Ken Dorney sent me this charming little bronze of Arados... One of the reasons I wanted it was for the clear date beneath the prow on the reverse. These are Aradian-era dates in which year 1 = 260/59 BC. The wiki article on the Phoenician alphabet concisely sums up the reading of the the numerals so I quote it in full... The Phoenician numeral system consisted of separate symbols for 1, 10, 20, and 100. The sign for 1 was a simple vertical stroke (). Other numbers up to 9 were formed by adding the appropriate number of such strokes, arranged in groups of three. The symbol for 10 was a horizontal line or tack (). The sign for 20 () could come in different glyph variants, one of them being a combination of two 10-tacks, approximately Z-shaped. Larger multiples of ten were formed by grouping the appropriate number of 20s and 10s. There existed several glyph variants for 100 (). The 100 symbol could be combined with a preceding numeral in a multiplicatory way, e.g. the combination of "4" and "100" yielded 400. Their system did not contain a numeral zero. -wiki I believe I've read the date on my coin correctly as, from right to left: (2X100)+10+1+1+1+1+1, or year 215, or 45/4 BC. If anyone knows better, please correct me! What makes these dates so appealing is that we can place the coins in their historical context in a very precise way. This coin was minted very close to Julius Caesar's murder in 44 BC. The Aradians allied themselves with Caesar's assassin, C. Cassius Longinus in 43, and in the same year were approached by P. Cornelius Dolabella for naval support. After the defeat of Caesar's murderers in 42, Arados went on to oppose Mark Antony, etc. Does anyone else have coins with Phoenician dates? - let's have a study group.
The forum software obviously doesn't support Phoenician Unicode - there should be symbols in the parentheses in the wiki citation. So here's a screenshot, click to enlarge...
Oh ok, I think I get it. So the > II on the left (right)is the (2x100), horizontal line in middle is 10, and then the 5 hack mars on right (left).so left to right (I mean right to left) 200 +10 +5. Neat!
Looks good to me. But I've never tried to figure out Phoenician numerals before this thread so take my input with a grain of salt.
Here is a coin of Marathos. I believe the year is 26, which corresponds to 233 BC. Would you agree? Phonecia, Marathos, dated Year 26 (233 BC), AE18 5.98g Obv: Tyche bust with palm branch Rev: Astarte standing Lindgren & Kovacs 2304 CNG, Triton VI, January 2002, lot 1563 (part) ex David Freedman
Is the date on the lower left of the reverse? Could you walk me through the 26. So would this go bottom to top?
I always read this as "year symbol"+10+10+1+1+1+1+1+1. Perhaps I did it wrong before and it is 146? Because of this post I am trying to redo this from scratching using table 3.4 of Numerical Notation: A Comparative History by Stephen Chrisomalis. If I use that as a source I see 100+20+20+1+1+1+1+1+1.
A specimen in the British Museum has the date (73). This example can be found here. If we take the last two symbols to indicate "year" then the 73 makes sense. Mine has IIIIIIN so that must be how I originally got 26. Thoughts?
Between the unusual language and condition of the coin, I gave up trying to read the date on the coin shown below. @7Calbrey and Martin Rowe (Coins of the Southern Levant) read the date for me. The coin was from an unimaged large mixed lot. PHOENICIA, Arados Aradian date 130 (130/129 BCE) AE 16, 4.0 gm Obv: jugate heads of Zeus and Astarte right Rev: prow of ship left, with figurehead of Athena; above, Phoenician aleph and nun (right to left); below, date Ref: Duyrat 2005 No.4263-4290; BMC Phoenicia No.295-296; HGC 10 No.90
I'm new to this forum but have been following this thread with interest. I have an example of this coin that seems to use some numerals that are not referenced in the linked reference, or in any other Phoenecian numeral reference that I've found online. However, the British museum example cited earlier by Ed has a numeral matches in the "upside down F". I read the numerals in the attached photo as (in English, from right to left) as ?,100; 10,1,10; 1,1,1). I have no idea what the upside down "F" character is, and wonder if it could it be a multiplier or part of the ships prow? Also, why would they use different styles for "10" on the same numeral set? One is a dash, one is a dash with a hook. Also, are the fifth and sixth numerals from the left (the 1 and 10) connected intentionally as a ligature, or just sloppy die engraving? I'm at a loss!
