Hoard of Crusader gold found in ruins

A team of researchers from Tel Aviv University has uncovered a hoard of real-life buried treasure at the Crusader castle of Arsur (also known as Apollonia), a stronghold located between the ancient ports of Jaffa and Caesarea, in use from 1241 to its destruction in 1265. The hoard, composed of 108 gold coins, mostly dinars dated to the Fatimid Period (ca. 900 to 1100 AD), was discovered in a pot by a university student. The coins bear the names of sultans and blessings, and usually include a date and a mint name that indicates where a coin was struck.

This fascinating find is the first of its kind, says Prof. Oren Tal, director of the excavation and Chairman of TAU’s Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures. “The scientific value is unprecedented. This is the first hoard of gold coins that we have in Israel that we can date to the Crusader period.”

Prof. Tal believes that the coins provide an important clue to how large-scale economic transactions were made in the Crusader period. “They were not afraid to use older coins in order to complete large transactions and run large-scale businesses,” he said, indicating that this “pot of gold” may be one of a group hidden in the castle, remnants of Arsur’s role as a business center where industrial and agricultural goods were traded.

According to Prof. Tal, the discovery adds to the debate over gold circulation during the time of the Crusades, a series of military incursions into the region to establish Christianity. It puts Fatimid-period coins, minted by Egyptian Sultans in the 10th and 11th centuries, in a Crusader context. Their use of gold from an earlier period is somewhat surprising, given the importance placed on coin minting.

Typically, societies mint their own coins, especially for the completion of large transactions, because it impacts more than just economics — it has marketing and public relations value. From a social and political standpoint, the minting of coins shows that a culture has the wealth and ability to make its own currency, feeding into a sense of independence as a people, cultural self-definition, and a collective identity, explains Prof. Tal.

Though historically priceless, the actual cash value of the coins is difficult to pin down, says Prof. Tal. A document found in the Cairo Genizah hints at the worth of the hoard, suggesting that two gold dinars, the face value on the coins that were found, can provide sufficiently for an extended family for one month.

Assuming the extended family includes a father, mother, sons, daughters, and their spouses and children, this could include 12 to 24 people. If 20 people can make their living for a month on two gold coins, the horde that was discovered could sustain 50 families for 30 days, or five families for approximately one year, all depending on the standard of living. …

via Hoard of Crusader gold found in ruins.

There are thousands of pots of gold like this waiting to be discovered. There could be one in your own backyard.

Modern-Day Noah Opens Doors Of Ark Creation

A faithful reproduction of Noah’s ark, using the dimensions in The Bible, has just opened to the public in The Netherlands.

It was constructed by the Dutch creationist and millionaire building contractor Johan Huibers, after he dreamt that Holland would be flooded once again.

He used the ancient measurement of the cubit – the length of a man’s arm from the elbow to the fingertips – to build the craft according to Biblical proportions.

In Genesis the ark is described as being 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high so the mammoth effort took him and his team of five just over four years to finish.

Using Mr Huiber’s arm, the craft, which is moored in the southern Netherlands town of Dordrecht, is just over 450 feet in length, dwarfing buildings along the waterfront.

He has filled it with a plastic menagerie of animals – as well as a few species of live birds – to recreate the story of Noah for paying visitors and to make The Bible more ‘touchable’.

Deborah Venema-Huibers, manager of the Ark, told Sky News that they had to abandon plans to sail the ark to the London Olympics after they were asked to make the wooden boat safer for visitors.

She said: “We would like to carry three thousand people on the boat (so) you can’t say: ‘We’ll leave it like that’. You have (to clear) everything with the fire department, as it is all wood. It took such a long time that we had to skip the Olympics.”

The boat was constructed by welding the metal hulls of several old barges together and then using Scandinavian pine for the skin. …

The Bible says Noah used ‘gopher wood’ when he built the original, but scholars disagree on what that is, so Mr Huibers used ‘creative licence’, both with the material and the design.

Mrs Huibers says they are being contacted by dozens of people worried about the Mayan prophecy of the end of the world in December this year.

“They are concerned, and they ask: ‘Is there a flood coming again? Is the world going to be destroyed again? Can we stay here and board, and can we book a room?’

“But of course we tell them, the real safety is not here. This is not a rescue boat. It’s a museum.”

via Modern-Day Noah Opens Doors Of Ark Creation.

Not to quibble, but this is a theme amusement park or an art gallery and not really a museum. By definition, a museum “… is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary.” 

 

Is shooter an imposter?

Take a look at this. Unlike the different Bin Laden’s with real different sized noses, I don’t find this at all compelling. I think it is supposed to be a joke. This is the same guy, different expressions, head tilted up slightly more in the red hair photo. Looking at where the eyes are in the insert of the noses, you can see the long node photo is stretched.

Does anyone of you out there really think after looking at this that the red haired guy is an imposter? I should put up a poll…

Light turns itself on in my house

Remember a few days ago when I had a key fly off the wall and land on my kitchen floor when there was no wind and the key had been on its hook for about a week without being touched? … And it turned out the guy who installed the lock and gave us the key had died in a car crash a few days before?

Well, just now, the light in my living room came on by itself. It has never done this before.

The light is about one foot out of arms reach for me as I’m sitting here on the couch, not moving. The light came on, and has stayed on, with no sound at all. I moved around and shook the couch to see if my movement accidentally turned it on. Nope. I have no pets.

Examining the light switch (a knob) shows that it is possible to turn the light on and have it remain off. In that state it takes only a small twist for the light to come on… But I haven’t seen it come on by itself again after many tests.