Archaeologists have discovered a treasure trove of extremely rare copper coins dating back more than two thousand years in the ruins of a Buddhist temple in Pakistan. This was reported by Live Science.
The treasure, consisting of 1000-1500 copper coins, turned green due to oxidation and turned into a piece weighing 5.5 kg. Archaeologists believe the coins date from the period of the Kushan Kingdom, which dominated the region from approximately the 2nd century BC to the 3rd century AD. Kushan culture was formed under Greek and Indian influence.
The coins were found in the ruins of a Buddhist temple built around 150 AD on the territory of the even older city of Mohenjo-Daro. By that time this abandoned city was almost two thousand years old.
You can see a person standing in some coins of the melted treasure. According to researchers, the image may be of the Kushan king, as similar coins featured the figure of the king on one side and the Hindu god Shiva on the other (Buddhism was originally a branch of Hinduism).
The temple was abandoned around 500 AD, possibly due to earthquake damage or due to the decline of Buddhism’s influence in the region. By this time the Kushan Empire was divided into independent kingdoms.
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