Reply to Thread

Message:: [QUOTE="GinoLR, post: 8288133, member: 128351"]This Nabataean coin of Aretas IV is a numismatic enigma. Nobody knows what can be the broom-like object on the reverse. The hypothesis of a cloth-covered baetyl is a possibility, but it does not explain the T-shaped object on top. Hegra is named  ḥgr’, but this word in Nabataean also means "enclosure" or "consecrated object". There have been more than 1100 coins found in Hegra by archaeologists who surveyed and excavated the site in the 1980s and since 2002. Many are too worn and corroded to be identified. Among those which have been identified, there are a few Hellenistic and East Arabian coins, more than 200 Lihyanite, more than 300 Nabataean and c. 150 Roman coins. The Nabataean coins are by far the most numerous, though they cover a little more than 1 century only (from 9 BC to 106 AD). Almost all of them are of Aretas IV (9 BC-40 AD), plus a handful of Rabbel II (70-106 AD). In Hegra not a single specimen of Meshorer 87, the " ḥgr’ " coin, has been identified. If it had been supposed that these coins were struck at Hegra, this hypothesis must be abandoned. But there are a dozen curious copper alloy coins, struck on irregular flans of different modules and weights. On one side there is a large Nabataean Het, on the other a large O. The design of the Het is obviously Nabataean; the O is not a Nabataean letter, but the association Het - O can be found on several bronze Nabataean coins, and nobody knows what it means. The fact that these H/O coins are found only in Hegra makes it likely that they were minted there, for local circulation. [ATTACH=full]1464708[/ATTACH]AE 15-17 mm, 3.30 g. (found in Hegra) A better specimen from trade (unknown findspot): [ATTACH=full]1464722[/ATTACH]AE 2.71 g H / O flanking eagle on an Obodas II silver coin :[ATTACH=full]1464727[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

Log in or Sign up

Reply to Thread

Useful Searches