A set of rare gold coins and a golden earring have been found in northern Isreal.

Thought to be about 900-years-old, they were discovered in the ancient Mediterranean port of Caesarea. It’s believed they could have been left during the Crusades in the middle ages and never found until now.

The Israel Antiquities Authority announced the find on Monday of a small bronze pot holding 24 gold coins and the earring.

A picture taken on December 3, 2018, shows ancient gold coins and an earring recently uncovered at an excavation site in the Israeli Mediterranean town of Caesarea. - A treasure of 24 rare gold coins consisting of 18 Fatimid dinars, which were the standard local currency during that time (909-1171), as well as six are Byzantine coins, which include five dating to the era of Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas (1071-1078), was recently uncovered in Caesarea. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
Ancient gold coins and an earring found in Israel (Getty)
epa07206698 An undated handout photo made available on 03 December 2018 by the Israel Antiquities Authority shows a gold coin that was discovered at the port of Caesarea, Israel. The coins in the cache dating to the end of the eleventh century, make it possible to link the treasure to the Crusader conquest of the city in the year 1101. EPA/YANIV BERMAN HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES
One of the gold coins found in the cache (Getty)

According to the authority, it was found between two stones in the side of a well in a house in a neighbourhood that dates back some 900 years, during the Abbasid and Fatimid periods.

The directors of the excavation, the IAA’s Peter Gendelman and Mohammed Hatar, said the coins in the cache date to the end of the 11th century.

 
 

That makes it possible ‘to link the treasure to the Crusader conquest of the city in the year 1101, one of the most dramatic events in the medieval history of the city,’ an IAA statement said.

Dr. Robert Kool, coin expert of the Israel Antiquities Authority, holds a gold coin that is part of a cache of 24 gold coins and a 900 year old gold earring found during excavations in the port of Caesarea, Israel, December 3, 2018. The coins date to the end of the 11th century and link the cache to the Crusader conquest of the city in 1101. The small bronze pot, holding the coins and earring, was found between two stones in a house dating to the Abbasid and Fatimid periods. Photo by Debbie Hill /UPIPHOTOGRAPH BY UPI / Barcroft Images
Dr. Robert Kool, coin expert of the Israel Antiquities Authority, holds a gold coin that is part of the cache (Barcroft Images)
A general view of an excavations near the site where a cache of 24 gold coins and a 900 year old gold earring were found by the Israeli Antiquities Authority in the port of Caesarea, Israel, December 3, 2018. The coins date to the end of the 11th century and link the cache to the Crusader conquest of the city in 1101. The small bronze pot, holding the coins and earring, was found between two stones in a house dating to the Abbasid and Fatimid periods. Photo by Debbie Hill /UPIPHOTOGRAPH BY UPI / Barcroft Images
General view of an excavations near the site where a cache of 24 gold coins and a 900 year old gold earring were found by the Israeli Antiquities Authority (EPA)

‘According to contemporary written sources, most of the inhabitants of Caesarea were massacred by the army of Baldwin I (1100-1118), king of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem,’ it added.

‘It is reasonable to assume that the treasure’s owner and his family perished in the massacre or were sold into slavery, and therefore were not able to retrieve their gold.’

epa07206701 An undated handout photo made available on 03 December 2018 by the Israel Antiquities Authority shows a cache, an earring and gold coins that were discovered at the port of Caesarea, Israel. The coins in the cache dating to the end of the eleventh century, make it possible to link the treasure to the Crusader conquest of the city in the year 1101. EPA/YANIV BERMAN HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES
One or two coins was the equivalent to a farmer’s annual salary (Image: EPA)
epa07206699 An undated handout photo made available on 03 December 2018 by the Israel Antiquities Authority shows a cache, an earring and gold coins that were discovered at the port of Caesarea, Israel. The coins in the cache dating to the end of the eleventh century, make it possible to link the treasure to the Crusader conquest of the city in the year 1101. EPA/YANIV BERMAN HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES
The cache of coins dates back to the 11th century (EPA)

IAA coin expert Robert Kool said ‘one or two of these gold coins were the equivalent of the annual salary of a simple farmer, so it seems that whoever deposited the cache was at least well-to-do or involved in commerce.’

Caesarea was constructed in the first century BC by King Herod at a time that Judea was part of the Roman empire.