Rare Gold Coins And Treasures Linked To Crusaders’ Conquest Of Caesarea – Discovered

AncientPages.com - Hidden between two stones in the side of a wall, located in a house, archaeologists discovered a small bronze pot containing 24 gold coins and a 900-year-old golden earring. The coins are dated to the end of the 11th century and offer evidence of the Crusaders’ conquest of Caesarea, port city in Israel in the year 1101. It is regarded as one of the more critical events in the city’s medieval history.

Rare Gold Coins And Treasures Linked To Crusaders’ Conquest Of Caesarea – Discovered

Remnants of the Crusader-era fortifications at Caesarea, put into place by King Louis IX of France. Credit: Public Domain

“According to the Antiquities Authority, most inhabitants of the city were massacred by Baldwin I’s army between 1100 to 1118 CE. Baldwin I served as the king of the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem. The authority said it can be presumed that the treasure’s owner and his family likely died in the massacre or were sold into slavery. They would have been unable to return to the site of the cache and retrieve their hidden gold,” The Jerusalem Post reports.

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“The cache is of a unique combination of coins not yet seen in Israel consisting of two types of coins: 18 Fatimid dinars, well known from previous excavations in Caesarea, where it was the standard local currency of the time,” said Dr. Robert Kool, coin expert at the authority. “And a small and extremely rare group of six Byzantine imperial gold coins. Five of the coins are concave and belong to the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas (1071-1079 CE).”

Rare Gold Coins And Treasures Linked To Crusaders’ Conquest Of Caesarea – Discovered

Cache of gold coins and 900-year-old gold earring found in Caesarea. (photo credit: CLARA AMIT ISRAELI ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY)

Dr. Kool said the coins were not circulating among locals and this implies there could have been trade relations between Caesarea and Constantinople during the time. The owner of the coins must have been very wealthy or involved in trade. One coin would be equal to a farmer’s annual salary.

It should be added that the  discovery was made in a location where two other treasures of the same period have been found. A golden pot that held silver jewelry was found there in the 1960s, and a collection of bronze vessels was found in the 1990s. Both finds are displayed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

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