Israeli youths have unearthed hundreds of gold coins stashed away in a clay vessel for more than a thousand years, Reuters reports.

The treasure was discovered by teenagers volunteering at an excavation in central Israel where a new neighbourhood is planned to be built, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Monday, August 24.

“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 it was found in housed workshops at the time the treasure was hidden and the identity of the owner is still a mystery.

“It was amazing,” said Oz Cohen, one of the volunteers who found the treasure.

“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.”