MAMPSIS

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City

Mamshit [ממשית]

County

Negev [הַנֶּגֶב ;ٱلنَّقَب]

Region

Southern [מחוז הדרום‎; لواء الجنوب]

Country

Israel

Ancient place

Mampsis

Lat/Long/Alt

31.025021023529 / 35.063982197435 / 472.6 view

Location details

Centred on field

7616

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Hoard name

MAMPSIS

Alternative names

Mamshit, ממשית‎‎, Kurnub

Data type

Hoard

Date of discovery (from)

18 Aug 1966

Total number of coins

10320

Summary

The hoard comprised 10,320-10,500 silver denarii and tetradrachms, ranging from Vespasian to Elagabalus, found in a bronze jar.

Discovery method

Controlled archaeological investigation
Land Use

Archaeological site
Disposition

Israel Antiquity Authority (10343 coins)
Finder(s)

Avraham Negev (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Comment

"While making my regular tour of the site, a worker came up running and presented me with a handful of coins shouting that 'thousands' of them had been discovered in a house which we had started to excavate some time earlier" (Negev 1965-6, 27). The hoard was discovered in a bronze jar, with more coins scattered in the debris around the vessel. "The hoard falls into two well-defined groups: an early group covering the reigns of Rabel II, Titus, Trajan and Hadrian, numbering around 300 coins and a later group covering the reigns from Commodus to Diadumenian, to which some 7000 coins belong" (Negev 1965-6, 29). The drachms of Arabia were originally attributed to the mint of Caesarea in Cappadocia.
Closing reign (earliest)

Elagabalus
Terminal year (earliest)

218
Closing reign (latest)

Elagabalus
Terminal year (latest)

222
Opening year (earliest)

98
Opening year (latest)

117
Coin-level data

Available to enter

Fetching coin data

Numismatic rating

Good
Rating comment

Select coin level data available in Negev 1971, Rosenthal 1980. The results from the excavation were published in Qedem 26 (1988) and 27 (1988).
Context rating

Excellent
Findspot rating

Excellent

Date of excavation (from)

1965
Date of excavation (to)

1967
Site comment

"The hoard was stored in a bronze jar which had been placed in a safe hidden beneath the staircase tower of a Nabataean house [Locus 408, Building XII]. The building was erected at the beginning of the second century AD and was reused during the Late Roman and Byzantine periods...[the staircase was] arranged in four tiers and at east turning there was a landing. The hoard was stored under the fourth, northern tier, facing the inner court of the residential wing of the housing complex" (Rosenthal-Heginbottom 1980, 39). Negev describes the safe as a "strong-box" (1965-6, 28).
Recovery method

Excavation
Site class

Urban