Archaeology'An incredible amount of wealth in a small rural village'

Magnificent hoard of gold and silver coins sheds unprecedented light on medieval Israel

New research examines artifacts found in 2018 in two vessels next to the synagogue at Huqoq, in an excavation led by Prof. Jodi Magness; its findings could rewrite history books

  • During the 2018 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in north Israel, archaeologists uncovered a hoard of medieval coins. (Tal Rogovski)
    During the 2018 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in north Israel, archaeologists uncovered a hoard of medieval coins. (Tal Rogovski)
  • Deconstruction and cleaning of the hoard of coins found in Huqoq in 2018 by Mimi Lavi in her lab at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology with Dr. Robert Kool, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Coin Department. (Tal Rogovski)
    Deconstruction and cleaning of the hoard of coins found in Huqoq in 2018 by Mimi Lavi in her lab at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology with Dr. Robert Kool, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Coin Department. (Tal Rogovski)
  • During the 2018 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in North Israel, archaeologists uncovered a hoard of medieval coins. (Photos by Tal Rogovski.)
    During the 2018 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in North Israel, archaeologists uncovered a hoard of medieval coins. (Photos by Tal Rogovski.)
  • (From left) Matthew Grey, Jodi Magness, and Jocelyn Burney at the Huqoq excavations in Israel in 2023. (Jim Haberman)
    (From left) Matthew Grey, Jodi Magness, and Jocelyn Burney at the Huqoq excavations in Israel in 2023. (Jim Haberman)
  • During the 2023 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in North Israel, archaeologists uncovered part of the mosaic featuring a tiger chasing an ibex. (Jim Haberman/UNC)
    During the 2023 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in North Israel, archaeologists uncovered part of the mosaic featuring a tiger chasing an ibex. (Jim Haberman/UNC)

A magnificent assortment of 364 gold and silver coins dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries CE has been unearthed at the site of an ancient rural village in the Galilee, providing a surprising glimpse into life in the Land of Israel in medieval times.

The coins were found in 2018 in two juglets by a collapsed wall next to the late medieval synagogue at Huqoq, Dr. Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told The Times of Israel in conjunction with the publication of a paper earlier this month in the American Journal of Numismatics by Dr. Robert Kool, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Coin Department.

“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 Magness. “This allows us to shed unprecedented light on life in the area.”

The two identical pottery vessels — a detail that suggests that they were deposited there at the same time — contained beautifully engraved 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 ancient site of Huqoq is mentioned in the biblical Books of Joshua and Chronicles. It is also known by its Arabic name Yakuk, and is located about three kilometers northwest of the Sea of Galilee next to a perennial freshwater spring. Archaeological evidence testifies that it was already occupied in the Early Bronze Age or 3000 BCE. The modern Arab village Yakuk stood there until 1948.

Magness and her team began excavating the site in 2011 and went on for 11 seasons, concluding their fieldwork in 2023.

“The site had been surveyed but never excavated before,” Magness said over a video call. “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.”

During the 2018 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in North Israel, archaeologists uncovered a hoard of medieval coins. The first juglet was filled with gold coins and a golden earring. (Tal Rogovsky)

The Jerusalem Talmud references several sages who passed through or were from Huqoq, including Resh Lakish and Rabbi Ḥizkiah.

Magness’s wish came true as the archaeologists uncovered an impressive late Roman-era building featuring multicolor mosaics that vividly depict iconic biblical scenes. In the past few years, exquisite artwork portraying Noah’s Ark, the prophet Jonah, and stories from the Exodus grabbed headlines across the world.

To reach the 5th-century layer, however, the team also had to excavate more recent levels. In doing so, they unearthed remains that turned out to be as unique as the late Roman-era synagogue.

“As we uncovered the medieval level, we discovered that in the early 14th century, the original building that had been abandoned was rebuilt and expanded in size,” Magness said. “My assistant director, Dr. Dennis Mizzi, and I argue that the building, 24 meters long by 17 meters 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.”

Ishtori Haparchi, a Jewish physician from modern-day France who traveled through Europe and Egypt before settling in the Land of Israel in the first half of the 14th century, mentions an ancient synagogue with mosaic floors in Huqoq in the chronicles of his journey.

During the 2023 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in North Israel, archaeologists uncovered part of the mosaic featuring a tiger chasing an ibex. (Jim Haberman/UNC)

“We believe that he might have seen the original late Roman synagogue before the floors were covered when the building was expanded,” said Magness.

The synagogue is also the first evidence documenting that in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries, Huqoq still had a Jewish population, perhaps living side by side with Muslim residents, Magness pointed out.

“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.”

And yet, what was such an impressive treasure trove doing in a small rural village?

As explained in the paper, the coins were found in two juglets in what appeared to be a small pit covered in loose soil. They were removed from the site as an individual bundle and sent to the Israel Antiquities Authority labs in Jerusalem and eventually even to the Israel Police Bomb Disposal Unit, which offered access to its advanced X-ray device. This device allowed scholars to have a clearer idea of what the juglets contained before starting to deconstruct them.

Deconstruction and cleaning of the hoard of coins found in Huqoq in 2018 by Mimi Lavie in her lab at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology with Dr. Robert Kool, head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Coin Department. (Tal Rogovsky)

The first juglet carried 219 Venetian gold ducats and silver grossi, nine Mamluk gold dinars and silver dirhams, and one rare Serbian silver dinar. The second one contained 130 silver Mamluk dirham fractions and five large European silver coins of the 13th to 14th centuries with loops attached for use as jewelry. Nearby, the archaeologists unearthed another group of 10 Venetian grossi. Some pieces of jewelry, including earrings and a silver ring, were also found in the hoard.

“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,’” Kool explained in the paper.

A smaller silver coin, the grosso features images similar to the ducat, and from the 14th century, was used as a trade coinage in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Mamluk coins are mostly decorated with ribbons and arabesques.

During the 2018 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in north Israel, archaeologists uncovered a hoard of medieval coins. (Tal Rogovsky)

Over the centuries, a tradition developed according to which the biblical prophet Habakkuk was buried at Huqoq — likely because of the resemblance of the names. The area became a pilgrimage site, which could explain why the synagogue was rebuilt in the 14th century.

According to the researchers, there is a possibility that the treasure was connected to the presence of pilgrims in the area. Still, if that was the case, the hoard should feature coins slowly amassed from visitors over a longer period.

“The only part of the hoard that can be considered truly accumulative is a small number of pierced Venetian coins and European coins turned into pendants,” wrote Kool. “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.”

At the same time, Huqoq was located along a new barid – an international highway – established by the Mamluk sultan in the 14th century to connect Cairo and 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.”

According to Kool, Venetian traders and their subordinates also visited small villages like Ḥuqoq/Yaquq, where they bought products such as cotton to be shipped to Venice via Acre.

UNC-Chapel Hill participants on the Huqoq dig, including Prof. Jodi Magness (back row, second from left). (Jim Haberman)

“This discovery underscores the importance of archaeological context,” Magness said. “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.”

Magness noted that protecting the site from looters was one of the reasons they decided to wait before making the discovery public.

“We did not want people to flock to Huqoq trying to find coins themselves before we finished excavating,” she said.

During the 2018 season excavation at the Huqoq synagogue in North Israel, archaeologists uncovered a hoard of medieval coins. (Google maps/Ben Suissa)

The excavation area in Huqoq is currently under the control of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Keren Kayemet Le’Israel (Jewish National Fund). They plan to open it to the public in the future.

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