Biblical archeology in Israel is constantly turning up amazing discoveries from sites revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and often times archaeological studies turn up coins, whether from ancient inhabitants, or from pilgrims, crusaders, or others who came to the region. In 2007, biblical archeology teams found a quarry that supplied stones to Herod’s renovations to the Second Temple only a few kilometers north of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Another significant recent biblical archeology find was a tunnel of hewn stones outside the walls of the Old City. This surprise of biblical archeology turned out to be a canal mentioned by the historian Josephus in his book The Jewish War. It was used by Jews during the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 CE to escape Jerusalem to Masada on the Dead Sea.

Biblical archeology studies near the ancient city of Jaffa in Israel found a very rare coin in 2005 dating to the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, a feudal state of the first Crusaders in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099-1291). This rare Christian coin depicts a cross, a bird, and a half-moon with an inscription reading “Thine is the glory forever and ever.”

Ancient coins are fairly common, yet extremely important finds in expeditions of biblical archeology, and another example was a December 2009 discovery of 264 solid 24-carat gold coins from the seventh century CE found in Jerusalem’s Old City that bore the figure of Byzantine emperor Heraclius, who reigned from 610 to 641 CE.

A very exciting find in the field of biblical archeology happened in early 2010 when a group of archeologists entered a cavern east of Jerusalem and discovered the largest cache of coins ever found from the years of the Second Jewish revolt under Simon Bar Kochba in 132-135 CE. This was a particularly gratifying biblical archeology find because unlike the First Jewish revolt of 66-73 CE, there is hardly any written record of the Bar Kochba revolt.

In Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority regulates biblical archeology, by regulating excavation and conservation. The Authority promotes research in territories under the control of Israel. Broadly speaking, the main periods of biblical archeology include the Bronze Age (3200-1200 BCE), the Iron Age (1200-586 BCE), the Babylonian Period (586-539 BCE), the Persian Period (539-332 BCE), the Hellenistic Period (332-63 BCE), and the Roman Period (63 BCE-324 CE).