather than as an unprovoked attack by evil Christians on peaceful Muslims.
Thy would have done a lot better [and probably survived a lot longer] if they had allied with the Mongols of Hulegu Quan, instead of giving food, shelter and passage to the Mamelukes who sold them on the ‘we’re all brothers of the book crap’.
“Under Al-Hakim in the early 11th century, thousands of churches were destroyed throughout the ancient Christian heartland of the Middle East, and when the Seljuk Turks captured Jerusalem in 1077, just 22 years before it fell to the Crusaders, they too massacred some three thousand inhabitants.
All these Islamic attacks on the West occurred before the First Crusade. Some scholars even argue that the very idea of ‘holy war’ was learned from the example of Islam on the march.”
The KEY statement for understanding WHY there were crusades against Muslim pigs. And in 1000 years NOTHING has changed as Timbuktu, Egypt and OTHER places currently indicate.
The Knights Hospitaler are still in existence. Do they get their money back?
Good point! I hope they ask for it. They could donate a few coins to the Depat. of Antiquities in gratitude for keeping the horde safe all these years.
Seriously, isn’t that gold beautiful? It is easy to see why gold has always been prized.
Really good and accurate info on the Crusades at the link. It’s a shame that the page is also filled with links to a lot of Hollywood garbage.
“It is easy to see why gold has always been prized.”
I’m waiting for the usual Freepers to show up and say gold is just a useless, worthless relic of the barbaric past.
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Thanks afraidfortherepublic, and SJackson for the additional ping. |
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The gold belongs to Israel now, correct?
I wonder if they received the nobama DNC email telling everyone to donage their wedding gifts, graduation gifts and so forth to his campaign? Surely, they will comply so as to help nobama.
Amazing!
THE most courageous of the Crusaders.
Maltese Cross, symbol of the Hospitallers.
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