British archaeologist uncovers hoard of 1,300-year-old gold coins under a car park in Jerusalem

A hoard of more than 1,300- year-old gold coins has been unearthed under a car park in Jerusalem, the Israeli Antiquities Authority revealed.



Archaeologists said the collection of 264 coins found in the ruins of a 7th century building, the end of the Byzantine period, was one of the largest uncovered in Jerusalem.



'We've had pottery, we've had glass, but we've had nothing like this,' said British archaeologist Nadine Ross, who made the discovery on Sunday.



Treasure hoard: Nadine Ross, a British volunteer for Israel's Antiquities Authority, holds coins she helped unearth in Jerusalem

The coins date to the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius, who ruled from AD 610 to 641.



Rare find: Some of the 264 gold coins found in Jerusalem

On one side they bear a likeness of the emperor wearing military garb and holding a cross in his right hand.



On the reverse is the cross.



Experts said they were minted at the beginning of Heraclius's reign, before the Persians conquered Byzantine Jerusalem in AD 614.



'This is one of the largest and most impressive coin hoards ever discovered in Jerusalem – certainly the largest and most important of its period,' said site directors Doron Ben-Ami and Yana Tchekhanovets.

'Since no pottery vessel was discovered adjacent to the hoard, we can assume that it was concealed inside a hidden niche in one of the walls of the building,' they said.

Until now, the only hoard of gold coins from the Byzantine period that had been discovered in Jerusalem consisted of five gold coins, they added.



At the time the coins were minted Anglo-Saxon England was split into several kingdoms including Mercia and East Anglia.



A number of rulers converted to Christianity in the seventh century.

