Roma Numismatics Ltd
Auction XXII 7-8 Oct 2021
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Arabia, uncertain mint AR Tetradrachm. In the name of and imitating the types of Alexander III of Macedon. 3rd - 2nd century BC. Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress / Clean faced male deity with a ponytail hairstyle seated to left on backless throne, holding eagle and staff; ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ retrograde below, ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ behind; in left field, head and neck of an oryx with prolonged antlers and small horse head to left. Unpublished in the standard references, for similar issues cf. O. Callot, 'A New Chronology for the Arabian Alexanders', in Coinage of the Caravan Kingdoms: Ancient Arabian Coins from the Collection of Martin Huth. (Ancient Coins in North American Collections 10, 2010), pp. 383, 383-402; HGC 10, 686-704; for prototype, cf. Price 690 (horse-head left). 16.83g, 27mm, 9h.
Good Very Fine. Extremely Rare.
Ex Jesus Vico S.A. Online Auction 10, 24 September 2020, lot 49 (with export license 2020/06553, 21 October 2020).
The generic name 'Arabs' and a kingdom called 'Arabi' appear in the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings in the first millennium BC. A variety of imitative Alexander III tetradrachm issues from the 3rd century BC have recently been identified and attributed to the Ikatlos, Gerrha and Tylos districts of what is now north-eastern Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, which primarily served the Babylonian and Mesopotamian frankincense and myrrh markets of the Seleukid Empire along the river Euphrates. The weight standard employed is slightly below the Attic optimum, but the silver is sound and the issue is characterized by a rather stiff head of Herakles head with exaggerated lion's jaw on the obverse.
Little is know about the religion and pantheon of the region before the coming of Islam. In northern Arabia the chief deity seems to have been known as El or Ilah, meaning 'God'. The reverse deity of the Arabian Alexander issues have often been identified by numismatists as Shams, an Arabian pre-Islamic female solar deity and connected to the Sumerian sun god Utu, whose Akkadian name was Shamash. However, another possible candidate for assimilation to Zeus is the Mesopotamian sun and moon god Sîn (Sumerian Nanna-Suen), whose cult seems to have centered on the kingdoms of southern Arabia. It is the possibly the clean shaven male deity which replaces bearded Zeus on the reverse of these coins, which in the case of Gerrha, holds the forepart of a horse instead of an eagle. In many cultures, including the Hellenized Middle East the horse and eagle are both symbols of the sun, day vitality, illumination, resurrection, and messenger of rebirth. The antelope forepart must represent the Arabian oryx with its characteristically long slightly curved horns which was native to the Arabian steppe and desert from ancient times and featured prominently on the coinage of the Himyarites in the 1st century BC, (cf. SNG ANS 1503ff.)
Good Very Fine. Extremely Rare.
Ex Jesus Vico S.A. Online Auction 10, 24 September 2020, lot 49 (with export license 2020/06553, 21 October 2020).
The generic name 'Arabs' and a kingdom called 'Arabi' appear in the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings in the first millennium BC. A variety of imitative Alexander III tetradrachm issues from the 3rd century BC have recently been identified and attributed to the Ikatlos, Gerrha and Tylos districts of what is now north-eastern Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, which primarily served the Babylonian and Mesopotamian frankincense and myrrh markets of the Seleukid Empire along the river Euphrates. The weight standard employed is slightly below the Attic optimum, but the silver is sound and the issue is characterized by a rather stiff head of Herakles head with exaggerated lion's jaw on the obverse.
Little is know about the religion and pantheon of the region before the coming of Islam. In northern Arabia the chief deity seems to have been known as El or Ilah, meaning 'God'. The reverse deity of the Arabian Alexander issues have often been identified by numismatists as Shams, an Arabian pre-Islamic female solar deity and connected to the Sumerian sun god Utu, whose Akkadian name was Shamash. However, another possible candidate for assimilation to Zeus is the Mesopotamian sun and moon god Sîn (Sumerian Nanna-Suen), whose cult seems to have centered on the kingdoms of southern Arabia. It is the possibly the clean shaven male deity which replaces bearded Zeus on the reverse of these coins, which in the case of Gerrha, holds the forepart of a horse instead of an eagle. In many cultures, including the Hellenized Middle East the horse and eagle are both symbols of the sun, day vitality, illumination, resurrection, and messenger of rebirth. The antelope forepart must represent the Arabian oryx with its characteristically long slightly curved horns which was native to the Arabian steppe and desert from ancient times and featured prominently on the coinage of the Himyarites in the 1st century BC, (cf. SNG ANS 1503ff.)