Archaeologists in Jerusalem discovered a rare miniature gold coin depicting the Egyptian queen Berenice II, and depicted the reign of her husband, the third ruler of Egypt’s Ptolemy kingdom.
Ptolemies were the royal family of Macedonia, founded during the Egyptian Hellenistic Period (around 323-30 BC) by Ptolemy Istar, one of the generals of Alexander the Great.
According to the Israeli Ancient Bureau (IAA), discovered in Jerusalem, the coin may have been minted in Alexandria two or two years ago. It may have been part of a collection of coins given to soldiers who returned from the Third Syrian War (246-241 BC), a conflict between Egypt’s Ptolemy Kingdom and the Seleucid Empire in Syria.
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“It’s a gorgeous coin,” Robert Cour, head of nickname at the IAA, said in a video explaining the discovery. “we [have] Only 17 of these coins have been found in the last 100 years. ”
Of these coins, this was the first to be discovered outside of Egypt in an organized excavation. It was excavated in the city of David, an archaeological site in East Jerusalem.
Rivka Langler, who has been excavating the area of the site known as Givati’s parking lot for two years, sifting through the soil and finds the coin. “When I saw something suddenly sparkling, I was sieving through the excavated soil,” Wrangler said in a statement. “In the beginning, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, but within seconds I was excitedly running through the excavation site.”
Related: 2,500 years old broken silver coins excavated near Jerusalem 2,500 years ago
One side of the coin shows a portrait of Queen Berenice II wearing a tiara, veil and necklace. The opposite side depicting Cornucopia and the two stars holds the ancient Greek inscription “Basilice,” meaning “Queen’s.”
Berenis II was the wife and spouse of Ptolemy III, who ruled in Egypt between 246 and 221 BC, but the inscription on the coin suggests that Berenis could have been her own ruler, according to the statement.
“She was the queen of today’s eastern Libya area called Kilinyaka,” Kur explained in the video. “When she married her cousin Ptolemy III, the area became part of this large, extremely important and rich kingdom of Hellenism.
The Queen of the Ptolemaic dynasty occasionally appears in the coins, with one famous example being Cleopatra VII (known simply as Cleopatra), daughter of Ptolemy XII. However, the new discoveries still stand out as one of the oldest coins, suggesting that Queen Berenice II II has a great political power or influence.
It is unclear how the coin ended in Jerusalem, but findings there indicate that the ancient city was rapidly recovering from the destruction of the first temple in 586 or 587 BC.
“Up to date, that was the general academic view. [after the siege] Jerusalem was a small, poor town of marginal resources,” said Yiftah Shalev, an IAA archaeologist who co-led the excavation.
However, “Jerusalem appears to have already begun to recover during the Persian era. [586 to 333 B.C.] Sherev said. “For centuries, Jerusalem said after the destruction of the first temple was a city in the process of renewal, not isolated, and that reestablished relations with the dominant political, economic and cultural centre of that era.
The Jerusalem elite may have shared a relationship with the Egyptian ruling elite, a professor of archaeology and director of excavation at Tel Aviv University. “The golden coin we found here… I say Jerusalem is an important city,” he said.
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