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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 1777137, member: 42773&quot;]<font face="Times New Roman">Here’s another addition to my set of crude Nabataean obscurities: a lead tessera of the debatable-bust/Nike type, 14mm, 2.3 g. The seller claims it’s the laureate head of Aretas, but which Aretas? </font></p><p><br /></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://postimage.org/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://postimage.org/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://s24.postimg.org/4jhw71vut/lead5a.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></a></font></p><p><br /></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">Oliver Hoover classifies these tesserae in “A Reassessment of Nabataean Lead Coinage in Light of New Discoveries”, wherein he parses the Bust/Nike types into six categories. The only sub-type that includes a laureate, head is Group F, but Hoover doesn’t assign the bust to a particular ruler – he simply calls it uncertain. The problem with Group F is that the obverse design includes a dotted border. I don’t see any sort of border on my piece, but it may just be faded.</font></p><p><br /></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">It’s tempting to date all of these Bust/Nike types to the time of Aretas II (103 BC - 96 BC), since Nike disappears altogether in later Nabataean issues. With the decline of the Seleucid Empire and the growth of Nabataean civilization, Hellenistic influence waned, not only in the coinage but in other aspects of the culture. However, the typology doesn’t really supply enough evidence for dating. Some of the pieces have been discovered in hoards of coins minted by Aretas IV (9 BC – AD 40). Were they minted during his reign? Or were they merely older coins circulating alongside the newer? The earlier bronze issues of Aretas II are occasionally found in groups of coins minted by Aretas IV, so it’s possible that the Bust/Nike tesserae were simply older coins still in circulation. But it’s equally possible that they were minted during the time of Aretas IV, and the depiction of Nike was a throwback to an earlier style, or that the old portrait of Nike now symbolized some Nabataean deity.</font></p><p><br /></p><p><font face="Times New Roman">My other example is of a different type, bearded head (possibly Apollo), with bull charging left.</font></p><p><br /></p><p><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://postimage.org/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://postimage.org/" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://s12.postimg.org/56viahral/lead4both2.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></a></font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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