Image Details
JOHN F. WILSON
THE VAST MAJORITY OF COINS discovered in the Jerusalem landfill date to the Early Roman period, with a couple of earlier coins from the Hasmonean Dynasty (165–63 B.C.E.). Since coins stay in circulation for decades, even these earlier coins don’t undermine an Early Roman date for the landfill. A bronze Pontius Pilate (r. 26–36 C.E.) coin, similar to the one shown here, struck in 29 C.E. dates to the rule of the Roman emperor Tiberius (r. 14–37 C.E.). It depicts three bound ears of barley, the outer two of which are drooping, likely lamenting the death of Tiberius’s mother, Livia Drusilla (Julia Augusta) in 29 C.E., whose name ΙΟYΛΙΑ KΑΙCΑΡΟC (Julia Caesar) surrounds the image. There are no coins from the First Jewish Revolt (66–70 C.E.) in the landfill and only one coin from the decade before the revolt.