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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 24554693, member: 128351&quot;]A handful of AE drachms of Elymais, plus one AE tetradrachm</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1554594[/ATTACH] </p><p>I know nothing about those kings of Elymais... These coins were probably minted in Susa (Iran), capital of Elymais which was the ancient Elam. Many represent on the reverse the goddess Artemis Nanaia, a very ancient Sumerian female deity, Nanaya.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1554595[/ATTACH] </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1554596[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Two views of Susa (today called Shush) in January 1969. The ancient high city is now a desert <i>tepe</i> (hill), on which lay the broken columns of the huge Achaemenid palace of Darius. It was the political centre of the gigantic Persian Empire that extended from Greece and Egypt to India and central Asia. The Elamite city lays underneath. I don&#039;t know what the city looked like 600 years later under the kings of Elymais. The modern town is at the foot of the <i>tepe</i>. Its most remarkable monument is the tomb of the prophet Daniel, the building with a white pointed dome... </p><p><br /></p><p>But the craziest monument is the huge brick castle on the highest place of the <i>tepe</i>. It is a 19th c. fortress built with materials picked up on the spot (including many bricks with cuneiform inscriptions !) by the French Archaeological Mission under Jacques de Morgan, c. 1890. The region was not safe back then, archaeologists could be attacked by nomadic tribes and security was their biggest concern. This is why they built this fortress.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1554602[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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