The Identity of YNTN on Hasmonean Overstruck Coins and the Chronology of the Alexander Jannaeus Types more

Published by the Israel Numismatic Society Volume 3 Contents 3 JAROS³AW BODZEK: A Note on a Samarian Coin-Type 13 HAIM GITLER, MATTHEW PONTING and OREN TAL: Metallurgical Analysis of Southern Palestinian Coins of the Persian Period 29 JEAN-PHILIPPE FONTANILLE: Extreme Deterioration and Damage on Yehud Coin Dies 45 JEAN-PHILIPPE FONTANILLE and CATHARINE C. LORBER: Silver Yehud Coins with Greek or Pseudo-Greek Inscriptions 51 PERE PAU RIPOLLÈS: The X4 Hoard (Spain): Unveiling the Presence of Greek Coinages during the Second Punic War 65 GEORGES VOULGARIDIS: Some Thoughts on Mints, Monograms and Monetary Magistrates. Two Case Studies: the Mints of ‘Akko-Ptolemais and of Ascalon under the Seleucids 81 OLIVER D. HOOVER: Ptolemaic Lead Coinage in Coele Syria (103–101 BCE) 87 DAVID HENDIN and ILAN SHACHAR: The Identity of YNTN on Hasmonean Overstruck Coins and the Chronology of the Alexander Jannaeus Types 95 MOSHE FISCHER and ZVI GUR: The Coin Finds from Horbat Mazad 117 CECILIA MEIR: Tyrian Sheqels and Half Sheqels with Unpublished Dates from the ‘Isifya Hoard in the Kadman Numismatic Pavilion 125 ALLA KUSHNIR-STEIN: Reflection of Religious Sensitivities on Palestinian City Coinage 137 YEHOSHUA ZLOTNIK: Coin Finds and the Question of the Conquest of Jerusalem by Bar Kokhba 147 ZVI URI MA‘OZ: Ships on Roman Provincial Coins in the Southern Levant: Voyages on the River Styx 163 BRUNO CALLEGHER: A Provincial Weight from after the Monetary Reform of 538 CE 175 D. MICHAEL METCALF: Crusader Numismatics: How Immobilized Types are Classified, How Chronologies are Revised and Verified, and How Coins are Attributed to Their Mints 189 Review: Oliver Hoover, Coins of the Seleucid Empire from the Collection of Arthur Houghton, Part II. New York 2007 (Danny Syon) 192 Review: Bruno Callegher. Cafarnao IX. Monete dall’area urbana di Cafarnao (1968–2003). Jerusalem 2007; Cécile Morrisson, Vladislav Popoviæ † and Vujadin Ivaniševiæ, Les Trésors monétaires Byzantines des Balkans et d’Asie Mineure (491–713). Paris 2006 (Gabriela Bijovsky) 200 Abbreviations Israel Numismatic Research 2008 The Identity of YNTN on Hasmonean Overstruck Coins and the Chronology of the Alexander Jannaeus Types DAVID HENDIN dhendin@aol.com ILAN SHACHAR ilansh@netvision.net.il Abstract A previously unpublished Hasmonean coin, which was overstruck twice, proves beyond doubt that at least one group of coins bearing the name yntn must be attributed to Alexander Jannaeus. This coin also contributes to establishing a definitive chronology for the striking of the various Jannaeus types. The coinage of the Hasmonean rulers has been studied intensively and today there is general agreement on most of the attributions and several points of chronology. Among the issues that have still eluded consensus are the attribution of coins which bear the name yntn in paleo-Hebrew script, and the chronology of the coins minted by Alexander Jannaeus. This article focuses on an unpublished double overstrike of a well-known Hasmonean coin which was recently discovered in the market by Hendin. This coin not only proves definitively the attribution of at least one major group of yntn coins, but also helps to resolve the question of the chronological order in which certain Jannaeus types were struck.1 In order to appreciate the full significance of this coin, it is helpful to summarize the Jannaeus types. It is convenient to categorize them in seven groups, which have been arranged below (Table 1) in a chronological sequence based on design, title of the ruler, language, paleography, historical circumstance and archaeological find spots, the logic of which has been discussed elsewhere (Shachar 2004:6–8). Since with the exception of Group 5 none of the coins are dated, one can only refer to relative chronology. It is possible, but unsubstantiated, that some groups were struck contemporaneously. There are two other Hasmonean cornucopias/inscription types, TJC: Groups S and T, very similar in design to the Jannaeus Group 1 on Table 1 (TJC: Groups P, Q and R). On these types the inscription gives the name yntn instead of yhwntn. It is generally accepted that all of the Group T coins are overstruck on a Jannaeus’ anchor/flower type (Jannaeus Group 3; TJC: Group N) or, very rarely, on the palm 1 The authors would like to express their thanks to Alla Kushnir-Stein, who agreed to read an early version of this article and whose comments and suggestions were invaluable. INR 3 (2008): 87–94 87 88 DAVID HENDIN AND ILAN SHACHAR Table 1. Summary of the Jannaeus coin types Jannaeus Group TJC Group Obverse Reverse Names in inscr. Title used Languages Date 1 P,Q,R Double cornuco- Inscription within yhwntn pias; between wreath horns: pomegranate; all within border of dots Palm branch and inscription Anchor within circle Anchor surrounded by inscription all within border of dots Flower Flower and inscription within border of dots Star within diadem, inscription between rays yhwntn yhwntn & AËEÎANÄPOY High Hebrew Priest At least until 99/98 BCE2 2 3 O N King Hebrew King Hebrew & Greek Probably in the mid-to late 80s3 4 K yhwntn or King Hebrew and (rarely) yntn and Greek AËEÎANÄPOY 5 L1–L6 Star within border AËEÎANÄPOY Anchor within circle, inscription of dots and inaround and dated scription around ‘Year 25’ Anchor within Inscription within AËEÎANÄPOY circle, inscription border of dots Traces of star Traces of AËEÎANÄPOY or missing King Aramaic and Greek 80/79 BCE 6 7 M Lead King Aramaic and Greek King Traces of Ara- Some possibly maic and Greek struck posthuor missing mously L7–L17 Traces of anchor within circle branch/flower type (Jannaeus Group 2; TJC: Group O). The cornucopias/inscription coins of Group S are all normal strikes.4 The paleography of the inscription on Groups S and T is exclusive and distinctive, differing significantly from the paleography on our Group 1 (TJC: Groups P, Q and R) above, and also differing one from the other. Most attempts to deal with the attribution of the yntn coins have been based on analysis of the coins themselves together with references to a historical context. Several researchers have suggested that the name yntn was no more than an abbreviated form of yhwntn, Jannaeus’ Hebrew name. There are indeed examples of Jannaeus type TJC: Group K, where this is the form of the name engraved between the rays of the star (Lambert 1927:185, Nos. 9–12; Hirschfeld and Ariel 2 3 4 There is a published example of this type overstruck on a Tyrian coin of this date (TJC:215, Subgroup R23). For circumstantial evidence supporting this dating, see Shachar 2004:7. If reference is made to TJC, note should be taken of the printer’s error on pp. 45 and 46; the texts that follow the subtitles Group S: The “Barbaric” Prutot and Group T: Overstruck Coins have been transposed. IDENTITY OF YNTN ON HASMONEAN OVERSTRUCK COINS 89 2005:81). Use of the shorter form yntn might have been just an engraver’s device to save space on the flan (McLean 1981:158). Two seal impressions (bullae), which seem to have belonged to the same person, were engraved with the names and titles ‘yntn the high priest’ and ‘yhwntn the king’ respectively (Avigad 1975). Various attempts have been made to explain why Jannaeus’ mint chose (or was directed) to overstrike Jannaeus’ anchor/flower type bearing the title ‘king’ with a cornucopias/inscription type bearing the title ‘high priest.’ According to Josephus (Ant. 13:376; BJ 4:90–91), Jannaeus provoked a civil insurrection in the course of which thousands were killed. At one point he tried to appease his enemies (Josephus, BJ 4:92). One theory is that Jannaeus’ adoption of the royal title was offensive to many, especially the Pharisees, and a way to appease them might have been to overstrike stocks of his flower/anchor coin with a new version of his cornucopias/inscription coin, thus abandoning the Greek inscription and royal title on the flower/anchor coin and promoting his status as ‘high priest’.5 Attempts at appeasement did not succeed, and rival forces asked the Seleucid ruler, Demetrius III, for military assistance (Josephus, Ant. 13:376; BJ 4:95). Demetrius ruled from 96–88 BCE and died shortly after his campaign against Jannaeus. If the appeasement theory is correct this would give a time frame of the latter part of Demetrius’ reign for the overstriking phenomenon. Later issues of Jannaeus coins, which once again give the title ‘king,’ could reflect his improved self-confidence after military victories abroad and an end to the civil war. However, others have maintained that yntn was more likely to have been one of Jannaeus’ sons, the most frequently mentioned candidate being Hyrcanus II (e.g., TJC:26–27), although Aristobulus II has also been suggested (e.g., Kindler 1991:16–18). This proposition stems largely from the large quantities of Jannaeus anchor/flower coins (Jannaeus Group 3), as well as a single known example of the Jannaeus palm branch/inscription coin (Jannaeus Group 2), both with the title ‘king,’ having been overstruck by a cornucopias/inscription type bearing the title ‘high priest’ and reading yntn. It has been suggested (Reifenberg 1940:16) that it would have been unlikely for Jannaeus to have renounced his royal dignity in this fashion. The distinctive paleography of the yntn types could also indicate a different attribution. Some scholars (e.g., TJC:26) found it difficult to assume that Hyrcanus II, who held office for at least 23 years, did not strike any coins. The attribution of the yntn types to a Jannaeus successor high priest would explain what would otherwise be a gap in minting of 36 years, from the death of Jannaeus until the beginning of the rule of Mattathias Antigonus in 40 BCE.6 Having 5 6 This explanation has been proposed by several researchers, the earliest being possibly Lambert 1927. With the possible exception of some continued striking of ‘Jannaeus imitations’ (see Table 1, Jannaeus Group 7), numismatists have been unable to attribute any other coinage to the rules of Salome Alexandra, Hyrcanus II, or Aristobulus II. 90 DAVID HENDIN AND ILAN SHACHAR proposed that yntn was likely to have been minted by a ruler succeeding Jannaeus, these scholars related to the fact that only Jannaeus Group 3 was consistently overstruck by moving this group to the end of the Jannaeus sequence. Further, they assumed that large stocks of this type still remained at the mint when the king died (e.g., Kindler 1991:16). However, changing the sequence in this way is problematic, as there is logic to the chronology as set out in the above table (Shachar 2004:6–8). While overstriking of existing stocks at the mint would certainly have been more efficient than attempting to recall large quantities of the anchor/flower type from circulation, this is not in itself a sufficient explanation for the phenomenon. Little is known — and there is certainly no written evidence — of minting practices in antiquity. Even Josephus, who is rich in details on many aspects of daily life in contemporaneous Judea, never mentions bronze coins. Consequently, this overstriking enigma has defied resolution. The subject has also been studied based on analysis of the distribution of coin finds from certain controlled archaeological excavations and while the results were indicative of attribution to Jannaeus, the quantity of the evidence available was insufficient for definitive conclusions to be drawn (Shachar 2004). Our coin, previously unknown, now provides an unequivocal answer to the attribution of this yntn coin group and to the relative chronology of the anchor/flower type (Jannaeus Group 3; TJC: Group N). The coin is described as follows (Fig. 1). Fig. 1. Jannaeus double overstrike: a. Obverse oriented by undertype b. Obverse oriented by undertype (2:1 scale); c. Obverse oriented by uppertype Obv.: Anchor surrounded by Greek inscription: ÂÁÓÉËÅÙÓ [AËEÎANÄPOY], all within border of dots. The most prominent trace of a previous striking is a clearly identifiable portion of the inscription from type TJC: Group T (cornucopias/inscription overstruck on anchor/flower): IDENTITY OF YNTN ON HASMONEAN OVERSTRUCK COINS 91 Line 1: Line 2: Line 3: Line 4: [ïú]ðé [ä ïä]ëä áçå ì]ãâ [ãäé] ø yn[tn] hk[hn h] gd[l whb] r [yhd] Rev.: Star within diadem; Hebrew inscription between rays: ï/ú/ð/å/[äé] [yh]wntn. Part of a border of dots, visible from 1 to 4 o’clock, represents a remaining trace of one of the previous strikings. Æ, 2.07 g, 14.4×16.6 mm, axis not clear. Since it is not disputed that all of the type TJC: Group T coins, without exception, were struck on top of previous coins (TJC:45), we can safely state that this coin is in fact a triple strike, or double overstrike. Traces of the original coin, as might be expected after being overstruck twice, are minimal, but it can safely be assumed that it was an anchor/flower type (Jannaeus Group 3; TJC: Group N). The identification of the first overstriking as that of TJC: Group T (cornucopias/inscription type upon anchor/flower type) is certain. The almost identical paleography between this coin and many other specimens of type TJC: Group T can be seen by comparing with the coin illustrated here as Fig. 2 (from Hendin’s collection), which closely resembles TJC:315, Subgroup T11. The style and placement of the paleo-Hebrew letters is virtually the same, although the dies are not identical. There are a large number of type TJC: Group T dies with similar paleography and letter placement. See, for example, Kaufman 1995:41–42, Nos. IA-12, IA-14, IA-18, IA-20, IA-21 and Kaufman 2004:60–61, Nos. IA-31, IA-38, IA-41. The paleographic style for the type TJC: Group T coins cannot be confused with any other Hasmonean coins, nor do any other Hasmonean coins contain similar letter placement. Fig. 2. yntn coin (TJC:315, Subgroup T11) with obverse similar to undertype of double overstrike (Fig. 1) (2:1 scale) Fig. 3 is another image of the double overstrike coin in Fig. 1, but with the visible paleo-Hebrew letters of the undertype enhanced, thus allowing us to view the inscription more clearly. Although the nun ( N ) in Line 1 is incomplete, it quite clearly cannot be a he (h). Moreover it has been observed that, bearing in mind the relatively large size of the letters on all examples of TJC: Group T, if the 92 DAVID HENDIN AND ILAN SHACHAR visible portions of the wreath are traced and then extrapolated around the flan, there is not sufficient space for the first line to contain more than the four letters of yntn. It is also noted that on just about every example of yhwntn types, the last letter or letters of the name are shifted to the beginning of the second line of the inscription, which obviously is not the case on our coin (Alla Kushnir-Stein, pers. comm.). Fig. 3. Jannaeus double overstrike (Fig. 1), with enhancement of undertype letters (2:1 scale) Thus we believe we have ruled out any possibility that this is a yhwntn type and have shown that it is definitely a ‘classic’ yntn coin (TJC: Group T). Therefore, the sequence of the striking of our coin was as follows. An anchor/flower coin (Jannaeus Group 3; TJC: Group N) was overstruck by cornucopias/inscription dies, and then overstruck again by anchor/star within diadem dies (Jannaeus Group 4; TJC: Group K). As usually occurs, the features of the final striking prevail, and are extremely clear. Hendin’s collection includes two additional anchor / star within diadem Jannaeus Group 4 coins that have been overstruck upon Hasmonean cornucopia types (Fig. 4). Traces of the underlying cornucopias are clearly visible on the reverses of both. This shows that while our coin is a previously unpublished type of overstrike, other coins were overstruck by Jannaeus Group 4 dies. These two additional coins may well have been struck upon TJC: Group T types as well, but there are insufficient traces of the previous strikings for absolute identification. The following conclusions may now be drawn. 1. Since we now know that at least one TJC: Group T coin was overstruck by a Jannaeus Group 4 (TJC: Group K) coin, it is certain that the underlying anchor/flower type (Jannaeus Group 3; TJC: Group N) was the not the last in the sequence of Jannaeus types. The anchor/flower type must have been struck between the cornucopias/inscription type (Jannaeus Group 1) and the anchor/star within diadem type (Jannaeus Group 4). 2. TJC: Group T represents the overstriking of a Jannaeus coin (a cornucopias/inscription type similar to Jannaeus Group 1 [TJC: Groups P, Q and R]) upon another Jannaeus coin (the anchor/flower type, Jannaeus Group 3, or — very rarely — on the palm branch/flower type, Jannaeus Group 2). 3. The yntn spelling was not only employed on the anchor/star within diadem IDENTITY OF YNTN ON HASMONEAN OVERSTRUCK COINS 93 Fig. 4. Two coins of Jannaeus Group 4 (TJC: Group K) that have been overstruck upon Hasmonean cornucopia types (2:1 scale) types (Jannaeus Group 4, originally explained as the result of lack of space between the star’s rays on the reverse), but rather also on cornucopias/inscription coins — as an alternative spelling for yhwntn. Our coin provides additional support for the chronological order suggested in Table 1. The first part of this table can now be expanded (Table 2). Table 2. Summary of Jannaeus’ earlier coin types (expansion of the first part of Table 1). Jannaeus TJC Group Group Obverse Reverse Names 1 2 2a 3 3a 4 4a7 P,Q,R O T13 N T1–12 K Double cornucopias; between horns: Inscription within pomegranate; all within border of dots wreath Palm branch and inscription Flower yhwntn yhwntn yntn As Jannaeus Group 1 but overstruck on Jannaeus Group 2 Anchor within circle Flower and inscription yhwntn and within border of dots AËEÎANÄPOY yntn Star within diadem, in- yhwntn or (rarely) yntn scription between rays and AËEÎANÄPOY yntn on undertype, yhwntn on uppertype As Jannaeus Group 1 but overstruck on Jannaeus Group 3 Anchor surrounded by inscription all within border of dots Previously As Jannaeus Group 4 but overstruck on Jannaeus Group 3a unpublished (double overstrike) 7 As mentioned above, the overstruck coins illustrated as Fig. 4 might be more examples of our double overstrike, or might be single overstrikes on a different Hasmonean cornucopia type. In the latter case, they would fit in our table between Jannaeus Group 4 and 5, e.g., as 4b. 94 DAVID HENDIN AND ILAN SHACHAR The once-overstruck coins (Jannaeus Groups 2a and 3a) were probably contemporaneous but are inserted after their respective undertypes and before the anchor/star within diadem type (Jannaeus Group 4). Our double overstrike follows Jannaeus Group 4, but in all likelihood represents a type that was struck contemporaneously with that group. It would now seem that only the attribution of the cornucopias/inscription TJC: Group S is still unclear. Having established that the yntn overstrikes (Jannaeus Groups 2a and 3a) were minted during the reign of Jannaeus, it might be tempting to assume that the normally struck yntn coins (TJC: Group S) should also be attributed to Jannaeus. However the very distinct and highly stylized paleography of TJC: Group S leaves open the possibility that the minting authority responsible for these coins was a different high priest. The intriguing question of why the mint of Alexander Jannaeus chose to overstrike his anchor/flower coins with cornucopia/inscription dies remains open. Nonetheless, we now have an established fact to support the notion that this occurred around the middle of Jannaeus’ reign and that it is likely to have been a gesture of appeasement to his enemies. We will leave it to others to argue the historical implications. REFERENCES Avigad N. 1975. A Bulla of Jonathan the High Priest and A Bulla of King Jonathan. IEJ 25:8–12, 245–246. Hirschfeld Y. and Ariel D.T. 2005. A Coin Assemblage from the Reign of Alexander Jannaeus Found on the Shore of the Dead Sea. IEJ 55:66–89. Kaufman J.C. 1995. Unrecorded Hasmonean Coins from the J. Ch. Kaufman Collection (Numismatic Studies and Researches 8). Jerusalem. Kaufman J.C. 2004. Unrecorded Hasmonean Coins from the J. Ch. Kaufman Collection Part II (Numismatic Studies and Researches 10). Jerusalem. Kindler A. 1991. Hasmonean Coinage: Two Problems. 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