Passenger paid for an English bus ride with a coin dating back two millennia
The coin’s age and iconography identify it with Gadir, a settlement founded by the Phoenicians and considered Carthage’s first colony in Western Europe.
The coin’s age and iconography identify it with Gadir, a settlement founded by the Phoenicians and considered Carthage’s first colony in Western Europe.
Additional treasures found within the burial chamber are housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
The pit is believed to have been from a time of conflict “between the Saxon-run kingdom of Mercia and the kingdom of East Anglia, which was conquered by the Vikings in around 870 [CE]."
The Zapotecs were a major pre-Hispanic civilization that flourished in Oaxaca from circa 700-500 BC until the Spanish conquest.
Thousands of similar tunnel systems have been discovered across Europe and despite this, their purpose has been subject to decades of theory and debate.
According to the Act, archaeological finds can be given the status of Treasure if they are deemed to be of historical, archaeological, or cultural importance.
The seal, which is made of a light brown gemstone, is thought by archaeologists to have been “hung like a necklace around its owner’s neck,” and decoratively divided into three.
Four medieval swords were also discovered during excavation.
Through carbon dating, researchers have ruled that the artifacts are between approximately 11,700 and 12,900 years old, a time when Ice Age temperatures had returned after a brief warm period.
According to the ministry, the site has been under constant monitoring by Italy’s financial police to “protect the site from possible looting and to preserve its enormous scientific value.”
Egypt requested that the artifact be returned under the 1970 UNESCO Convention, which both it and the Netherlands are beholden to.