The largest hoard of gold coins in Israel was discovered at the bottom of the sea in the ancient port of Caesarea National Park

The gold coins from the Fatimid period (11th century AD) were discovered by a group of divers who reported the find to the Antiquities Authority. In an excavation by the PA's maritime archeology unit, about 2,000 coins that are about 1,000 years old were uncovered

Yaakov Sharvit, Director of the Maritime Archeology Unit at the Antiquities Authority: "Winter storms reveal treasures from the sea"

The largest hoard of gold coins discovered in Israel was found in recent weeks on the seabed, in the ancient harbor in the Caesarea National Park. A group diving at the diving club in the port, is the one who found the lost treasure. According to them, at first they thought it was a toy game coin, and only after realizing that it was a real treasure, they collected some coins with them and quickly returned to the beach to report to the director of the diving club, who called the maritime archeology unit at the Antiquities Authority. After a quick organization, the PA divers went to the scene together with the divers, and using a metal detector, uncovered about 2,000 gold coins of different denominations: dinar, half dinar and quarter dinar, in sizes of different sizes and weights.

According to Yaakov Sharvit, director of the Maritime Archeology Unit at the Antiquities Authority, this is a fascinating and rare historical testimony to the past, which was uncovered following the winter storms. "The discovery of such a large hoard of coins, which was of such great economic value, points to several possibilities for its being at the bottom of the sea: it is possible that it is a ship that was wrecked on the spot, and which carried tax money that was on its way to the central government in Egypt, and perhaps a hoard of coins intended to pay salaries to the Fatimid garrison that sat in Caesarea and the Garden on the city Another theory is that the treasure was cash from a large merchant ship that traded with the coastal cities and the port in the Mediterranean Sea, and sank there." In the Maritime Archeology Unit of the Antiquities Authority, it is hoped that in the archaeological excavations that will be done there, it will be possible to complete the understanding of the entire archaeological complex, and in this way answer the many questions that still remain unanswered regarding the treasure.

According to Robert Cole, a coin expert at the Antiquities Authority, "the state of preservation of the gold coins is excellent, and even though they were at the bottom of the sea for about a thousand years, they did not need laboratory intervention for cleaning and preservation. This is because gold is a noble metal, and is not affected by air or water. The gold coins that were discovered were in circulation even after the Crusader conquest and especially in the port cities through which international trade took place. Some of the coins found in the assemblage were crooked and had bite marks on them, evidence of a physical examination of the teeth by their owners or merchants. Other coins showed wear from use, and others looked as if they had just been minted.

About the divers who found the treasure and reported it (Zvika Pierre, Kobi Toina, Avivit Fischler, Yoav Lavi and Yoel Miller) Yaakov Sharvit says that "it is about exemplary citizenship and a group of gold diggers with hearts of gold, who love the land and its history." Sharvit adds that "the antiquities law states that the antiquities belong to the state and an offense for not reporting or removing antiquities from their place or trading in them is punishable by up to five years in prison. In this case the divers reported the find, but in many cases the divers take the objects home and thus important archaeological information that cannot be recovered is lost forever. Therefore, the discovery of the treasure sharpens the need to combine the development of the place as a tourist and diving site, with the restriction of diving in the place accompanied by inspectors or with guides from the diving club only".

The Caesarea Development Company and the Nature and Parks Authority welcome 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 a rich history and cultural heritage. Still, after 2,000 years, it is able to cast a spell on the many visitors, to continue to innovate, and to surprise every time anew when more parts of the mysteries of its past on land and sea are revealed."

Extension and historical background:

The oldest coin uncovered in the treasure is a quarter of a dinar and it was minted in the Palermo mint in Sicily in the second half of the 9th century AD. Most of the coins belong to Khalif al-Hakim (from the years 996-1021 AD) and his son al-Zahir 1021-1036 AD), and they were minted in Egypt and North Africa. No coins from the Eastern Muslim dynasties were found in the assemblage of coins, and therefore it can be determined with certainty that this is a Fatimid treasure.

The great and significant value of the treasure is made clear through historical sources such as the description of the traveler Ivan Jubayr, who says that the residents of the Muslim settlements were required to pay the Fatimid government half of the harvest during the harvest, in addition to paying a skull tax of one dinar and five korats (24 korats were worth one dinar, Hence also the method of measuring gold by carat).
Descriptions in the writings of the "Cairo Geniza" from the 11th and 12th centuries AD, tell, among other things, about the redemption of captives, including Jewish captives from Ashkelon who were transported to Egypt. According to the scripture, the Jewish community paid about 500 gold dinars for their redemption and return to Israel, and a debt of two hundred dinars remained. For high profile people a particularly high amount was paid. Thus, a case was recalled in which they requested an amount of 80 dinars for the redemption of one captive. From the Cairo genizah we learn about keeping gold coins in wallets that contained up to about 100 gold dinars, but no more than that.

The Fatimid kingdom was extremely rich and its wealth was enormous. Treasury reports in those days testify to 12 million gold dinars, which was in the coffers of the capital in Cairo (ancient Postat). The rise of the Fatimid dynasty to power in the second half of the 10th century AD, and its political and economic policies, led to a renewed flourishing of maritime trade in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean Sea. The Fatimids, who came from North Africa, brought to Egypt trade patterns that were typical of the western Mediterranean. Under their rule, Caesarea and other coastal cities were cultivated, walls were built, and a governor who was directly subordinate to the government in Egypt sat in them, and at his disposal was a garrison that protected the city from potential enemies. One of the prominent characteristics of this period is the expansion of international trade: in the eastern Mediterranean, merchant ships sailed alongside warships. This trade did not stop between the Muslims and the Crusaders even during war and siege, and flourished in times of peace.

During this period, Caesarea flourished and prospered, and lively trade was conducted through it with other port cities, - and this despite the bad condition of the port, which was built by Herod in the Roman period. The traveler Al Moqdassi, in his book "About the Regions of the Muslim World", written around 958 CE, a period of the height of the wars waged by the Fatimids in the Land of Israel and Syria, describes Caesarea: "There is no other city as beautiful as it...its soils are good and its fruits are fine, and the city is also famous for buffalo milk and white bread. An impenetrable fortification guards the city and protects well-populated residential districts, drinking water is supplied from wells and cisterns." Such descriptions also appear in the book of the Persian traveler Nazir al Khosru, who arrived in Caesarea in 1074 AD. "A good city full of dates, oranges and lemons and flowing water, its walls are strong and the city has an iron gate, water bursts through the city and from the courtyard of the Friday Mosque you can see the sea and everything that passes through it." Caesarea, which was surrounded by a strong wall and in which a garrison was stationed, did not surrender to the Crusader army that passed through it in 1099 on its way to Jerusalem, and only after a siege that lasted two weeks was it conquered by the Crusaders on May 17, 1101.