Spelunkers exploring an Israeli cave recently discovered a rare stash of 2,300-year-old coins and other objects. The find included silver coins minted during Alexander the Great’s reign.
Father and son cave explorers Reuven Zakai and Hen Zakai, with friend Lior Zhalony, were exploring the cave when they
discovered the coins and a cloth pouch containing silver jewelry, Fox News reported from an Israel Antiquities Authority release.
The three men were preparing for a caving club event when they went into narrow passageways inside the northern stalactite cave. They immediately reported their find to the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery.
When IAA representatives re-entered the cave, along with members of the caving club, they found numerous objects including pottery vessels and things dating back as far as 6,000 years.
“The combination of archaeological find and stalactite cave is unique, according to the IAA. Geologists will be able to analyze stalactite development, while archaeologists now have an easy marker to date some of the objects, given that a few of the pottery vessels bonded with limestone sediments,” Fox News said. “This gives researchers a way to trace when the stalactites formed as well as determine the artifacts’ age.”
This unusual find comes just a month after the
largest stash of gold coins ever found in Israel was discovered in the seabed in the harbor in Caesarea National Park.
The divers for that find
told IAA that they believed they found a toy coin, and then realized they’d found real treasure. “After quickly organizing, divers of the Israel Antiquities Authority went together with the group of divers out to where the coins were found and using a metal detector discovered almost 2,000 gold coins in different denominations: a dinar, half dinar and quarter dinar, of various dimensions and weight,” IAA said.
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