Spelunkers Find Cache of Jewelry and Coins of Alexander the Great in Israel
Archaeology news
Silver coin of Alexander the Great, here depicted in the guise of the Greek hero Herakles wearing a lion-skin cloak, discovered in a cave in northern Israel. Photo: Shmuel Magal, courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority.
Just a month after divers found a hoard of 10th–11th-century C.E. coins off the coast of Caesarea in Israel, spelunkers exploring a cave in northern Israel have discovered a cache of ancient jewelry and two coins of Alexander the Great.
The three spelunkers, who are members of the Israeli Caving Club, were visiting one of the largest stalactite caves in northern Israel when they spotted the well-hidden treasure. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the explorers then reported their discovery to inspectors of the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Theft.
The two silver coins discovered in the stalactite cave were minted during the reign of Alexander the Great of Macedon (r. 336–323 B.C.E.). From 334–331, Alexander led a series of campaigns against the Persians, whose empire stretched from Asia Minor and Egypt across the Middle East to northern India and central Asia. Frank Holt, a leading authority on Alexander the Great, describes the Macedonian king’s battles against the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the July/August 2001 issue of Archaeology Odyssey:
Backed by a shaky coalition of Greek city-states, Alexander led an army of 37,000 troops against Persia in the spring of 334 B.C. He soon rocked the cradle of civilization with astonishing victories: the Battle of Granicus in 334, the Battle of Issus in 333, the Siege of Tyre in 332 and the Battle of Gaugamela in 331. In just four years, Alexander overran and occupied the rich territories of the modern Middle East, including Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Iran. The Persian “King of Kings,” Darius III, lay dead, his palaces plundered and his armies—which had always outnumbered Alexander’s—scattered. At the age of 26, Alexander had become the mightiest, wealthiest and most celebrated conqueror of all time.
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The 2,300-year-old cache of jewelry and two Alexander the Great coins. Photo: Clara Amit, courtesy Israel Antiquities Authority.
The coins of Alexander the Great spotted in the cave were found with silver and bronze rings, bracelets and earrings dating back 2,300 years.
“The valuables might have been hidden in the cave by local residents who fled there during the period of governmental unrest stemming from the death of Alexander, a time when the Wars of the Diadochi broke out … between Alexander’s heirs following his death,” said IAA archaeologists in a statement. “Presumably the cache was hidden in the hope of better days, but today we know that whoever buried the treasure never returned to collect it.”
Following the spelunkers’ discovery, IAA authorities visited the cave—the location of which has not yet been revealed due to security reasons. The authorities found more artifacts, including pottery vessels, which point to signs of human occupation in the cave from the Early Bronze Age through the Hellenistic period.
“Thanks to [the spelunkers’] awareness, researchers at the Israel Antiquities Authority will be able to expand the existing archaeological knowledge about the development of society and culture in the Land of Israel in antiquity,” said Amir Ganor, director of the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery.
Related reading in Bible History Daily:
Alexander in the East
When the known world proved too small, Alexander the Great set his sights east. At its height, Alexander’s empire stretched east to India, north to the Danube River and south to the upper Nile.
Amphipolis Excavation: Discoveries in Alexander the Great-Era Tomb Dazzle the World
Dating to the time of legendary Macedonian king Alexander the Great, the Amphipolis Tomb in Greece has been making headlines around the world.
2,800-Year-Old Farmhouse Discovered in Israel
A silver coin of Alexander the Great was discovered under the floor of an ancient farmhouse in Israel.
The Ancient Library of Alexandria
Begun in 306 B.C.E., the Library of Alexandria was a research center that held one million books by the time of Jesus.
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The jewelry was deposited in the cave following the death of Alexander and a vacuum was created in which the subsequent struggle for power brings a period of instability as the article suggests, seeing as though they didn’t come back to retrieve the items. The first book of Maccabees 1:1-9 sums up this conqueror’s achievements, advancing “to the ends of the earth” while “his ambitious heart swelled with pride” and after which he was succeeded by his generals who divided up the empire and became the source for “increasing evils in the world.”
The silver coin in the above photo depicting Alexander wearing a lion’s pelt like the legendary Heracles is how Alexander was portrayed in the film “Alexander” when he drinks the poisoned beverage after returning from his eastern conquests to Babylon, having given up his quest to find the the Ocean from which to circumnavigate the world. Before the time of Alexander the historian Herodotus wrote of an account by Greeks from the Black Sea region who claim that Heracles was the father of the Scythian peoples after arriving there from an island beyond the Pillars of Heracles, regarded as the “end of the earth” and that according to Herodotus, “legend says that Ocean is a great river running from the east all around the world; but there is nothing to prove this” (“The Histories” book 4, section 8).
In “The Ocean in the Literature of the Western Semites” by A. J. Wensinck, the Hebrew word “tehom” that is translated “the deep” and “abyss” was regarded as the state of the primordial element mentioned in Genesis 1:2; “darkness was over the face of the deep.” In the book of Jonah chapter 2 the prophet prays from inside the fish where the word for “deep” is interchanged with the words for “netherworld” and “pit,” and the westward journey on board the ship of Tarshish is also to the ends of the earth. From the various translations of “The Romance of Alexander the Great” by Pseudo-Callisthenes, Wensinck stitches together traditions concerning the quest to reach the dark ocean believed to encircle the earth where nothing can live as if it was the modern notion of the vacuum of space.
“In version C of Pseudo-Callisthenes, Alexander’s journey along the ocean is described as a journey through the land of darkness, as may appear from this description: Starting from there, Alexander marched through the desert towards the ocean, while he no longer did see anything, neither birds nor animals, except heaven and earth; but they no longer saw the sun, only the black air” (Wensinck, p.42).
Paradoxically, the “tehom” was believed to be not only the abode of the dead but the source of life like a subterranean freshwater spring. In the Ethiopian book of Enoch, the patriarch journeys to the west where he was shown a “great and high mountain of hard rock and inside it four hollow corners” which was “deep and dark to look at”, whereupon his angelic guide informs him that “these hollow corners (are here) in order that the spirits of the souls of the dead should assemble into them” (1 Enoch 22:2-3).
“It is also certain that Henoch’s vision is a vision of Sheol; this means, that the entrance of the ocean, the utmost West, is really no longer a part of the earth, but of the netherworld” (Wensinck, p,34).
Enoch then inquires about the souls whose “voices were reaching into heaven at that moment” and is informed that it is “the spirit which had left Abel, whom Cain, his brother, had killed” (1 Enoch 22:6-7). The souls are waiting for the day of judgement and the righteous are separated by a “spring of water with light in it” (1 Enoch 22:9), and this accords with what Jesus said about God’s avenging the righteous, “from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah,” the priest murdered between the alter and the sanctuary (Matthew 23:35, Luke 11:51, 2 Chronicles 24:21). I am of the opinion that Abel is none other than the ancient city of Ebla that was conquered in the middle of the 3rd millenium B.C.E. by the Akkadian kings Sargon and his grandson Naram Sin. The city was a major trading hub in northern Canaan that specialized in the industry of textiles and was strategically located to protect the road to the cedar forests in the west, like “the way to the tree of life” (Genesis 3:24). Here we have the secret ingredients used in the sacrifice of the Red Heifer in Numbers 19:6: a piece of wool fabric dyed scarlet color and a piece of cedar wood. This along with a branch of hyssop used in water purification rituals (Psalm 51:7) that had tiny cup-like leaves that retained water and was intended to flush out impurity by a “pure man” (Numbers 19:9) that in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q276-277) meant a person who “pure of all sin[ful] impurity.”
“For if the blood of goats and of bulls and the ashes of a heifer on those who have been defiled sanctifies to the extent of cleanness of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works that we may render sacred service to [the] living God” (Hebrews 9:13-14). The ritual purification that acts as an anecdote for the body after coming in contact with a corpse also serves as an anecdote for the spirit after coming in contact with “dead works.” In Jesus’ time the Red Heifer was sacrificed on top of the Mount of Olives where Jesus made reference to the “abomination that causes desolation” (Matthew 24:15, Daniel 9:27, 1 Maccabees 1:41-54) occurring in the sanctuary and polluting everything that the people held sacred.
That coin of Alexander looks fabulous. I’m not a coin expert but the words ‘mint’ and ‘uncirculated’ come to mind.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND BIBLE PROPHECY
Prophecy Fulfillment
“A male of the goats . . . After defeating the
proceeded to strike down the Medo-Persian forces twice
ram and to break its two horns.” in Asia Minor, Alexander’s
“The ram that you saw possessing army pushed first to the S
the two horns stands for the and then to the E, completely
kings of Media and Persia. And conquering the Medo-Persian
the hairy he-goat stands for the Empire
king of Greece.”
(Da 8:5, 7, 20, 21)
“And your [Tyre’s] dust they In 332 B.C.E., Alexander
will place in the very midst of used the rubble of the
the water.” (Eze 26:4, 12) mainland city of Tyre to build
a causeway to the island city,
which he destroyed
“As soon as it became mighty, In 323 B.C.E., at 32 years of
the great horn was broken.” age, he was stricken and died
(Da 8:8)
“Desolate wastes to time His grandiose plans to rebuild
indefinite are what [Babylon] Babylon as his capital thus
will become.” (Jer 51:26) failed, and finally its site
became a desolate waste
“His kingdom will be broken Alexander’s heirs were
and be divided . . . but not to murdered, and the kingdom
his posterity.” (Da 11:4) fell apart
“The great horn was broken, By 301 B.C.E., four of
and there proceeded to come up Alexander’s generals had taken
. . . four instead of it.” over separate sections of the
(Da 8:8, 22) former empire
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200000192#h=7:497-7:984
My apology. My source was originally two columns, somehow it didn’t turn out that way. The points described had to do with Daniel chapter 8:5-8, 20-22. where Daniel’s prophecy predicted the very events between Alexander and Medo-Persia and the ultimate takeover of the Greek empire by his four generals after his death. Also it(Ezekiel 26: 4, 12) discussed the unique way that the city of Tyre would be destroyed by Alexander, pushing the rubble of the mainland city of Tyre into the sea to build a causeway to the island city of Tyre which was also destroyed by Alexander. The letter above(4) is almost unreadable so the manager is welcome to remove it if he wishes. .
We have also the testimony of the Jewish historian Josephus, who states that the prophecies of Daniel were shown to Alexander the Great when he entered Jerusalem. This occurred in about 332 B.C.E., more than 150 years before the Maccabean period. Josephus says of the event: “When the book of Daniel was shown to him, in which he had declared that one of the Greeks would destroy the empire of the Persians, he believed himself to be the one indicated.” (Jewish Antiquities, XI, 337 [viii, 5]) History also recounts that Alexander bestowed great favors on the Jews, and this is believed to have been because of what Daniel said about him in prophecy.
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001118?q=BOOK OF DANIEL&p=par
Although the book of Daniel is listed among the Prophets in the English Bible, in my copy of the Jewish Publication Society’s Bible, it is listed among the Writings. It is my opinion that the 8th chapter of Daniel was written after the events described and that the account of Josephus cited by commentator Gene R. should be taken with a grain of salt. It was Josephus who similarly predicted that the Roman general Vespasian would fulfill prophecy by becoming emperor and thus Josephus secured his own position under the new emperor.
In my previous comment the interpretation of the cedar wood used in the Red Heifer ritual symbolizes the tree of life (cedar trees) that was sought after by Egyptian and Mesopotamian kings as building material for their ambitious projects. The piece of cedar wood used in the ritual was to be the width of a human hand and this reminds me of the reliefs in the palace of Ashurnasirpul II in Calah (Nimrud) that depict mythical winged humans holding a wicker basket in one hand and a pine cone in the other (not unlike an “Easter Basket” that seems to convey the modern expression “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket”). In Genesis 3:22, mention is made of putting one’s hand out to take fruit from the tree of life so as to live forever, which is what ambitious monarchs like Alexander set out to do; achieve everlasting fame. But they must first pull the wool over people’s eyes with the promise that everyone will share in the spoils of war.
Authenticity. Some critics question the authenticity of Daniel, assuming the position taken by a third-century heathen philosopher and enemy of Christianity, Porphyry, who contended that the book of Daniel was forged by a Palestinian Jew of the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. This forger, he theorized, took past events and made them appear to be prophecies. The genuineness of the book of Daniel was not seriously questioned, however, from that day until the early part of the 18th century. Jesus Christ’s own acceptance of Daniel’s prophecy is an even more significant evidence of its authenticity.—Mt 24:15; Da 11:31.
Historical. Several manuscripts of parts of the book of Daniel were found in the Dead Sea caves. The earliest manuscript dates from the first half of the first century B.C.E.; the book of Daniel was an accepted part of the Scriptures in that time and was so well known to the Jews that many copies had already been made of it. That it was recognized as a canonical book of that time is supported by the writer of the Apocryphal, but historical, book of First Maccabees (2:59, 60), who made reference to Daniel’s deliverance from the den of lions, and that of the three Hebrews from the fiery furnace
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001118?q=book of daniel&p=par
Those who claim that the book is not really prophetic but was written after the events occurred would have to move up the time of writing of the book beyond the days of Jesus’ ministry on earth, for the ninth chapter admittedly contains a prophecy concerning the Messiah’s appearance and sacrifice. (Da 9:25-27) Also, the prophecy continues on and recounts the history of the kingdoms that would rule right down to “the time of the end,” when they will be destroyed by the Kingdom of God in the hands of his Messiah.—Da 7:9-14, 25-27; 2:44; 11:35, 40.
http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001118?q=book of daniel&p=par
It would seem, Gene, that the bulk of the book of Daniel was written in Aramaic (inclusive language of the Persian Empire) before the period of the Maccabees, whereas chapters 8 through 12 were written in Hebrew (exclusive language of the Jewish people). Daniel chapter 8 served as a template for events that would unfold in the end of days (Daniel 8:17) and thus shouldn’t be discounted as inspired scripture. I see the vision of the ram and goat as the cold war rivalry between east and west with the two horns of the goat (Daniel 8:3) representing the Godless ideologies of Marx and Lenin while the single horn of the ram (Daniel 8:5) representing Christianity since it was on account of the efforts of Pope John Paul II in Poland that ultimately brought about the demise of the Soviet Empire.