Silver clue to Gaza’s rich historyArchaeologist Father Jean-Baptiste Humbert is also quoted.
Omar Karmi, Foreign Correspondent (The National)
* Last Updated: February 10. 2010 10:57PM UAE / February 10. 2010 6:57PM GMT
GAZA CITY // It was perhaps fitting that when workmen came across a haul of 1,400 ancient Greek silver coins, some 2,500 years old, they should do so in Rafah, Gaza’s southern border town.
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The 1,400 coins discovered here last month were sealed in a pottery container that was shattered upon discovery by the workmen. The site at Tel al Zuroub where they were discovered has been closed to construction and taken over by Gaza’s ministry of antiquities for further excavation.
“The site was discovered by workers by coincidence, so we came and put our grip on it because it’s considered an ancient ruins site,” said Assad Ashour, a ministry official, at the time, adding that, “it still requires a lot of hard work and exploration”.
Mr Ashour said the site contained a “narrow passage located underground, which is built in a sort of descending stairs” and included discoveries of black basalt rock, pottery shards, as well as rock inscriptions. The site is closed to the public for the time being.
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Background here.