Some New Nabataeans

Warren, your commentary on the sources is quite accurate. The student of Nabataean Numismatics should start with three indispensable volumes: Meshorer's Nabataean Coins, Schmitt-Korte's Nabataean Coinage Part 2, and Coinage of the Caravan Kingdoms. Some of the analyses in the first two volumes are updated in CCK, but the majority of Meshorer's and Schmitt-Korte's work stands firm.

The two most pertinent chapters in CCK are Hoover and Barkay's Important Additions to the Corpus of Nabataean Coins Since 1990, and Huth's Some Nabataean Questions Reconsidered.

I'm currently working on a site that consolidates all the scholarship concerning Nabataean coins. This project is only in its infancy, but so far I've analyzed and cataloged 56 types. I'm aiming to provide a comprehensive online reference within a year. Any and all suggestions are most welcome...

Nabataean Numismatics

 

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Have you had the time to review what little there is on wikipedia?

 

Yes, and it needs revision, but I just don't have the time to do that with the website project. Once I finish that, perhaps I'll propose some edits to wiki. I wish I had more time, but four kids and a full-time job...

 

I picked up another of these eagle types this morning. This one only grades F, but it gives me the type with O and heth on the reverse, and the heth on the reverse is quite nice: big and bold...



There is an eagle-left variety as well, but they are quite scarce, and the few coins on the market at present are not of a sufficiently high grade to interest me.

 

I know you're being a bit tongue-in-cheek, but allow me to get all nerdy and say that I didn't invent the transliterations. Shuqailat was used by Meshorer and earlier scholars. Now, the convention has become to insert the vowel aleph for the unknown vowels, hence Shakilat. This is still making stuff up. Until we invent a time machine and get some audio recordings of ancient Nabataeans, pronouncing their language will always be a certain amount of guesswork.

 

Thanks for this intersting thread, and especially the overlays of the inscriptions. These are very helpfull in trying to familiarize myself with a new script.

 

As a prequel to posting my collection of the minute bronzes of Aretas IV, some of which are new acquisitions, I'd like to offer two coins which I've posted before. The first is a bronze of Obodas II with bust in archaic style The letter shin on these coins indicates Syllaeus, Obodas' powerful vizier, but the portrait is identical to the portraits found on the silver coins of Obodas. It is obviously stylized, and probably does not represent a realistic likeness of the king...



This coin dates to 9 BC or slightly before, as does the following coin, with a very different bust...



The second bust is probably an early rendition of Aretas IV. While Sylleaus was busy in Rome, courting Caesar's approval of him as king of the Nabataeans, Aretas, back at home, simply proclaimed himself as such. It is unlikely that Sylleaus would have minted coins with his own bust on them - this was the prerogative of approved Roman client kings, and Sylleaus had no desire to anger Caesar Augustus.

Aretas, on the other hand, obviously didn't give a damn what the Romans thought. Although he was not the direct successor of Obodas II, he did come from the royal line, being possible a nephew of Malichus I. And he had consolidated his power enough to be accepted by the Nabataeans as their ruler.

The theory that the second bust represents Aretas (despite the fact that Sylleaus' mark is found on the coin) is corroborated by that fact that the earliest bronze coinage of Aretas bears very similar portraits. After that, the busts of Aretas become less lifelike, more Grecian in their style. This sets the stage for posting the rest of the coins I wanted to present in this thread.

 

Here are 8 of the minute bronzes of Aretas IV. Three of these are new coins, two are re-imaged. Notice the difference between the busts on the coins in my previous post and the later portraits of the king. The later busts become less Arabian, more Greco-Roman, but they are still quite distinctive. Aretas IV is easily recognizable on any of the coins minted throughout his 49-year reign.

These are just the bust/double-opposed-cornucopia types. There are others: eagles, wreaths, and double-parallel-cornucopias, but I'll save those for another thread. These coins come in many varieties, particularly in the field marks. Some have a caduceus, others a pomegranate stalk. Some have the mark X, which is the number 4 in Nabataean. It's not clear whether this is a date or not. If it was a date, one would expect to see other numerals as well, but such coins have not been discovered. Perhaps the number 4 held some religious significance, or perhaps it denotes a denomination: a quarter of something?

I'll be happy when Dansco comes out with an album for these. They'll be easier to keep track of.

 

As JA knows, this is one I have just ordered. JA has infected me with the Shaka-laka virus as this is now my third Nabatean. What little I have read on wiki tells me they were an industrious, sober people who could grow fruit trees in the middle of the desert. I like these little coins. My other favorite is
with the double portrait of Rabbel II and his mom, the beautiful Chocolate Shaka-laka! JA can jump in here an untangle what I have mangled info-wise.
Hey, I'm a coin collector...not a numismawhachacallit!

 

Those are great coins, JB! Only one correction - the Rabbel coin is with his queen Gamilat, not his mother. The inscription between the cornucopias is gimel-mem-lamedh-taw, GMLT.

 

Oh there you go again, talkin' that jibjab language.....

 

Please John, the kids may see this!

 

JA ... JA ... JA ...

=> yup, they're chanting your name, my friend ... you're definitely the King o' Nabobotean-Land!! (wear it like a crown, my awesome brother)

I am sooo jealous of your cool Nabobetonism!! (man, I need to buy a cool Naboteam coin!!)



... just jokes ... your coins are 100% sweet!! (I will eventually add a Neboteum coin to my collection)

 

I picked up this lead tessera from the FORVM store last night. This is of the bust/bull types, with the legend NBT across the top of the bull. It's a bit difficult to make out the legend, but this coin is actually in pretty good shape for a tessera...



I have one of these types already, but this variety has no inscription, and the bust is different. This coin clearly depicts Zeus. The bust on the new coin is probably Aretas IV. Very little is known of these enigmatic tesserae...

 

Here's my own pic of the OP coin, which arrived yesterday. Very small coin at 11mm. This must have been the smallest Nabataean denomination...

 

And here's the tessera, a surprisingly nice coin on a thick flan - the thickest lead coin that I own now...

 

"Lead" ... hmmm, cool ... I don't have any lead examples "yet" (ummm, is Ardy the other dude on this site that collects Lead coins? ... or Med-man perhaps?)

 

Ardatirion has a set of Roman tesserae. Medoraman probably has a jarful, just because he has a jarful of everything.

 

Nice additions, John. I own no tesserae or seals.

Saw a Lucilla Lead Seal once, would have loved to have had it but was sold & it isnt even this guys cause I asked

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-97927