Arab. arch. epig.

2: 1991: 24-30

Pre-Alexandrine Phoenician staters from northeastern Arabia

D. T. POTTS University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Five Phoenician staters from northeastern Saudi Arabia, four of them previously unpublished, are presented and discussed. The potential significance of Phoenician material in this region is treated briefly.

In 1968, F. Altheim and R Stiehl (I)noted the existence of eine Munze aus Arados among finds made on the surface of the Salt Mine site by visiting ARAMCO employees. The coin was eventually published posthumously by M. Golding (2) in a paper originally delivered in 1983 at the Bahrain through the Ages Conference. Unfortunately,due to the mishandling of Goldings manuscript after her death, the obverse and reverse of the coin are separated, and appear as P1.141B (obverse) and 136A (reverse)in the published version. The reverse (Pl. 136A)is labeled as the obverse of a coin which, as its reverse, has in fact the obverse of a Nabataean coin from Qatif (P1.136, lower right), while the obverse f (P1.141B) is labeled as the reverse o a coin which has, as its actual obverse, a circle of dots surrounding a raised center and represents in fact a thoroughly debased and no longer recognizable head of Heracles. I shall be publishing the other coins involved in this mix-up elsewhere, but without knowing that the photographs in question show different sides of completely unrelated coins, the reader could easily be misled into thinking that two different Arabian coins were published by Golding. Golding herself, lacking access to any of the literature on Phoenician numismatics, did no more than repeat Altheim and Stiehls opinion of the coins attribution. As at least two more Phoenician coins are also known to have been found at the Salt Mine site, and

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PRE-ALEXANDRINE PHOENICIAN STATERS another two were found at a site near Jabal Kenzan, we thought it worthwhile to bring this material together in a short article. Elsewhere, P. Lombard has discussed a coin from the Salt Mine site which was minted under Alexander at Byblos (3),but as this is not culturally Phoenician, it will be omited from any further discussion here.
Catalogue

1 O v r e Considerably worn. Male head, top and rear of head . bes: off the flan, but probably laureate; bearded, facing right; hair represented by lines of dots; eye shown in profile; thick lips (Fig.I). Reverse: War galley facing right; badly worn row of shields shown along the bulwark; prow, poop and letters off the flan; three wavy lines representing the sea (Fig.2). AR. weight, diameter unknown. Provenance: Salt Mine site. Previously published (4).

Fig. 1.

Obverse of coin 1.

2. Obverse: Almost entirely effaced with the exception of a field of dots remaining from the beard (Fig.3).

Fig. 2.

Reverse of coin 1 .

Fig. 3.

Obverse of coin 2.

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D. T POTTS .

Fig 4 Reverse of coin 2

FIX 5 Obverse of coin 3

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PRE-ALEXANDRINE PHOENICIAN STATERS

Reverse: Badly worn; war galley facing right; prow and poop off the flan; two wavy lines; Phoenician letters in the field above the galley M'G (Fig.4). AR.weight, diameter unknown. Provenance: Salt Mine site.
3. Obverse: Similar to preceding (Fig.5).

Reverse: Badly worn; similar to preceding. M G (Fig.6).

An weight, diameter unknown. Provenance: Salt Mine site.

4. 0bverse:Very worn. Male head, top and rear of head off the flan, but probably laureate; bearded, facing right; eye shown in profile (Fig.7). Reverse: Very worn. War galley facing right; row of shields shown along the bulwark; prow and poop off the flan; letters too worn to be visible; lines indicating the sea completely effaced (Fig.8). AR.weight, diameter unknown. Provenance: Jabal Kenzan.
5. Obverse: Male head; hair and beard indicated by rows of dots; top and rear of head off the flan, but probably laureate; bearded, facing right; eye shown in profile (Fig.9). Reverse: War galley facing right; row of shields shown along

Fig.6. Reverse of coin 3.

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D. T. POTTS
the bulwark; prow and poop off the flan; indistinct, worn traces of letters; lines indicating sea off the flan (Fig.lO). Bronze or billon (?), weight, diameter unknown. Provenance: Jabal Kenzan Indistinct as several of these coins may be, the entire ensemble is interesting by virtue of its very presence in northeastern Arabia. The large class of Phoenician coins with the head of a male on the obverse and a galley on the reverse has recently been studied in connection with a hoard discovered in 1983 near ar-Ruad/ ArwadlArados itself (5). The eye in profile and full lips of the male head are characteristic of the earlier coins of the second category of Aradian coins, namely those which follow the category showing a deity with dolphins. The line of shields along the bulwark is considered characteristic of Phoenician triremes and it is on this basis, in spite of the absence of oars and portholes, that the vessel in question is so identified. The three wavy lines, depicting the sea, are common on all Aradian staters, whereas two only may appear on coins of smaller denomination Judging by the available photographs, however, the Salt Mine site and Jabal , Kenzan coins are all staters. Nos. 1 4, and 5 all show details of portraiture, including the eyes, lips, and nose, which allow us to align them with J.W.Betlyons fifth Aradian series, datable to between 3481347 and 3391338BC (6). Numismatists are by no means in agreement concerning the meaning of the mysterious legend on these coins. In the last century E. Babelon suggested that M stood ormlk nud,i.e. king

Fig.%
Obverse of coin 4.

Fig. 8. Reverse of coin 4.

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PRE-ALEXANDRINE PHOENICIAN STATERS

of Arwad (Arados), more recently J. W. Betlyon has proposed and that the G stands for the name GiraStartlGerostratos, the last pre-Alexandrine king of Arados whose reign ran from 3391338 to 332 BC. These hypotheses have recently been accepted by Elayi and Elayi in their study of the Arwad hoard (7). Nos.2 and 3, although badly worn, compare well with the group of coins attributed by Betlyon to GiraStart.The three vertical lines on no. 2 represent, according to Betlyon, the number 3, indicating the third regnal year of GiraStart, which fell in 3371336 BC (8). We have, of course, no way of knowing how or when this small group of Phoenician staters reached northeastern Arabia (91, but it is instructive to recall the words of Ezekiel, 27:20-22, describing conditions at Tyre in the seventh or sixth century BC i.e. several hundred years prior to the minting of the Arados coins. Following the recent translation bv E. Lipiliski, we read, Dedan was youydealer in coarse woollenifor saddle clothes (20);Arabia and all the chiefs of Kedar were agents at your disposal. For lambs, rams, and goats, they were your agents (21). The dealers from Sheba and Raamah were your dealers. In exchange for choicest balsam, for every kind of precious stone and gold, they offered you manufactured goods (22)(10). know full well that the We Phoenicians were renowned merchants in antiquity, and it is surely possible that the involvement with Arabia described by Ezekiel continued well into the fourth centurv, and therebv caused Phoenician staters to circulate as far south as-the eastern skaboard of Arabia.

Fig,9,
Obverse of coin 5.

Fig-, 10. Reverse of coin 5 .

References 1. Altheim F, Stiehl R. Neue Funde 8: Gerrha. Berlin. AAW 511: 1968:96. 2. Golding M. Artifacts from later pre-Islamic Occupation in Eastern Arabia. Atlal 8:1984:166 and P1.136A, 141B. 3. Lombard P. The Salt Mine Site and the Wasaean Period in Northeastern Arabia. In: Potts DT, ed. A r a b the Blest: Studies in Arabian Archaeology. Copenhagen: CNIP, 7:1988:124. 4. See ref.3. 5. Elayi J, Elayi AG. A treasure of coins from h a d . JANES 18:1986:6-7, with extensive literature on Aradian coinage. 6. Betlyon The Coinage and M i n t s of Phoenicia: The Pre-Alexandrine Period. Chico: Harvard Semitic Monographs, 26:1980:90 and

w.

PI. 7:4-6.
7. Elayi, Elayi, A Treasure: 16-17. 8. Cf. Betlyon. Coinage and M i n t s of Phoenicia: PI. 7:9.

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D. T POTTS .
9. Salles JF. Les Phkniciens de la mer Erythrke. AAE: in press,

re-examines those traditions which link the Phoenicians with the region of the Erythraean Sea. 10. Lipiriski E. Products and Brokers of Tyre according to Ezekiel 27. Louvain: Stud Phoenicia 3 :1985:219. Address: D. T. Potts Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Near Eastern Studies University of Copenhagen Njalsgade 78 DK-2300 Copenhagen S Denmark

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