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Decades after fighting Judaic rebels in the Holy Land , a Roman military unit travel to what is now the country of Georgia , give coins minted in what is now Israel at one of their summer camp there , raw enquiry reveals .
Archaeologists discovered the Roman - earned run average coins at Colchis , in western Georgia near the Black Sea . An depth psychology revealed that some of the coins were fetch to the site by Legio X Fretensis , a military building block that accept part in push Judaic rebels during the first Jewish rising . However , it ’s unlikely that the Roman soldiers who fought the Jews were the same ones who left the coins at Colchis . Instead , the coins probably stayed in the unit as Modern soldiers joined it .
The remains of the fortress of Apsaros at Colchis in western Georgia, where archaeologists found Roman-era coins.
The first Jewish revolt against the Romans started around A.D. 66 and saw the Roman sack of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple in A.D. 70 . The revolt continued until the Roman military blockade of Masada , which cease with many of thenearly 1,000 remaining Jewish defenderstaking their own lives around A.D. 73 or 74 , to avoid enslavement or death at the hands of the Romans .
Most of the coin used in the analytic thinking were discovered between 2014 and 2022 by a Polish - Georgian squad at the fortress of Apsaros at Colchis , Piotr Jaworski , an archeologist at the University of Warsaw who is a coin expert on the team , told Live Science in an electronic mail . The researchers found that a few of the coins were in reality minted by Jewish rebels and that the Romans continued to use the currentness . During the revolt , the Judaic rebels minted coins of their own that were inscribe with a variety of images , let in pomegranates and goblet .
relate : When the Romans turned Jerusalem into a pagan city , Jews revolted and minted this coin
Remains of coins brought to the site by the Legio X Fretensis.
The legion would have brought the coins to the site around A.D. 115 , when the Roman Saturnia pavonia Trajan ( who prevail from 98 to 117 ) launch an initially successful encroachment of the Parthian Empire — an natural process that pushed the Roman Empire ’s borders deep into the Middle East . Historical records and archaeologic corpse point that Legio X Fretensis was used in this invasion and expend time in Colchis . The web site was " a skilful logistical base for military operations in the area , " Jaworski said .
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While research into the situation is ongoing , Jaworksi published a newspaper talk about some of the coin finds in 2021 in the daybook Notae Numismaticae . The squad find that , in addition to the Romanist coin bring by Legio X Fretensis , large numbers of Roman coins were bring to the site in the first and third centuries A.D , potential by Romanist soldier .
" The find are very interesting " and provide additional information into Trajan ’s intrusion of Parthia , Edward Dabrowa , a prof emeritus of history at Jagiellonian University in Poland who was not involved with the inquiry , told Live Science in an email .
