Coins Bearing the Name Shimon, 132-135 CE

Excavators have found two folded papyri and 11 bronze coins in a desert cave within the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, near the western shore of the Dead Sea. Three of the coins bear the name “Shimon,” Hebrew for Simon, and date to the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (132–135 A.D.), which was led by Simon Bar-Kokhba. The artifacts were discovered last November [2002] by a team headed by Hebrew University’s Amos Frumkin and Bar Ilan University’s Hanan Eshel, inside a cave measuring just 23 feet by 13 feet.

“Strata- New Finds at Ein Gedi,” BAR Mar-Apr 2003.