JERUSALEM, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Israeli archaeologists have discovered a rare 1,900-year-old bronze coin in ancient Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said on Monday.
The coin, dated to the Bar-Kochba revolt of the Jews against the Roman province of Judea, was discovered near Temple Mount and the City of David sites in ancient Jerusalem.
One side of the coin is decorated with a cluster of grapes, along with an ancient-Hebrew language inscription meaning "second year of Israel's freedom."
The other side is decorated with a palm tree, with the inscription "Jerusalem."
According to archaeologists, this is the only ancient coin discovered so far in the city bearing the inscription "Jerusalem."
They estimated that a Roman soldier found the coin in one of the battles across ancient Israel and took it to his military camp in Jerusalem as a souvenir.
The rebels used to create the revolt inscriptions on Roman coins, as Roman faces were polished or mutilated, probably out of defiance of the conquerors.
The revolt broke out in 132 AD, after Emperor Hadrian announced the establishment of the Roman colony Aelia Capitolina on the ruins of Jewish Jerusalem, destroyed in 70 AD during the First Jewish-Roman War.
The revolt lasted for about five years, causing heavy casualties among the Roman legions, until the Romans were forced to transfer large army units from across the empire.
The uprising ended in the destruction of hundreds of Jewish villages, but Bar Kochba's became an historical Jewish hero, as his bravery is marked annually on the Jewish holiday of Lag Baomer, to be celebrated this year on Tuesday (May 12). Enditem
