Gold coin hoard in Israel

In 2020 students volunteering at an archaeological dig in central Israel landed 425 gold coins that had lain buried in a clay jar for 1,100 years. The coins date to the early Islamic period, when the region was part of the Abbasid caliphate.

The coins weigh 845g and would have been a huge sum when they were buried - enough to buy a luxurious home. The cache consisted of full gold dinars and 270 small gold cuttings - pieces of dinars cut to serve as 'change'. Some of the cuttings were from a gold solidus of the Byzantine Emperor Theophilos minted in Constantinople. This provides evidence of the continuous trade connections between the two rival empires during the period.

The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammad’s youngest uncle, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes its name.