A huge collection of 364 gold and silver coins, dating to the 14th and 15th centuries, has been discovered at the site of an ancient village in Galilee in Israel. This medieval treasure was unearthed near a collapsed wall in the vicinity of a long-abandoned synagogue at Huqoq. Given the ancient settlement's presumed modest standing, the coin collection is surprisingly valuable.
“We do not know who the coins belonged to or why they were left there, but what we do know is we are looking at an incredible amount of wealth in a seemingly small rural village,” said excavation leader Jodi Magness, an archaeologist from the University of North Carolina, in an interview with the Times of Israel. “This allows us to shed unprecedented light on life in the area.”
This find was announced in conjunction with an article published in the American Journal of Numismatics by Dr. Robert Kool, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Coin Department, who was also involved in this discovery.
Inside two pottery vessels, the archaeological team found the coins, which included ducats and grossi coins from the Venetian Republic and dinars and dirhams from the Mamluk Sultanate, which ruled over the Levant between the mid-13th century and the 16th century. The variety of the coins shows that many different types of money would have been in circulation in the lands of Israel in the Middle Ages, all of which would have been accepted by merchants and traders.
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An Ancient Sacred Site Reveals its Secrets
The ancient site of Huqoq is mentioned in the Bible, in the Books of Joshua and Chronicles. It is located about three kilometers (1.86 mi) northwest of the Sea of Galilee next to freshwater spring, and excavations there show it was occupied as early as 3,000 BC.
The digs that produced this fascinating find went on for more than a decade and have only been announced now that the excavations have been completed.
“The site had been surveyed but never excavated before,” Magness explained. “When we started digging, one of my hopes was to identify the remains of a Galilean-type synagogue, similar to the one at nearby Capernaum, as we know that Huqoq at the time was a Jewish village mentioned in rabbinical sources.”
Magness and her team did indeed find the synagogue, which was built in the architectural style associated with the Late Roman period. It featured multicolor mosaics with religious and Biblical themes, including exquisite recreations telling the stories of Noah and the prophet Jonah, along with events mentioned in Exodus.
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Ornamental border panel in the mosaic of the Huqoq synagogue in Israel. (University of North Carolina)
The origins of the synagogue went back to the fifth century, which explains the Roman themes. But the excavations revealed something more.
“As we uncovered the medieval level, we discovered that in the early 14th century, the original building that had been abandoned and was rebuilt and expanded in size,” Magness said. “My assistant director, Dr. Dennis Mizzi, and I argue that the building, 24 meters (78.74 ft) long by 17 meters (55.77 ft) wide, was once again used as a synagogue, as we documented in a 2022 article, and this makes it the first late medieval synagogue ever discovered in an archaeological excavation in Israel.”
The existence of this synagogue proves that the settlement at Huqoq still had a Jewish population in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, living alongside Muslim neighbors.
“Before this find, we knew virtually nothing about life in rural Galilee in the late medieval period, and we had no evidence of Jewish settlements in the area,” she added. “This discovery helps us fill a huge knowledge gap.”
The existence of the valuable coin collection is mysterious, the archaeologists say, since that sort of wealth is not normally found in medieval rural settlements. Most were mired in poverty at that point in history.
The coins were found in two jugs in a small pit covered loosely with soil. The first jug contained 219 Venetian gold ducats and silver grossi, nine Mamluk gold dinars and silver dirhams, and one rare Serbian silver dinar. The second held 130 silver Mamluk dirham fractions and five large European silver coins of the 13th to 14th centuries, with loops attached so they could be worn as jewelry. Nearby the archaeologists dug up another cache of 10 Venetian grossi, and some pieces of jewelry, including earrings and a silver ring, were also recovered during these digs.
At the Huqoq synagogue in northern Israel, archaeologists discovered a hoard of medieval coins. The first jug contained gold coins and a gold earring. (University of North Carolina)
The Venetian ducats were decorated with religious iconography.
“On the obverse, the ducat depicts Saint Mark the Evangelist, the city’s saint, delivering a standard to a kneeling doge, with legends referring to the saint and the name of the reigning doge; its reverse shows Christ standing within a mandorla [an almond-shaped aureola] surrounded by stars and a Latin legend [that reads] ‘It is to You, Christ, that this Duchy is entrusted which You govern,’” Dr. Kool explained in his journal article.
The grosso featured similar imagery, while the Mamluk coins, representing Arab authority, were engraved with ribbons and arabesques.
Solving a Mystery: Where Did the Money Come From?
There was a legend in ancient times that claimed the Biblical prophet Habakkuk was buried at Huqoq, and as a result it became a popular pilgrimage site in the medieval period (hence the need to remodel or rebuild the ancient synagogue). The researchers believe the amalgamation of coins may somehow be related to that activity.
Tomb of Habakkuk. (The original uploader was מיכאלי at Hebrew Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0)
“Possibly, these could be remnants of a pilgrimage economy that developed at the site. Venetian money was particularly popular among Western pilgrims and travelers around this period, who recommended its use in the guidebooks they published back in Europe,” Dr. Kool wrote.
Huqoq was also located along an international trade route established by the Mamluk sultan in the 14th century, to connect the Mamluk capital in Cairo with Damascus.
“The circulation of Venetian money, particularly in northern Palestine, was a regional phenomenon during the late medieval period,” Kool added. “The continued influx of Venetian money during the first half of the 15th century seems to have been connected directly to the virtual monopoly of Venice on trade and export of goods from Mamluk Syria and Palestine during this period.”
How Archaeology Reconstructs History
In her comments about her team’s finds, Dr. Jodi Magness emphasized the unique value of archaeology in uncovering the truth about past events.
“If we had come across these coins for sale in the antiquities market, we would not have been able to learn about Jewish life in the land of Israel during the Middle Ages,” she noted.
The coins and many other artifacts were actually discovered a while ago, but only announced now. This was to protect the site at Huqoq from looters, who would have descended in droves if they knew valuable treasures could be found there. The excavation area in is currently under the control of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Keren Kayemet Le’Israel (Jewish National Fund) and will be opened to the public in the near future.
Top image: Archaeologists unearthed a cache of medieval coins at the Huqoq synagogue in northern Israel. Source: University of North Carolina
By Nathan Falde
