Cuneiform, Scarab and Gold, Oh My!

Hey everyone,

As usual, I'm spending a lot of time drooling over the awesome coins and artifacts you're showing. Now, I'll be doing the same over my brother's new pieces.

He got a sweet tax return and he got some awesome buys out of it.

First off, he finally got his cuneiform tablet. He just bought it, so he doesn't have it yet. Here is the picture, courtesy of Pegasi Numismatics.



Next, he got himself another scarab. Again, he doesn't have it yet. These pictures are from Zurqeih.



Finally, he finally got himself some gold. I'm at work, so I only have the pictures from Forvm. I'll take pictures when I get home.



I think he made out pretty well. He certainly has me jealous!

Thanks!

Erin

 

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FANTASTIC CAPTURES!!! Way cool on the Cuniform!

I just got my FIRST Scarab a couple weeks ago... No ancient gold for me yet...


Egypt
New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty
Steatite Scarab
Bearing the name of Tuthmosis III
Ref: Cf. Basel 276; Fraser 225; Jaeger p. 82
Comment: Base engraved with regnal name of Tuthmosis III, Men Kheper Re,"The Appearance of Ra is Established", within a cartouche, surronded by Maat feathers, above neb basket.
Intact, formerly glazed, pierced for mounting
Ex. CNG with tag
Ex. David Hendin Collection

I was attracted to this one as my first Scarab as Tuthmosis III was probably one of the greater Pharaohs in Egyptian history... Cool to have a touch with this Ancient Civilization!

 

The scarabs are awesome! And the gold is nice as well...but it's cuneiform tablet that has me drooling! Very nice!!

 

Love them all, any idea what the cuneiform says?
I think if I branched out into artifacts my husband would divorce me

 

some cool stuff, and and awesome byzantine gold coin! i assume that's heraclius?

i've been tempted by those scarabs, i even bid one one recently but didn't get it.

 

Wow Alegandron, awesome scarab!

Thanks for the comments, everyone! My brother is really excited about them. He has a significantly bigger budget than I do, but, he lets me share in the awesomeness.

You're right, chrsmat, it is Heraclius.

The cuneiform tablet is a receipt for donated goods to the temple. There's a trace of a palm print on the back, which is what sold my brother on it. I'll take a picture of it when it comes in.

As for me, I got that lead bullet recently, a Constantine "eyes to heaven" coin and hope to get a Pontis Pilate coin soon. I'll be showing them off when I switch over to saflips soon. .

Erin

 

Thank you, Erin! I am searching for a decent English written reference book on Scarabs. I enjoy Egyptian history, but they did not have coins until the Makedonon Ptolemaic Dynasty... I think it would be cool to collect Scarabs of the Pharaohs.
Brian

 

Check out Historical Scarabs by Petrie, which is available on Amazon for $14. Excellent resource!

 

Thank you!

 

there were a few coins minted shortly before the ptolemies

 

Which coins? That would be interesting to see...

 

The only one I'm aware of is the gold stater of Nektanebo II with horse and hieroglyphs.

Example from CNG's archives:



The Rare and Popular Gold Stater of the Pharaoh Nektanebo II
Triton XIX, Lot: 2075. Estimate $50000.
Sold for $130000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

EGYPT, Pharonic Kingdom. Nektanebo II. 361-343 BC. AV Stater (16.5mm, 8.16 g, 10h). Horse prancing right / Heiroglyphic representation of “good gold”: pectoral necklace (nebew = “gold”) crossing horizontally over a windpipe and heart (nefer = “good”). FF-BD 1p (D1/R1 – this coin); SNG Berry 1459 (same dies); SNG Copenhagen 1 (same obv. die); ACGC 1064 (same obv. die); Hunt I 106 (same dies); Jameson 2618 (same rev. die). Good VF, toned, slightly off center on reverse. Rare.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Stack’s (10 June 1997), lot 38; Berk BBS 83 (26 October 1994), lot 7B; Münzhandlung Basel 10 (16 March 1938), lot 402.

"One of the great (and very popular) rarities for ancient gold coinage collectors is the gold stater (or daric?) issued by the Egyptian Pharaoh Nektanebo II. The authors of the die study cited above could account for only 42 examples struck from 3 obverse and 3 reverse dies with 5 die combinations. They also listed 5 examples from the Mit Rahineh hoard (IGCH 1658) that they could not examine for their die study. The attribution to Nektanebo II is not infallible, and is based primarily on circumstantial historical evidence and not the coins themselves, which do not bear any specific ethnic or monogram.

Nekht-har-hebi, or Nektanebo II as he was known to the Greeks, was the nephew of the Pharaoh Tachos (Djedhor). Placed in command of the Egyptian army in Syria during the Satrapal Revolt, he turned his troops against his own king, and uncle, and took Egypt by force. In 351-350 BC, he repelled a Persian invasion but was driven from his throne in 344-343 by a second assault. He then fled Egypt and found refuge in Ethiopia and retained control of Upper Egypt for another few years.

Nektanebo most likely would have issued his gold staters to pay the mercenaries in his army. What makes the coinage of Nektanebo stand out, though, is an Egyptian cultural revival for the coin’s obverse and reverse types instead of imitating the Athenian tetradrachm types previously used in Egypt by the Greeks and Persians. As such, this is the only known coinage to employ a hieroglyph – a purely Egyptian coin."

...

You can still find some little bronzes with leaping ram and scales cited as being issued by Nektanebo II, but that attribution has long been discarded. The coin is now thought to be from Syria, centuries later. When I bought mine I had not seen the correct attribution and I was unhappy to learn that it wasn't a pharaoh's issue.


SYRIA, uncertain (formerly attributed to Egyptian pharaoh Nektanebo II)
3rd century CE
AE11, 4.4 gm
Obv: Ram leaping left, head reverted
Rev: Scales; countermark with helmeted bust right
Ref: Weiser 1 (Nektanebo II of Egypt)

 

WOW, @TIF , thanks for the information. I was not aware of this. I was under the impression that the Ptolemies brought coinage to Egypt. From appearances, it looks as if it was used for major transactions, perhaps to other countries... It does not really appear for "general circulation."

Thanks for taking the lead in elaborating on this interesting information!

 

Scarabs are so cool. My brother's other scarab has a pyramid on it. We'd both like to get a scarab with a cartouche on it.

Thanks for the info on the Nektanebo II stater, TIF. I'm sorry your coin wasn't what you thought it was.

Here's the solidus in hand. Nice and shiny!



Erin

 

Ooooooooooo... I see a coin book in the background! Probly loaded with some COOL stuff!

 

Some pretty cool loot! Pardon my ignorance of artifacts, but what exactly are scarabs made of? They don't appear to be metal. Clay?

 

Wonderful post Erin!! I'm always interested in artefacts like these, but my poor budget is frayed as it is LOL...And I LOVE that solidus!!!!

Thanks TIF for the info...I was also ignoranat of the fact that coins were minted under any Pharoah prior to the Ptolemies

 

John, I think scarabs are made from a stone called steatite.

Thanks again everyone! My brother really appreciates the compliments. I just wish he'd get on here and speak for himself, but he still says no.

My brother and I keep our coins in there. Most of it belongs to him. There are some pretty cool coins in there, to us, at least. It's all pretty common. I've been watching the thread where everyone is showing their rarest coin and between the two of us, we have nothing to show. lol

I wish I had my brother's budget. He doesn't have as many bills to pay as I do, so he has more $$ to spend. He's generous in that I can look at his artifacts any time I want and he even got me my first, a scarab, for Christmas.

Erin

 

Steatite is also known as soapstone. My kitchen countertops are soapstone. Great stuff!! It tolerates scorching hot pans, frozen goods, spilled acids, and alkali without damage.

 

The Hendin-type scarabs were well documented and hence you can download some information about the various types that was in that collection below. It gives a great overview of the various types that are present. I wasn't able to grab any of those scarabs (at least the ones I wanted), so I am a bit bummed about that .

https://oi.uchicago.edu/sites/oi.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/shared/docs/OIP118.pdf

I would also check out the BMC catalog:

https://archive.org/details/catalogueofegypt01brituoft

Finally, I would most definitely send images of that cuneiform to the CDLI (http://cdli.ucla.edu/) for proper identification and cataloging.

Glad we have more collectors of these awesome artifacts to preserve for our future generations (and away for the likes of ISIS)...