By: Helen Huang

In the late 5th century, a soldier kneels and digs a hole in the earthen floor. He places a small jug (an olpe) into the hole for safekeeping and covers it with dirt.

But something happens to that soldier, he maybe dies in a war, and he never gets the small jug filled with coins back, and it remains hidden to humankind for the next 2,400 years. Now, let’s talk about it.

The jug was discovered when the archeologists in Turkey were digging under the courtyard of a house dating back to the third century B.C. The scientists found the remains of an earlier building. The remains included a jug filled with coins.

“The coins were buried in a corner of the older building,” Dr. Ratté said. Wow! They weren’t even looking for the coins and they found the coins. Cool!

Even though they dug the coins up by accident, coins like this are actually very scarce, because during the time of Alexander the Great, Alexander reshaped the coins into pictures of him and his men. So, this pattern of putting the shapes of faces of leaders’ heads on coins kept on going. That means that the older the original coins are, the more scarce they are. Well, the coins they discovered were really old, so they were really scarce! Cool!

Let’s hope they will keep on discovering things from the past! Also, remember: Uncovering the past, one discovery at a time. Keep going, Turkey!