The Precious Testimony of Archaeology on the Maccabees

A rare wooden box containing a small treasure of 15 silver coins dating back to the reign of Antiochus IV was discovered in an excavation in the Darageh Stream Nature Reserve, overlooking the Dead Sea. A refugee probably hid the wooden box in the cave, intending to return to collect his money after the revolt. The box was hidden in the Muraba’at Cave in the Darageh Stream Nature Reserve about 2,200 years ago, and was discovered in excavations carried out last May. According to Dr Eitan Klein, who studied coins together with Dr. Gabriela Bijovsky, numismatic expert of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “It is interesting to try to visualize the person who fled into the cave and hid here his personal belongings that intend to return to collect them. The person was probably killed in the battles, and did not return to collect his belongings that awaited almost 2,200 years until we recovered it. This is an absolutely unique finding, presented the first clear archaeological evidence that the Judean desert caves played an active role as a stage of the activities of the Jewish rebels or fugitives in the early days of the Maccabean revolt, or the events that led to them. Watch the promotional video.