Discovery! Roman Coin Depicting Zodiac Sign found in Israel

 Finds from the ancient Roman Empire keep turning up and this time it's a Roman coin depicting a Zodiac sign found in Israel. Here's the story from Live Science>

(photo: Jacob Sharvit, director of the Marine Unit of the Israel Antiquities Authority, holds the Luna coin. (Image credit: Photo: Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority )

Roman 'Zodiac' coin with cancer sign unearthed in Israel

By JoAnna Wendel LIVE SCIENCE, Aug 1, 2022

One of the more peaceful Roman emperors minted the coin.

Archaeologists diving into the Mediterranean sea by Israel have discovered a bronze coin on the seafloor dating to one of the Roman Empire's most peaceful eras. On one side, the coin depicts Luna (Selene in Greek), the Roman goddess of the moon, with a crab, the astrological sign of cancer, beneath her.

The team spotted the roughly 1,850-year-old bronze coin while exploring off the coast of Haifa in northern Israel.

"This is the first time such a coin has been discovered off Israel's coast," Jacob Sharvit, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority's (IAA) Maritime Archaeology Unit, said in a statement.

(Image  An old coin with the profile of Luna, ancient goddess of the moon. Below her face there is the cancer zodiac sign. The newfound coin shows the image of Luna, an ancient goddess of the moon. Below Luna you can see a sign of cancer luck.(Image credit: Photo: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority )

The profile of Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius on an ancient coin. It is very worn. The coin was minted during the reign of Emperor Antoninus Pius, between A.D. 138 and 161.

 Antoninus Pius ruled after Emperor Hadrian, who tried to stamp out the Jews and Romanize the people in the province of Judaea, according to Britannica. For instance, Hadrian sold Jewish prisoners into slavery, forbade the teaching of the Torah and gave province Judea a new name: Syria Palaestina, Britannica reported. Conditions improved for the Jewish people under Antoninus Pius, according to The Jerusalem Post which reported that it took Antoninus Pius only about a year to repeal the edicts that were targeting the Jews.

In general, Antoninus Pius is known as one of the last emperors to reign during Pax Romana, an era of relative peace in Rome between 27 B.C. and A.D. 180. Rather than using military force to solve issues, Antoninus Pius was known to delegate regional differences through local governors, according to the statement.

The crab-bearing coin belongs to a set of 13 coins that depict astrological signs. Twelve depict one astrological sign each, while the 13th depicts the entire zodiac, Lior Sandberg, a coin expert at the IAA, told The Times of Israel. 

 FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/ancient-roman-luna-coin-found-israel?utm_campaign=368B3745-DDE0-4A69-A2E8-62503D85375D