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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Silphium Addict, post: 7994562, member: 116882&quot;][USER=118780]@kirispupis[/USER] great addition!</p><p>.. and my favorite topic!</p><p>I have no question that silphium existed and it was the backbone of the economy of Kyrenaika for centuries until its extinction. One of my major interests is what did it look like? Followed by: Why hasn&#039;t some archaeobotanist found some in the bottom of a jar somewhere to extract the DNA?</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s a nice summary by [USER=103829]@Jochen1[/USER] from an old thread:</p><p><a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-silphium-plant.359111/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-silphium-plant.359111/">https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-silphium-plant.359111/</a></p><p>Here&#039;s a thesis I call &quot;more than you ever wanted to know about silphium:&quot;</p><p><a href="http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3166/1/3166_1191.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3166/1/3166_1191.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3166/1/3166_1191.pdf</a></p><p>An old <i>Celator</i> article about Kyrenaika and it&#039;s &quot;silphium&quot; coinage:</p><p><a href="http://community.vcoins.com/celator-vol-13-no-10-2/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://community.vcoins.com/celator-vol-13-no-10-2/" rel="nofollow">http://community.vcoins.com/celator-vol-13-no-10-2/</a></p><p>Another <i>Celator</i> article that silphium may still exist:</p><p><a href="http://community.vcoins.com/celator-vol-15-no-02/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://community.vcoins.com/celator-vol-15-no-02/" rel="nofollow">http://community.vcoins.com/celator-vol-15-no-02/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>While silphium reportedly has many culinary and medicinal uses, it&#039;s greatest value may have been as an abortifacient although not specifically mentioned in ancient sources. Even in ancient times, there was emphasis on the quality of &quot;Cyrenic silpium&quot; over &quot;inferior silphium&#039; that grew in other places. I believe &quot;Cyrenic&quot; silphium is extinct and people get confused by similar species that still exist.</p><p>The Hellenistic representation of silphium, like on the Magas didrachms, is very stylized. The most realistic representation, but still somewhat stylized, may be on earlier tetradrachms like this one:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1386860[/ATTACH]</p><p>Kyrene AR &quot;Asiatic&quot; tetradrachm 400-375 BC 13.01 gm, 27 mm</p><p>O: silphium plant with small shoot &amp; root, K-Y/P-A around</p><p>R: head Zeus Ammon left</p><p>BMC 71(VIII:9)</p><p>Provenance: J. Hirsch 32, lot 602 11/14/1912</p><p><br /></p><p>It is one of my favorites because of the little shoot coming off the root.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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