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.
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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Language. Daniel 1:1–2:4a and 8:1–12:13 are written in Hebrew, while Daniel 2:4b–7:28 is written in Aramaic. Regarding the vocabulary used in the Aramaic portion of Daniel, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (Vol. 1, p. 860) says: “When the Aramaic vocabulary of Daniel is examined, nine-tenths of it can be attested immediately from West Semitic inscriptions, or papyri from the 5th cent. B.C. or earlier. The remaining words have been found in sources such as Nabatean or Palmyrene Aramaic, which are later than the 5th cent. B.C. While it is at least theoretically possible that this small balance of vocabulary suddenly originated after the 5th cent. B.C., it is equally possible to argue from a fifth-century B.C. written form to an earlier oral one. By far the most probable explanation, however, is that the missing tenth represents nothing more serious than a gap in our current knowledge of the linguistic situation, which we may confidently expect to be filled in process of time.”—Edited by G. Bromiley, 1979.
There are some so-called Persian words in Daniel, but in view of the frequent dealings that the Jews had with Babylonians, Medes, Persians, and others, this is not unusual. Furthermore, most of the foreign names used by Daniel are names of officials, articles of clothing, legal terms, and such, for which the Hebrew or Aramaic of the time apparently had no equally suitable terms. Daniel was writing for his people who were for the most part in Babylonia, and many were scattered in other places at this time. Therefore, he wrote in language that would be understandable to them.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200001118?q=book of daniel&p=par
“I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam, and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai” (Daniel 8:2).
“The expression ‘Shushan the palace’ reoccurs in historical sections dealing with the Persian Empire (Neh 1:1, Est 1:2, 5, 2:3, 5). By ‘the palace’ is probably meant to be the king’s residence, which was more in the form of a castle or fortress than merely a luxurious building” (“Daniel; The Key to Prophetic Revelation” by John F. Walvoord, p.180).
This vision that Daniel had while in Babylon of a future capital of the Persian Empire is significant in that the kingdom of Elam was the firstborn of Shem (Genesis 10:22) and the city of Susa had wine-producing facilities in the middle of the 4th millenium B.C.E. (introducing an alcohol-induced altered state of consciousness that brought forgetfulness), and the influence of this urban center reached southern Egypt in the pre-dynastic city of Naqada where ivory knife handles were found with carved depictions of a man in mortal combat with a lion, a common motif at Susa that would become a common motif for the rulers of Sumeria such as Gilgamesh (whose lion-skin garment was the source for the Heracles myth). Naqada also had extensive commercial and political ties to the region of Cush, the firstborn of Ham (Genesis 10:6) and on what some scholars think is an incense burner discovered in a royal cemetery at Qustul, is a carved depiction of an African pharaoh seated in a ceremonial procession of boats. He is wearing the crown of Upper Egypt before the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under king Narmer, circa 3100 B.C.E.
Thus Narmer was well acquainted with epic hero image that was the proverbial “mighty hunter before the Lord” (Genesis 10:9) and that survived from prehistoric times when someone was needed to protect the villages from wild animals, and eventually, predatory people; an insecurity that the mighty Nimrods exploited.
Also in Daniel chapter 8 we have the transition of power from one palace to the next while the source for of his vision is an obscure watercourse, the river Ulai, like Ezekiel who had visions by the Chebar canal (near Nippur in Babylon) and in the book of Zohar (1:85a) the name Chebar is translated as “already” or “long ago.”
“It is written, ‘by the River Kevar’ (Ezekiel 1:3). What does this mean? River of Already, already existing since the day the world was created, upon which Shekinah (divine presence) reveals herself constantly, as it is written: ‘A river issues from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divides’ [and becomes four riverheads] (Genesis 2:10)” (“The Zohar” by Daniel Matt, vol 2, p.42).
“The word Khebar means ‘already was.’ The Zohar claims in a number of places that this ‘river-that-already-was’ is the river from Eden. This river has a number of important connotations. As I wrote in ‘Waters of Eden,’ the river of Eden is first of all seen as the spiritual source of all the waters in the world. The Talmud claims that if one makes a vow that he won’t enjoy the river from Eden, he is not allowed to enjoy any waters in the world, because that is the source of all water. It seems that it is also the source of purification” (“Innerspace” by Aryeh Kaplan, p.144).
Now we see the contrast between the king’s fortress and the natural element that is connected to the Creator. The rabbinical tradition has Ezekiel using the Chebar river as a ritual immersion bath and in a document found in the Cairo Genizah entitled “The Riders of the Chariot and Those Who Entered the Heavenly Halls,” that is thought to date to the 4th or 5th century, Ezekiel gazes down at the water and sees the reflection of the heavens and their hosts:
“Rabbi Issac said: The Holy One, blessed be He, showed Ezekiel where the primordial waters are situated in the Great Sea and in its terraces, as it is said: ‘Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea?’ (Job 38:16) He showed him a mountain beneath the sea from whence the sacred vessels of the Temple will be restored in the future” (“Jewish Mystical Testimonies” by Louis Jacobs, p.38).
Check out this account of mystical contemplation in the 27th canto of Aligeiri Dante’s “Purgatory”:
“Already my slow steps had taken me into the ancient wood so far that I could not see where I had entered: and, see, a stream prevented my going further that, with its little waves, bent the grass that issued from its shore, towards the left. All the waters that seem purest, here, would appear tainted, compared to that, which conceals nothing: though it flows dark, dark in perpetual shade, that never allows the sun or moonlight there.”
Woops; Dante Aleghieri. And I goofed in my previous comment where it should have been the ram w/two horns vs. the goat w/one horn. Alexander the Great opened the trade routes to the far east and medicinal herbs (some with psychoactive properties that unlock the subconscious stream of revelation, or a “waking dream”) likely became the source for some inspired writings within post-Alexander Judaism.
Scripture index: Daniel 1:1-12:13
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/lv/r1/lp-e/0/11788
I guess Rabbi Nachman of Breslov summed it up when he wrote:
“It is best to meditate in the meadows outside the city. Go to a grassy field, and the grass will awaken your heart. Know that when you pray in the fields, all the grasses come into your prayers. They help you and give you strength to pray. It is for this reason that prayer is called ‘Sichah.’ This shares a root with with the word for grass, as in, ‘All the grass (Si’ach) of the field …’ (Genesis 2:5). It is thus written, ‘And Isaac went out to meditate (Suach) in the field’ (Genesis 24:63). His prayer was helped and strengthened by the field, since all the grasses fortified and aided his prayer” (“Meditation and Kabbalah” by Aryeh Kaplan, p.312).
The Beersheba region where the Patriarchs settled had since prehistoric times a tradition of being under the influence of a “group of religio-political specialists” during the Chalcolithic period and that these “elites were essentially shamans and not chiefs” (from the pdf, “The Gilat Woman”):
alexanderjoffe.net/gilat.pdf
Before Egypt was unified under the first Pharaoh Narmer, The region of Beersheba, which was the earliest center for metallurgy in the prehistoric Levant as well as a hub for international trade, had common affinities with the the merchantile city of Maadi which also specialized in copper production located at the apex of the delta region in northern Egypt (before Memphis became prominent), in that they utilized underground storage rooms for commodities stored in pots.
“Maadi is unique among the villages of prehistoric Egypt in possessing true underground houses. Since such structures are present at several sites around Beersheba in southern Palestine but otherwise foreign to Egypt, archaeologists believe them to be imports and perhaps even the actual houses of aliens resident at Maadi” (“Egypt Before the Pharaohs” by Michael A. Hoffman,” p.201).
“A unique type of subterranean architecture is found in the Beersheba region. The Chalcolithic settlers took advantage of the soft loess soil to carve out a series of burrows and subterranean dwellings, storage and work rooms. These underground quarters, which resemble ant nests in plan, were suited to the regional climate and are a good example of the creativity characteristic of the Chalcolithie people and their adaptation to the environment” (“Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000-586 BCE” by Amihai Mazar, p.66).
The walls of these cellars were also utilized as a display for artistic murals, and that’s what I suggesting in my previous comment with the example of subterranean art from the public domain. Should I mention the fact that mushrooms thrive in dark and moist cellars?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/world/americas/a-hallucinogenic-tea-time-for-some-brazilian-prisoners.html?ref=world&_r=0
It is interesting how the post-Alexander interpreters of scripture continued the tradition of Daniel from the Chaldean rule through the Persian rule (from India to Cush, Esther 1:1, with the city of Susa having prehistoric significance (when they began producing wine there the the cities of Beersheba anf Maadi began copper production, circa. 3500 B.C.E., thus giving them status as magicians that was associated with Moses’ copper serpent in Numbers 21:9) and then the ancient tradition somehow gets transmitted through space and time and lodges like a crystal in your unconscious mind like those murky-sounding tracks from the Pink Floyd “Ummagumma” album, entitled “The Grand Vizier’s Garden Party.”
One cannot help but notice the parallels between the Dead Sea Scrolls and the prehistoric stash of copper utensils used in ritual service at the shrine at En Gedi that was found in a cave at Nahal Mishmar, west of the Dead Sea. The artisans were likely from the Beersheba region and they were like Bezalel the son of Uri who was filled with the “spirit of God in wisdom and in understanding and in knowledge” (Exodus 31:2), and they demonstrated how advanced they were and here’s another pdf that includes a photo of the treasure where they found it. It also includes a description of the type of soil known as “loess” that the artificial caves and sunken chambers were carved into in the northern Negeb desert; as a silty windblown deposit:
https://www.academia.edu/4908645/The_Subterranean_Landscape_of_the_Southern_Levant_During_the_Chalcolithic_Period
This amazing discovery of a stash of jewelry and coins bearing Alexander’s profile seems to have brought us back full circle to prehistoric belief systems in an afterlife as evidenced by the interring of human skeletal remains in elaborately decorated ceramic ossuaries deep in a cave, the womb of the earth (the word for ground, “adamah, and man, “adam,” contain the root word “dm,” meaning blood), and so death was associated with rebirth.
From the pdf, “The Gilat Women,” the ceramic votive shrine offering molded in the form of a woman has red wavy lines painted on her torso in two and three strands. On the ossuary with the human face, the mouth is a zig zag like the representation of water in Egyptian heiroglyphics particularly the words for the god Nu, the primordial water, and the goddess Nut, who was in the earliest times a water goddess.
“Nu is the name given to the vast mass of water which existed in primeval times, and was situated presumably in the sky; it formed the material part of the great god Tem, or Atmu, who was the creator of the universe and of gods and men. In this mass, which was beleived to be of fathomless depth and of boundless extent, were the germs of all life, and all kinds of life, and for this reason the god who was the personification of water, i.e., Nu, was called the ‘Father of the Gods,’ and the ‘producer of the Great Company of the Gods.’ The watery mass of Nu was the prototype of the great World-Ocean which later ancient nations believed to surround the whole world” (“The Book of the Dead”, by E. A. Wallis Budge, Gramercy Books, p. 162).
From the “Gates to the Old City; A Book of Jewish Legends” by Raphael Patai, p.168:
“When Alexander of Macedonia passed by a source, he sat down to eat his bread. He had with him salted fishes, and when he washed them they emitted a fragrance. Thereupon he said: ‘It would seem that this source comes from the Garden of Eden.’ Some say that he took from the water and washed his face in it, and some say that he went along the course of water until he reached the gate of Paradise. He raised his voice and cried: ‘Open me the gates!’ He was answered: ‘This is the gate of the Lord, the righteous shall enter it’ (Ps. 118:20). He said: ‘I too am king, and am highly regarded. Give me something!’ They gave him a scull. When he subsequently weighed it against all his gold and silver, it outweighed everything. He said to the rabbis: ‘What is this?’ They answered him: ‘The skull is the [housing of the] eyes of flesh and blood which are never satisfied.’ He said to them: ‘What proves this?’ Thereupon they took a little earth and covered the skull with it, and it was instantly reduced to its proper weight (B. Tam. 32b).”
There’s a nice little read on the Wikipedia page for Kubaba, a queen from the dynasty of Kish in Sumeria. Kish was the first city where kingship descended to after the flood in the Babylonian king list and it may be alluded to in Genesis 10:8, “Cush (Kish) became father to Nimrod,” since it was customary for kings in Mesopotamia to give themselves legitimacy as heirs to the divinely ordained kingship from Kish; “hence the saying, ‘Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord'” (Genesis 10:9). Described as one of the few women in Iraqi history to rule by her own right, Kubaba later became defied and her identity as the Hurrian goddess Hepat or Heba is who we know as Eve. It is her identity as the goddess Cybele in western Anatolia and Greece from which we have the word ‘sibyl,’ denoting a class of prophetesses, best known in the writings of the Sibylline Oracles from the Roman period.
Perhaps the writer of the Genesis account of Adam and Eve had at his/her disposal, texts written by Hurrians settled among the Hebrews in the central hill country of the southern Levant. Known as the Jehovist writer, or ‘J,’ the author of Genesis would inspire a movement like Kubaba.
“Doubtless J’s work startled those to whom it was read in the tenth century B.C.E., but such startlement is an attribute of the strongest literature. Shakespeare wrote no genre. What again, is ‘Troilas’ and ‘Cressida?’ It is comedy, history, tragedy, satire, yet none of those singly, and more than all of them together. What is Dante’s ‘Commedia?’ It is an epic, a comedy, a spiritual autobiographry, or a prophecy in the mode of the wild Joachim de Flora? J mixes everything available to her and produces a work so comprehensive and so universal that the entire Hebrew Bible, Greek New Testament, and Arabic Koran could be founded upon it” (“The Book of J” by David Rosenberg and Harold Bloom, p.18).
Bloom mentions the three major monotheistic religions being founded on the book of Genesis and this recalls the prehistoric ceramic ram bearing three vessels called cornets that found in connection with the ceramic woman from Gilat and had a cultic significance.
https://alexanderjoffe.net/gilat.pdf
The pdf mentions that the figurine of the woman holding a churn atop her head (that appears to be connected to her head) “and the accompanying ram figurine were part of a fertility cult ‘centered around milk and/or water, in which birth, death and rebirth were perceived as cyclical, ensuring the revival of the dead.'”
In the book of Job 10:10, there is a connection between milk and the formation of the embryo; “Did you not proceed to pour me out as milk itself and like cheese to curdle me?” This is not at variance with ancient Egyptian beliefs concerning the primeval waters of Nu, or Nun, as being in the embryonic state of all creation.
“Nun is the abstract and primordial milieu symbolized by the waters, the cosmic ocean; it recalls the fact that all life, including the human fetal gestation, began in water. Then again, the first effect of the creative act is liquid, an animated water; this means that it is necessarily contains a styptic fire capable of coagulating it in the same manner as the female albuminoid liquid is coagulated by heat” (“Sacred Science; The King of Pharaonic Theocracy” by R.A. Schwaller De Lubicz, p.189).