A rare and unusual coin was found in excavations near the Temple Mount
In recent excavations at the Givat Ofal site south of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the remains of a magnificent public building from the Second Temple period, which was destroyed in 70 CE, were uncovered.
In the layer of destruction, dozens of Jewish coins from the time of the Great Revolt against the Romans (66-70 CE) were discovered, most of which are made of bronze. An unusual and especially rare is a silver coin worth half a shekel from the third year of the revolt, which was found among the coins - one of the few of its kind found in the excavations of time.
The excavations were conducted by a delegation from the Hebrew University, led by Prof. Uzi Liebner from the Institute of Archaeology, in collaboration with Armstrong College from Oklahoma in the USA and with the assistance of the government company for the development of East Jerusalem, the Antiquities Authority and the Nature and Parks Authority.
During the great revolt against the Romans, the Jews in Jerusalem minted bronze and silver coins. On most of the silver coins, a cup appears on one side, and above it, in the letters of the ancient Hebrew script, the year of the rebellion in which it was minted is indicated, and around the cup is the inscription "Israeli Shekel", "Half Shekel" or "Quarter Shekel", depending on the value. On the other side appears a branch with three pomegranates and around it the inscription "Holy Jerusalem", also in the ancient Hebrew script.
The recently found rare coin was identified by Dr. Yoav Farhi, expedition scientist and curator at the Land of Israel Museum in Tel Aviv. The researchers explain that the minting of the coins during the rebellion, especially those made of silver, was a political statement and an expression of national liberation of the Jewish rebels against the Roman rule, since during the period Roman authority to mint silver coins was vested in the emperor.
Indeed, throughout the Roman period until the Great Revolt, no silver coins were minted by Jews at all, not even in the days of King Herod the Great. According to the researchers, the half shekel coins were also used to pay a tax for the worship expenses in the temple, which was paid annually by every adult male.
The silver coins of the Great Rebellion were the first and last in antiquity to bear the name "Shekel". The next time was on the Israeli shekel coins issued by the Bank of Israel in 1980.
מטבע מימי האימפריה הרומית התגלה דרומית להר הבית, בחפירות של האוניברסיטה העברית
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