A wet sifting project in ancient Shiloh has led to the discovery of some 20 ancient coins this week as the world marked the final days of Hanukkah.

The find was made by the Associates for Biblical Research, directed by archaeologist Dr. Scott Stripling. It was announced on Monday.

According to Stripling, more than half of the coins date back to the Hasmonean period, to the ruler Alexander Jannnaeus and his successors, which makes the coins about 2,000years old.

Jannnaeus was the second king of Judea. He ruled from 103 to 76 BCE, inheriting the throne from his brother Aristobulus I.

"Shiloh was occupied during the Hasmonean period, during the late Second Temple period, through the Hasmonean period, to the end of the Herodian period and onto the firstperiod up until 70 CE," Stripling told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "It was occupied during that period, and that's why we've found so many of those coins. But also theycontinued in circulation even after the Maccabeans because they were so popular; once the Jewish state lost its independence to Rome in 63 BC, those coins were sort of a type ofpassive resistance to Rome."

Because of this, people continued to use them for generations, he said. "The ones that we found, because we find a lot of these coins, were found during a wet sifting projectwhere we go through old piles of dirt to see what was missed in the past," he said. "So these came from our wet sifting project that we're working on this winter."

For Katsof and his supporter, "We were blown away. We were walking around the mountains of Shiloh, and right in front of us they found this coin on Hanukkah - on the lastcandle of Hanukkah. "We were talking about the battles of the Hasmoneans, and we found a Hasmonean coin right in front of eyes," he said, adding that the group had been lookingall day and hadn't found coins, "and boom, they found right in front of us."

"For me, it was very special," Katsof said, joking that this was "real Hanukkah gelt."

To read the complete article, see:
2,000-year-old Hasmonean coins unearthed in Shiloh overHanukkah (https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/2000-year-old-Hasmonean-coins-unearthed-in-Shiloh-on-Hanukkah-612567)