A hoard of bronze coins unearthed in the remains of a Hellenistic-era building offers new evidence for life in Israel in the tumultuous mid-2nd century BCE’s victorious military campaign led by Yonatan Maccabee, brother of the Hanukkah hero Judah, according to new research.Some of the coins in the hoard are of Demetrios (or Demetrius) II, one of the baddies in the book of 1 Maccabees.The cache of 26 coins was found in 2016 at the site of Khirbet el-Eika, on the top of a mountain overlooking the Eastern Galilee in Israel’s north. Its discovery was published for the first time in an academic paper in the American Journal of Numismatics last month. ...
While many sites in Israel were occupied during the Hellenistic period, most remained active in the Roman and Byzantine eras, making it harder for archaeologists to uncover the relevant layer.
Khirbet el-Eika, however, was abandoned around the mid-2nd century BCE, most likely due to a violent event, [Dr. Roi] Sabar pointed out. ...
A couple of corrections:
The Books of Maccabees are apocryphal works not canonized in the Hebrew Bible (while some are part of the Catholic and Protestant canons)."Protestant" is clearly a typo. None of the Apocrypha are part of the Protestant biblical canon. I think "Orthodox" was intended. Also, the reference from 1 Maccabees should read 11:63-64.
The American Journal of Numismatics, which published the underlying journal article in vol. 36 (2024), appears only to be available in hard copy and by subscription or for a fee.
I noted another discovery at Khirbet el-Eika some years ago.
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