Cilicia, uncertain mint AR Obol. Circa 5th-4th centuries BC. Female head facing slight left, circle of dots around / Head of Bes facing, within shallow incuse. SNG Levante 233; SNG France 486; Mildenberg, Transeuphratène 9, 1995, pp. 63-65; Mildenberg 1990 Vestigia pl. XXXI, 15 (mistakenly published as from Gaza). 0.54g, 10mm, 9h.
Good Very Fine.
From the inventory of a European dealer.
The reverse of this coin depicts the god Bes, an ancient household god predating dynastic Egypt who was worshipped throughout the region of the Levant. The stocky and robust Bes was usually depicted frontally as on this coin, and was regarded as the protector of homes, and in particular of mothers and children, the defender of everything good and the enemy of all that is bad.