An imitative owl, probably from the Lihyanite Kingdom, Northwest Arabia

I was pawing through the owls today and pulled out this interesting imitative owl that I purchased from a dealer in Prague, Czech Republic, about 4 or 5 years ago.

This is clearly an imitative owl. I think the Athens Mint, even on one of its worst days, would have produced a much more refined coin.

I think this coin originated in the ancient Arabian kingdom of Lihyan, probably some time in the 4th to early 3rd century BC. The style, I think, is suggestive of this origin.

Here's a little background on the Lihyanite Kingdom, images and extracts courtesy Wikipedia.

Here is a link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lihyan

Occupying a large portion of Northwest Arabia, bordering the Red Sea, the Lihyanite Kingdom (7th century to 24 BC) was both powerful and prosperous, benefiting from the spice trade.



"Lihyan (Arabic: لحيان‎, Liḥyān; Greek: Lechienoi),[1] also called Dadān or Dedan (Hebrew: דְּדָן‎, Dəḏān), was a powerful and highly organized ancient Arab kingdom that played a vital cultural and economic role in the north-western region of the Arabian Peninsula and used Dadanitic language.[2] The Lihyanites ruled over large domain from Yathrib in the south and parts of the Levant in the north.[3] In antiquity, the Gulf of Aqaba used to be called Gulf of Lihyan. A testimony to the extensive influence that Lihyan acquired.[4] The term "Dedanite" usually describes the earlier phase of the history of this kingdom since their capital name was Dedan, which is now called AlUla oasis located in northwestern Arabia, some 110 km southwest of Teima, both cities located in modern-day Saudi Arabia, while the term "Lihyanite" describes the later phase. Dadan in its early phase was "one of the most important caravan centers in northern Arabia".[5] It is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.[5] The Lihyanites later became the enemies of the Nabataeans. The Romans invaded the Nabataeans and acquired their kingdom in 106 AD. This encouraged the Lihyanites to establish an independent kingdom to manage their country. This was headed by the King Han'as, one of the former royal family, which governed Al-Hijr before the Nabataean invasion.

The Arab genealogies consider the Banu Lihyan to be Ishmaelites, Arabs descended from Ishmael, although in Jewish tradition they are thought to be descended directly from Abraham through his second wife Keturah (rather than from Ishmael).[6] The descendants of Lihyan founded the Arab kingdom of Lihyan and at present live in the desert between Mecca and Jeddah."

The Lihyanite Kingdom also produced remarkable buildings, very similar to those of the ancient kingdom of Petra, in Jordan. This is a Lihyanite temple.



As well as unique art:




The Lihyanite Kingdom produced imitations of the Athenian owls that are both idiosyncratic and very appealing in their own way.

This coin came with no documentation regarding origin, which is typical, but I do think that it was produced in Lihyan and modeled along the lines of the 4th century BC intermediate owls of Athens.

The oblong flan has a crude depiction of Athena, facing right. The portrait has been flattened somewhat by the test cut on the reverse.

The reverse an owl with course feathers leaning right. To its left is the ethnic AOE, with the E rotated. To the right is the crescent moon and olive sprig.

This coin weighs 16.7 grams



Clearly, the die engraver turned around the reverse design, as well as producing a very crude obverse. This trend towards greater "abstractness" continues with the owls proceeding forward, as shown with the following coin, made much later.

AE tetradrachm, circa second through first centuries BC

7.4 grams



This area of Lihyan imitative owls is an evolving one, with new discoveries coming to the market as hoards and individual coins are discovered.

 

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Very interesting, thanks for the write up. These Athenian imitations are obscure.
The engraver seems to have copied the original Athenian tetradrachm directly on the die, since the reverse is struck mirrored (the coin design is always mirrored from the die). I saw this as well on Seleukid imitations from Phoenicia.

 

Terrific writeup; many thanks. Never heard of the Lihyans, but their architectural consonance with Petra is very cool. Given the current state of the research, it will be great to find out more. For one obvious instance, whether they were responsible for more of the Middle Eastern imitations of Athenian owls which show up on the market, often with indifferent levels of attribution.

 

Yes, I have seen this error before. There is a very rare imitation owl with the obverse transposed, so Athena is facing left rather than right. Nothing like that would be be allowed at the Athens Mint.

Here's an extremely rare imitation of an archaic style owl with a reverse profile of Athena, eastern mint, auctioned by Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG, Auction 120, Lot 370, 6/10/2020.

17.47 grams

 

Nice writeup, @robinjojo
Interesting examples of the imitative owls, especially the archaic piece.

 

Thank you

I was also struck by the similarity of the Lihyan architecture and the architecture developed by the Nabataeans at Petra. It seems that environment does dictate how cities are constructed. I know that Petra is a World Cultural Landmark, but I am not sure about the Lihyan buildings. Judging from the photos, they seem well preserved.

The Lihyan owl imitations do come up for auction, but they are all rare to extremely rare, crude and really little understood.

The Roma Auction XXI had two examples:

Lot 275, AE tetradrachm, 2nd-1st centuries BC.

Hammer price: £1,300

12.23 grams




Lot 276, AE drachm, 2nd-1st centuries BC.

Hammer price: £1,700

3.81 grams

 

Well, in fact it's not a Lihyanite temple, these are Nabataean tombs in Mada'in Salih, Saudi Arabia, ancient Hegra. Hegra is only 20 km north of Dedan, the capital of the kingdom of Lihyan, and belonged to this kingdom in the 4th c. BC. Hegra was occupied by the Nabateans probably under Aretas IV (9 BC - 40 AD) and remained Nabataean until 106, when Trajan annexed the kingdom and created the Arabia province. During the century of Nabataean rule (roughly the 1st c. AD) local elites of Hegra commissioned rock-cut monumental tombs exactly like those in Petra. On these facades there are often inscriptions in Nabataean that indicate the tomb's owner, the construction date and the fine (in "sela" of Aretas, i.e. silver drachms) in case of unauthorized burial.
The Romans occupied the city from 106 to probably the late 3rd c. A vexillatio (detachment) of the 3rd Legion Cyrenaica was garrisoned there, commanded by a centurion. The Romans probably withdrew in the early 4th c. and the city was abandoned in the late 4th c. - early 5th c. AD.
In Muhammed's time Hegra (al-Hijr) was a ghost town since more than 200 years, and people thought the rock-cut tombs were ancient houses once inhabited by heathens who didn't listen to their prophet Salih, killed Allah's sacred camel, and drew Allah's vengeance on themselves: their rock-cut bunkers did not protect them, all fell dead inside and this is why they are now full of human bones. It's all told in the Quran.

 

Thank you for the clarification.

Wow, tough ending for that town!

 

Nobody knows what happened, why the town was abandoned. There are traditions about Muhammed declaring the place and its wells forbidden. Haram! Streng verboten! Thus nobody resettled there...
Archaeologists are now digging the site. Hundreds of Lihyanite, Nabataean and Roman coins have been found. The Roman coins are never later than Constantius II, except for one single tiny Arcadius AE4, the latest coin found there. This shows Hegra was largely depopulated in the 4th c. and completely abandoned in the 5th c. For what reason? mystery...

 

That sounds like a good project for a history sleuth, maybe even for an episode of Secrets of the Dead on PBS. It also reminds me of the controversy around the abandonment of the Mayan cities of Palenque, Copán, Tikal, and Calakmul after the 9th century AD. Some archeologists think environmental factors, and over- population might have contributed, in addition to disease and war.

On another matter, I was wondering if you could help clear up a little bit of confusion on my part. I recently purchased this drachm from a dealer at the San Jose show. On the label, the drachm is described as being both Sabean and Himyarite. I have always assumed that this type is Sabean, and that the Himyarite drachms were later and patterned after the new style owls of the 2nd-1st centuries BC.

Weren't the Sabeans and Himyarites distinct groups, with their own language and governing two distinct kingdoms?