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The largest treasure of gold coins discovered in Israel was found in recent weeks on the seabed in the ancient harbor in Caesarea National Park. The group of divers from the diving club in the harbor found the lost treasure. According to them, at first they thought they had spotted a toy coin from a game and it was only after they understood the coin was “the real thing” that they collected several coins and quickly returned to the shore in order to inform the director of the dive club about their find who in turn reported the discovery to the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority. 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.

According to Kobi Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, this is fascinating and rare historical evidence of life in the past which was exposed during winter storms. “The discovery of such a large hoard of coins that had such tremendous economic power in antiquity raises several possibilities regarding its presence on the seabed. There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected. Perhaps the treasure of coins was meant to pay the salaries of the Fatimid military garrison which was stationed in Caesarea and protected the city. Another theory is that the treasure was money belonging to a large merchant ship that traded with the coastal cities and the port on the Mediterranean Sea and sank there. In the Marine Archaeological Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority they are hoping that with the salvage excavations that will be conducted there, it will be possible to supplement our understanding of the entire archaeological context, and thus answer the many questions that still remain unanswered about the treasure.

According to Robert Cole, an expert numismaticist with the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The coins are in an excellent state of preservation, and despite the fact they were at the bottom of the sea for about a thousand years, they did not require any cleaning or conservation intervention from the metallurgical laboratory. This is because gold is a noble metal and is not affected by air or water. The coins that were exposed also remained in the monetary circulation after the Crusader conquest, particularly in the port cities through which international commerce was conducted. Several of the coins that were found in the assemblage were bent and exhibit teeth and bite marks, evidence they were “physically” inspected by their owners or the merchants. Other coins bear signs of wear and abrasion from use while others seem as though they were just minted.

Kobi Sharvit had this to say about the divers who found the treasure and reported it (Tzvika Feuer, Kobi Tweena, Avivit Fishler, Yoav Lavi and Yoel Miller). These divers are model citizens. They discovered the gold and have a heart of gold that loves the country and its history” Sharvit added, “The Law of Antiquities states that all antiquities belong to the state and that not reporting or removing antiquities from their location, or selling or trading them is an offense punishable by up to five years imprisonment. In this case the divers reported the find; but in many instances divers take the objects home and that way extremely important archaeological information is lost forever, which cannot be recovered. Therefore the discovery of the treasure underscores the need to combine the development of the place as a tourism and diving site with restrictions that will allow the public to dive there only when accompanied by inspectors or instructors from the diving club”.

The Caesarea Development Company and Nature and Parks Authority welcomed the discovery of the treasure. According to them, “There is no doubt that the discovery of the impressive treasure highlights the uniqueness of Caesarea as an ancient port city with rich history and cultural heritage. After 2,000 years it is still capable of captivating its many visitors, of continuing to innovate and surprise again when other parts of its mysterious past are revealed in the ground and in the sea”.

The Historical Background

The earliest coin exposed in the treasure is a quarter dinar minted in Palermo, Sicily in the second half of the ninth century CE. Most of the coins though belong to the Fatimid caliphs Al-Ḥākim (996–1021 CE) and his son Al-Ẓāhir (1021–1036), and were minted in Egypt and North Africa. The coin assemblage included no coins from the Eastern Islamic dynasties and it can therefore be stated with certainty this is a Fatimid treasure. The great value and significance of the treasure become apparent when viewed in light of the historical sources. For example, the description of the traveler and geographer Ibn Jubayr who writes that the Muslim residents of the settlements were required to pay the Fatimid government half their agricultural produce at harvest time, in addition to payment of a head tax of one dinar and five carats (twenty-four carats equal one dinar, hence the method used to measure gold according to carats). Descriptions in the Cairo Geniza from the eleventh and twelfth century CE tell, among other things, of the redemption of prisoners, including Jewish captives from Ashkelon that were transferred to Egypt. According to the documents, the Jewish community paid a sum of about five hundred gold dinars to redeem and return them to Israel, after which there still remained a debt of two hundred dinars. An especially high amount was paid for very important individuals. Thus one instance is mentioned in which eighty dinars were requested for the redemption of one prisoner. We know from the Cairo Geniza that gold coins were stored in sealed purses that contained c. 100 gold dinars, but not more than that.

The Fatimid kingdom was extremely rich and its wealth was legendary. The treasury at the time reported there were twelve million gold dinars in the capital’s coffers in al-Qahira (today’s Cairo). The rise of the Fatimid dynasty to power in the second half of the tenth century CE and its political and economic policies brought renewed growth to the maritime trade in the eastern Mediterranean basin. The Fatimids, who came from North Africa, brought trading practices to Egypt which were characteristic of the western Mediterranean Sea. Under their rule Caesarea and other coastal cities were developed. City walls were built; governors who were directly subordinate to the government in Egypt resided in them and had at their disposal garrisons that protected the cities against potential enemies. One of the outstanding features of this period is the expansion of international trade whereby merchant ships sailed alongside warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Even during times of conflict and siege commerce between the Muslims and Crusaders did not cease and it prospered in times of peace.

Caesarea flourished and prospered during this period; vibrant commerce with other port cities was conducted through it despite the poor condition of the harbor which was built by Herod in Roman times. The Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi describes Caesarea in his book The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions which was written in c. 958 CE, a time when the Fatimids were waging war in Israel and Syria, “There is no more beautiful a city than it… its location is pleasant and its fruit delicious, and the city is also famous for its buffalo milk and white bread. It is protected by an impregnable fortress whose walls surround its inhabited territory. The drinking water is drawn from cisterns and wells”. Similar descriptions also appear in the book by the noted Persian traveler Nasir Khusraw who visited Caesarea in 1047 CE. “A fine city blessed with an abundance of dates, oranges and lemons and flowing water, its walls are strong and the city gate is iron, water bursts forth in the city and from the courtyard of the Friday mosque one can see the sea and all that passes on it”. Caesarea, which was enclosed within a mighty wall and had a garrison stationed there, did not capitulate to the Crusader army that passed it in 1099 CE on its way to Jerusalem, and the city only surrendered to the invaders on May 17, 1101 CE, after a two week siege.

Photos:

1–2. Almost 2,000 coins were discovered on the seabed. Photographic credit: Kobi Sharvit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

3–7. The rare treasure. Photographic credit: Clara Amit, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)