The Apadana Foundation Deposit (IGCH 1789): some clarification more

342 COIN HOARDS 2003 The Apadana Foundation Deposit {IGCH 1789): some clarification A.R. Meadows 28. The Apadana Foundation Deposit (IGCH 1789) The context of this famous find of archaic Greek coins has made it potentially one of the most important hoards to survive from the period. Yet. as one scholar has had occasion to remark, 'from the start there has hecn a distresssing lack of clarity about the basic com- position of the hoard.*1 The purpose of this note is to set further discussion of the deposits and their interpretation on a firmer footing, by providing some basic information about the coins that has hitherto remained unpublished.2 The two deposits may be summarised as follows:3 A. North-East Deposit Aegina. c. 520^80 bc /R. Stater of Asyut group II (turtle with thin collar: Union Jack reverse) 1. Marble Palace Museum, Tehran. Schmidt 27: Hcrzfcld fig. B: Kagan. p. 37. Abdera, c.520-510 bc /R. Tetradrachm May period I, group II.1 2. 13.31 Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran. Schmidt 36; Herzfeld fig. B; May, p. 60. 4/1. Kagan. p. 37. N. Croeseids of late type, c.520-500 bc 3. 8.06 Iran Bastan Museum. Tehran. Schmidt 28. 4. Marble Palace Museum, Tehran. Schmidt 29. 5. Marble Palace Museum, Tehran. Schmidt 30. 6. 8.07 Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran. Schmidt 31. B. South-East Deposit Uncertain Cypriot Mint, c.520-500 bc 5 /R. Obv. Lion forepart r. Rev. Rough incuse with two Cypriot letters. Double siglos. 7. 10.09 300° Iran Bastan Museum. Tehran. Schmidt 37; Herzfeld fig. B.; Kagan p. 37. pi. 7, B. 1 M. Cool Root. 'Evidence from Persepolis for the Dating of Persian and Archaic Greek Coinage", NC 148 (1988), pp. 1-12. at p. 2. 3 This information was collected during a visit to the Iran Bastan Museum in Tehran in January 2002. I am most grateful to the Director of the Museum Mr M. Karegar for permission to study in the coin room, and to the curator of the coins Mrs.E. Askari for her help during my visit. Thanks arc also due to Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis for much practical help, and to the British Insitute of Persian Studies for the grant that facilitated my trip. ' The following abbreviations are used: Schmidt - E. Schmidt. Persepolis II. Contents of the Treasury (Chicago, 1957): Herzfeld = E. Herzfeld. 'Notes on the Achaemenid Coinage and Some Sasanian Mint Names". ProeINC 1936, pp. 413-26: Kagan = J. Kagan. 'An Archaic Greek Coin Hoard from the Eastern Mediterranean and Early Cypriot Coinage". A'C 154 (1994). pp. 17-52. J J.M.F. May. The Coinage of Abdera (540-345 B.C.). RNS SP 3 (London. 1966). 5 For discussion of the chronology and types of the Cypriot issues and defence of a possible date before c.500 for all of them, see Kagan, csp. pp. 38-43. ANCIENT HOARDS 343 Paphos?, c. 520-500 bc /R. Obv. Bull L Rev. Eagle head 1. Double siglos. 8. 10.84 150° Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran. Schmidt 38; Herzfeld fig. B; Kagan pp. 28-30 and 37-8, pi. 6, C. Lapethus?, c. 520-500 bc /R. Obv. Kneeling giant? Rev. Herakles running or kneeling r. with bow and club. Double siglos. 9. 10.84 180° Iran Bastan Museum. Tehran. Schmidt 39: Kagan. p. 38. N. Croeseids of late type, c. 520-500 bc 10. 8.11 Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran. Schmidt 32: Herzfeld fig. A. 11. 8.05 Iran Bastan Museum. Tehran. Schmidt 33; Herzfeld fig. A. 12. 8.06 Iran Bastan Museum. Tehran. Schmidt 34; Herzfeld fig. A. 13. 8.07 Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran. Schmidt 35; Herzfeld fig. A. The circumstances of the discovery of the two deposits is well known. Twelve of the coins (1-8, 10-13) were discovered by Herzfeld during his excavations in 1934. The thirteenth (9) was subsequently recovered by Schmidt from the same pit in which the remainder of coins 7-13 had been found.'' Attempts to date the hoard on the basis of the Achaemenid foundation texts (DPh) with which the coins were found have been bedevilled by prob- lems of interpetation of their nature and function.7 On the basis of the numismatic evi- dence, as Kagan has shown (op. cit., n. 4), there is no element of the deposit that need post- date c.500 bc: 'the five Greek silver coins from Persepolis provide just the sort of mixed group one would expect to find circulating in the Persian Empire in the last decades of the sixth century BC (p. 39). The current disposition of the hoard and the weights and die-axes of the coins have not previously been published. Of the thirteen coins, I was able to examine ten in the Iran Bastan Museum, the other three having apparently been transferred to the Marble Palace Museum. One curious feature of the deposits can nonetheless now partly be confirmed. Herzfeld in his original publication of the material noted what seemed to him a 'magical" feature: 'Under the stone boxes coins of gold and silver were found, deposited in fours, together with each of the pairs of tablets. The number four seems to have had a magic sig- nificance.... The gold coins arc all of one and the same type, the well-known Croesus coins with heads of lion and bull opposed on the obverse, and inscuses on the reverse. They all belong to the lighter series and weigh exactly 8.08 grammes, four coins together always 32.310 gn (pp. 413-4. my italics). The weights catalogued above were all measured at one time using the same balance and, while they offer slightly more variation than allowed by Herzfeld, do serve to illus- trate that the gold coins were apparently selected on the basis of their weight, or perhaps better, their condition. All the Croeseids now in the Museum as well as those illustrated by Schmidt are in extremely fresh condition. This is in marked contrast to the considerably. e Schmidt, p. 110; the question of the intrusive nature of this piece was reopened by Cool Root (above n. I). pp. 2-3. but dismissed by Kagan, p. 38. 7 Note the debate in this journal between M. Vickers. "Karly Greek Coinage, a Reassessment'. NC 145 (1985), pp. 1-44, esp. pp. 4-9 and Cool Root (above, n. 1). Note also the discussions by Cool Root. 'The Persian Archer at Persepolis: Aspects of the Chronology. Style and Symbolism". REA 91 (1989). pp. 33-50, and P. Calmeyer, 'Das Datum der Griindungsinschrift vom Apadana und die Krone der Altesten "Bogenschiitzen"". ibid,, pp. 51-9. 344 COIN HOARDS 2003 and consistently, more battered silver pieces. What this difference may mean in terms of interpretation of the nature of the deposits as a whole remains to be seen. It should perhaps be taken into account, however, before attempts are made to interpret all of the coins in the deposits in the same way. y/ A Hoard of Bronze Coins of Maroneia Gregory Terzian and Gonda Van Steen [PLATES 43-44] 29. Uncertain find-spot and date A Hoard of 80 small bronze coins of Maroneia of three uncommon types was recently brought to our attention. The coins are as follows (a catalogue is given at the end of this Note). Type I: 26 specimens with a male head on the obverse and a single grape bunch on the ' reverse (S-G8 968-975; 8 examples in S-G): Type IT. 30 specimens with a horse forepart on the obverse and a single grape bunch on the reverse (S-G 367-383; 19 examples); Type HI: 24 specimens with a single grape bunch on the obverse and a single grape bunch on the reverse (S-G 384; 1 example). All the coins have a similar encrustation, even though the majority had been partially cleaned prior to our study. To our knowledge, no significant numbers of coins of these types have appeared on the market, and we regard the hoard as probably intact or near- intact. No previous hoards seem to have been published with more than two examples of any of these three types,1' and the new hoard more than doubles the number of published specimens. Relative Chronology The pattern of wear on the three Types is as follows: Type I: All 26 coins range from heavily worn to very heavily worn. Type II: Three coins (catalogue numbers II. 1-3), variants from the usual Type II format, exhibit significant wear. The remaining 27 coins range from moderately worn to as- struck. Type 111: All 24 coins range from very lightly worn to as-struck. We conclude that Type I (male head/single grape bunch) is the earliest since the least worn coin of Type I exhibits more wear than the most worn coins of Type II (horse forepart/single grape bunch) or Type III (single grape bunch/single grape bunch). The s S-G refers to E. Sch6nert-Geiss, Die Miinzpragung von Maroneia (Griechisches Miinzwerk. Schrii'lcn zur Geschichte und Kullur der Antike 26. Berlin. 1987). 9 See S-G. pp. 95-96 for Type 1. and p. 90 for a list of hoards and excavation finds that contained examples of Types II and III.