Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Karia, Kaunos AR Stater. Circa 430-410 BC. Iris running to left, head reverted, holding kerykeion in right hand and wreath in left / Triangular baetyl, inverted Δ and Γ across upper fields; all within incuse square. HNO 5 (temporary); Konuk Period V, 114 (O53/R54); SNG Kayhan 799 (same dies); SNG von Aulock 2350 = Jameson 1601 (same dies); Roma E-86, lot 553 (same dies). 11.57g, 26mm, 12h.
Extremely Fine; struck from a slightly worn reverse die on a large planchet.
From the inventory of a German dealer.
Beginning as a crude triangular punch mark, then shown as a central device with horn-like tags, and eventually evolving into a depiction with handles at the top, it was originally thought that the reverse type seen here was possibly a relief map similar to those found on some issues of Ionia, or simply a patterned incuse design. However, as explained by Konuk ('The Early Coinage of Kaunos', in Price Essays, pp. 197-223) it is now known to be the triangular baetyl, or sacred stone, that was venerated in the city. During excavation of an unusual round building near the harbour of Kaunos in 1991, a conical piece of limestone broken into two parts was discovered. Standing at the very centre of this building and dug into the ground to about half of its full height, it appears that this sacred stone was the sole object of worship for a cult established in the fifth century, and thus is very likely the exact baetyl depicted on the coinage of the city.
Baetyls such as that at Kaunos were often meteorites, and thus to the ancients had been sent by the gods and required veneration. Iris, seen here on the obverse, was the goddess of the rainbow and the messenger of Hera (two roles possibly conflated because the rainbow seems to connect the earth and the sky), and thus a very fitting deity to appear on the coinage of a city that had received a physical message from above.
Extremely Fine; struck from a slightly worn reverse die on a large planchet.
From the inventory of a German dealer.
Beginning as a crude triangular punch mark, then shown as a central device with horn-like tags, and eventually evolving into a depiction with handles at the top, it was originally thought that the reverse type seen here was possibly a relief map similar to those found on some issues of Ionia, or simply a patterned incuse design. However, as explained by Konuk ('The Early Coinage of Kaunos', in Price Essays, pp. 197-223) it is now known to be the triangular baetyl, or sacred stone, that was venerated in the city. During excavation of an unusual round building near the harbour of Kaunos in 1991, a conical piece of limestone broken into two parts was discovered. Standing at the very centre of this building and dug into the ground to about half of its full height, it appears that this sacred stone was the sole object of worship for a cult established in the fifth century, and thus is very likely the exact baetyl depicted on the coinage of the city.
Baetyls such as that at Kaunos were often meteorites, and thus to the ancients had been sent by the gods and required veneration. Iris, seen here on the obverse, was the goddess of the rainbow and the messenger of Hera (two roles possibly conflated because the rainbow seems to connect the earth and the sky), and thus a very fitting deity to appear on the coinage of a city that had received a physical message from above.