Jerusalem dig finds big gold hoard from 7th century

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Excavations have unearthed a hoard of more than 1,300-year-old gold coins under a car park by the ancient walls of Jerusalem, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said on Monday.

Archaeologists said the discovery of the 264 coins, in the ruins of a building dating to about the 7th century, the end of the Byzantine period, was one of the largest coin hoards uncovered in Jerusalem.

"We've had pottery, we've had glass, but we've had nothing like this," said British archaeologist Nadine Ross, who found the hoard under a large rock on Sunday, in the fourth and final week of a trip to Israel.

"It's very, very exciting," she said, cupping hands full of bright yellow coins that looked in mint condition.

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

Archeologists said they were minted at the beginning of Heraclius' 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 a statement from 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.

Two tombs from court of Unas found near Saqqara

SAQQARA, Egypt, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists have found the tombs of two court officials, in charge of music and pyramid building, in a 4,000 year old cemetery from the reign of Pharaoh Unas.

The tombs were found buried in the sands south of Cairo and could shed light on the fifth and the sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom, said Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities chief.

"We announce today a major important discovery at Saqqara, the discovery of two new tombs dating back to 4,300 years ago," he told reporters at the site on Monday.

One of the tombs belonged to Iya Maat, the supervisor of pyramid-building under the reign of Unas, Hawass said.

Iya Maat organised the acquisition of granite and limestone from Aswan and other materials from the Western Desert.

The second tomb housed the remains of Thanah, who was in charge of singers in the court of Unas.

Both tombs feature hieroglyphics at their entrances but the contents of the tombs have long since been stolen, Hawass said.

The entrance of Thanah's tomb shows carved images of her smelling lotus flowers.

"The discovery of the tombs are the beginning of a big, large cemetery," Hawass said.

"We are continuing our excavation and we are going to uncover more tombs in the area to explain the period of dynasty five and dynasty six," he said, adding that 70 percent of Egypt's ancient monuments remain buried under sand.

The death of Unas brought to an end the fifth dynasty, as he did not have a male heir. His daughter is widely believed to have become a queen to the first king of the sixth dynasty.

The Sixth Dynasty, a time of conflict in Egypt's royal family and erosion of centralised power, is considered to be the last dynasty of the Old Kingdom (2,613-2,494 BC), after which Egypt descended into famine and social upheaval.

Archaeologists have been working at the site for six months, Hawass added.