Wed 11 November 2020:
Four gold coins were recently discovered inside a pottery jar found that were minted more than 1,000 years ago, during an excavation in the Western Wall Plaza of Jerusalem’s Old City.
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said the coins were unearthed during excavation work near the Western Wall, which is the holiest site where Jews can pray.
The coins, contained in a small jug, “were in excellent preservation and were immediately identifiable even without cleaning,” IAA specialist Robert Kool said in a statement.
em and the surrounding region, Kool added.
During that period, the ruling Sunni Abbasid caliphate, which was headquartered in Baghdad, lost control of Jerusalem to its rival, the Shia Fatimid dynasty of North Africa, which fell in the 12th Century.
“This is the first time in fifty years that a gold cache from the Fatimid period has been discovered in Jerusalem’s Old City,” Kool said.
Israeli excavators last uncovered gold from the Fatimid period shortly after the 1967 Six-Day War, which saw Israel seize control of east Jerusalem from Jordan, before annexing it.
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