Hundreds of coins, intact lamps and even ancient gold jewelry have been found in in Israel, curiously discarded hundreds of years ago in a Byzantine garbage dump.
Archaeologists have been excavating the agricultural outskirts of the ancient city of Arsuf, also called Apollonia, just north of Tel Aviv. There, they have found evidence of wine presses and olive presses and traces of buildings used by farmers, but perhaps their most intriguing finds have come out of the Byzantine trash pits at the site.
Researchers Oren Tal of the Tel Aviv University and Moshe Ajami of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said one of the garbage heaps was more than 98 feet (30 meters) in diameter and contained fragments of jars, cookware, tableware, glass vessels and animal bones. But along with this trash they also found intact, useable artifacts.
Apollonia enjoyed more than 1,500 years of occupation, from the Persian period of the late sixth century B.C. through the end of theCrusader period in the 13th century A.D.
During the late Byzantine period, in the fifth, sixth and seventh centuries, the city was called Sozousa and its occupants included both Christians and Samaritans. Previous excavations have revealed a church, plaster-lined pools dating back to this period. The new excavations, funded by the Israel Lands Administration, are taking place ahead of the expansion the city of Herzliya.
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