About 3,100 years ago somebody stuffed a hoard of gold jewelry, beads and a single earring adorned with tiny animal images into a nest of three clay pots — including a beer strainer – seemingly in hopes that no one would find the treasure in a dusty corner of ancient Canaan.

But in 2010 someone did find it. At the renowned Tel Megiddo excavation site in modern Israel, where Chapman University’s Julye Bidmead, Ph.D., assistant professor, returns each summer to help supervise the excavation of this hot bed of history, researchers found the secret stash. Archaeologists with The Megiddo Expedition are just now releasing the news, after extensive tests and study of the artifacts, which included gold, silver and bronze jewelry and hundreds of beads crafted from semi-precious stones. The find was made in the dig area Bidmead helps supervise and she is elated, but not because of the glitz of the ancient bling.

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