A group of Israeli teenagers unearthed a treasure of more than 400 gold coins dating back more than 1,100 years hidden in a clay pot.

According to Reuters, the Israel Antiquities Authority said the treasure was discovered by teenagers who volunteered to participate in an excavation in central Israel on August 18. It is expected that a new neighborhood will be built here.

“The person who buried this treasure 1,100 years ago must have hoped to recover these gold coins. This person even fixed the ceramic vase with nails so that it wouldn’t move. “We don’t know why the treasure couldn’t return to its owner,” said excavation chief Liat Nadav-Ziv.

The gold vault was found on August 18 in Israel. Photo: Reuters.

The identity of the owner of this treasure remains a mystery.

“It’s amazing,” said Oz Cohen, one of the volunteers who found the treasure.

“I was digging in the dirt and when I picked it up I saw objects that looked like thin leaves. When I looked closely, I found that they were gold coins. “It was really exciting to find such an ancient and special treasure,” Cohen said.

Israeli archaeologist Shahar Krispin holds a gold coin in a hoard discovered at an archaeological site in central Israel on August 18. Photo: AP.

Volunteers found 425 24-karat gold coins dating back to the Abbasid Caliphate (third Arab Muslim dynasty) in the 9th century. According to Robert Kool, a coin expert at the Antiquities Management agency, these gold coins had a great value at that time. .

“With that money, a person could buy a luxury home in one of the most prosperous neighborhoods in Fustat, Egypt’s wealthy capital at the time,” Kool said.