A 2,100-year-old hoard of 160 coins has been discovered at an archaeological site in the Jordan Valley.
The coins date to the reign of Alexander Jannaeus (circa 103 to 76 B.C.), who was both a high priest and a king of the Hasmoneans — a dynasty of Jewish kings who ruled a kingdom that encompassed what is now Israel, the West Bank and parts of other neighboring areas. This kingdom started in 167 B.C., when Jewish inhabitants of the area rose up against the Seleucid Empire and succeeded in taking over parts of it. During the first century B.C., the Roman Republic conquered the Hasmoneans' territory and allowed King Herod to establish his own kingdom.
