Few volunteers in Israel have discovered a treasure thta may be thousands year old, said the Irael Antiquities Authority late on Monday.

The treasure consists of a stash of hundreds of gold coins that were buried deep in the ground by someone thousands of years ago. It was found by few teenager volunteers who were working at an excavation in Central Israel.

The excavation was a part of the pre-building process of a new neighbourhood that is being planned in the area.

The authorities revealed that according to initial investigation, the coins were buried around 1,100 years ago and the owner had even secured the utensil holding the coins to make sure it does not move, which points towards the fact that the owner hoped to come back for the vessel.

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“The person who buried this treasure 1,100 years ago must have expected to retrieve it and even secured the vessel with a nail so that it would not move. We can only guess what prevented him from returning to collect this treasure,” said excavation director Liat Nadav-Ziv.

The area earlier housed workshops when the coins were placed in that area, as per old records. While the experts are studying the coins and hoping to reach some conclusion, the identity of the owner or the reason why the owner buried or never retrieved the treasure will probably remain a mystery forever.

However, the experience was “amazing” for the young volunteers. “I dug in the ground and when I excavated the soil, saw what looked like very thin leaves. When I looked again I saw these were gold coins. It was really exciting to find such a special and ancient treasure,” said Oz Cohen, one of the volunteers who found the treasure.