They find pure gold coins in the old town of Je …

A team of Israeli archaeologists said on Monday they had found four pieces of pure gold over a thousand years old in the old city of Jerusalem. This unusual discovery, experts explain, explains a time of significant political change in the region.

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (AIA), the pieces were discovered in a dig near the western wall, the most sacred place of prayer in Judaism.

They were in a small jar and “were in excellent storage”. “They could be identified immediately, even without cleaning them,” AIA antique parts specialist Robert Kool said in a statement.

Political change in Jerusalem

The pieces date from the late 10th century (between 940 and 970), “a time of radical political change” in and around Jerusalem, Kool reported.

Around this time, the ruling Baghdad-based Abbasid caliphate lost control of Jerusalem to its rival, the Fatimid dynasty, which would rule from Cairo for nearly two centuries.

According to Kool, “First in fifty years that a Fatimid period gold cache has been discovered in the Old City of Jerusalem“.

The last time Israeli archaeologists found gold from this historic moment was shortly after the Six Day War (1967), in which Israel captured East Jerusalem, the party Palestinian city, to Jordan.