Some New Nabataeans

Hey boys and girls, I just realized I haven't bored you with Nabataeans for a while! I've been remiss in my duties. Anyway, here's a very nice, very small bronze of Aretas IV (9 BC - 40 AD). It's curious that the eagle is the only animal depicted on Nabataean coins, so it must have held some special significance. What that was is largely a matter of conjecture.

Nabatean Kingdom, Aretas IV (9 BC - 40 AD)
AE11, 1.29g; Petra: c.5/6 AD
Obv.: Eagle standing left in dotted border; heth in right field.
Rev.: Ligature of heth and resh in center of wreath.
Reference: Meshorer Nabataea 88; ex-Zach Beasly.



These minute coins come with a variety of field marks. This one has a very bold heth on the obverse, and a ligature of heth and resh on the reverse. The left stroke of heth (in red) is used as the downstroke of resh (in blue)...



This ligature denotes the king's name, as Aretas is spelled heth-resh-taw-taw in Nabataean, or Haratat.

I have a few more tiny bronzes to post later, after I take some pics.

 

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I love getting bored by these Nabataeans. More please!

 

Yup, I'm bored... nice piece JA.

 

Not bored. Interesting coins. Just not interested in starting another sub-collection.

 

Another interesting ligature combines the letters shin and lamedh, followed by the letter yodh. This is the monogram of Sylleaus, Obodas II's vizier. These coins are accurately dated to 9 BC, the year Obodas died and a power struggle ensued between Sylleaus and Aretas IV. Aretas prevailed, and after 9 BC, Sylleaus' monogram disappears from the coinage.



Shin (in red), lamedh (in blue), yodh (in yellow). Notice that this monogram also appears on the reverse. This coin is struck off-center, but in this case it's an advantage if you're looking for examples of this rare inscription.

 

nabateans again..........



no seriously, that is a very non-boring nabatean JA. i think i would guess that was some type of greek coin just seeing the picture, different lookin coin for those guys....at least to me.

 

Your observation is spot-on. They only had a few designs that were uniquely ethnic. Most of their coins are modeled after Greek types. The eagle imitates those found on Ptolemaic bronzes and the shekels of Tyre.

 

This is a semitic language? An adjab? Is that the proper word?

 

Yes, semitic. Not adjab - abjad. But some vowels are included in the alphabet.

 

Thats it I NEED a Nabatean. I admire your enthusiasm for these coins. I need to have one of each culture and this is one I still don't have. This will change and JA you will be the first to know.

I am looking for the one that speaks to me, but I speak an odd language.

 

Yo. Abjad.....good scrabble word!

 

Another cool srabble word I recently learned from coins is...zeugma! I know its a city on the Euphrates but its also a word that means......

 

Unfortunately, Nabataean never developed anything like the diacritical marks of Hebrew Niqqud, so we can only guess at some of the vowels. Aretas' wife was SKYLT, which gets transliterated as Shaqilat or Shuqailat, but it could have been some other variation.

 

I've actually had that word in my tiles a few times, but never came across an opportunity to put it on the board.

 

In my mind I call her Shaq.

 

In my mind I call her "Chocolate". Our pronunciations clearly demonstrate our genders.

 

Agreed.

 

I call her shaka-laka.

 

John, thanks for continuing to post Nabatean coins. Which of the reference works listed here:

http://esty.ancients.info/catalogs/Nabatean.html

do you use and recommend?

 

I like em!