Tetradramma dell’Arabia orientale (Gerrha)

[apollonia]

Salve

 

Questo tetradramma a imitazione dei tipi di Alessandro Magno battuto nel 2013 alla Triton XVI ha raggiunto un hammer di $35000 partendo da una base di $15000.

 

 

The Earliest Coin from Saudi Arabia - One of Seven Known

ARABIA, Eastern. Gerrha. Circa 230-220 BC. AR Tetradrachm (28mm, 16.80 g, 1h). Imitating the types of Alexander III of Macedon. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Shams, wearing tainia and chlamys, seated left on backless throne, holding eagle in his extended right hand, leaning with his left on a long staff; ΩBs (Shams in South Arabian [Musnad]) in left field, ¬¬E$Å@dro¨ in right.

Huth 106a (this coin); Arnold-Biucchi, Arabian, pl. 18, 3; Potts –; HGC 10, 697 corr. (rarity R2, not R1). EF, underlying luster. Well centered and struck from fresh dies. Of considerable historic importance and extremely rare, one of seven known, the fifth of this variety without throne back, and one of only two not in public collections.

 

From the Martin Huth Collection. Ex Frankfurter Münzhandlung E. Button 109 (2 December 1963), 2101 (incorrectly described).

 

La ragione della straordinaria valutazione di questo tetradramma è dovuta al fatto che si tratta di una raro esemplare dell’antica monetazione di Gerrha (ca. 230-220 a. C.), quando divenne la potenza regionale leader dell’Arabia Saudita. La città ribadì la sua indipendenza con l'emissione di moneta propria modellata sulla monetazione seleucide del tipo di Alessandro, ma aggiungendo nel campo a sinistra il nome della divinità suprema locale, Shams (il dio del Sole), in piene lettere. Il tetradramma è quindi un Arabian Alexander autentico a imitazione dei tetradrammi del Grande e non un’imitazione di una moneta autentica. La dimostrazione che Alessandro era riconosciuto come una figura eroica e la sua moneta usata come modello anche nell’antica Arabia Saudita.

 

 

apollonia

[Matteo91]

Interessante, @@apollonia :)

 

The Earliest Coin from Saudi Arabia

 

Si tratta veramente della prima moneta dell'Arabia Saudita?

[apollonia]

Questa è la nota aggiunta alla descrizione della monete da chi l'aveva in collezione.

 

 

Martin Huth provides the following note:

After a first examination by Robin ("Monnaies provenant de l’Arabie du nord-est," Semitica 24 [1974], pp. 83-127) and Callot ("Les monnaies dites ‘arabes’ dans le nord du Golfe arabo-persique à la fin du IIIeme siècle avant notre ère" in: Y. Calvet & J. Gachet-Bizollon, Failaka: Fouilles Françaises 1986-1988 [Lyon: Maison de l'Orient, 1990], pp. 221-40), the tetradrachms with the full legend of Shams in South Arabian characters were examined, together with other classes of ‘Arabian Alexanders’, in 1990 by C. Arnold-Biucchi who knew of five specimens: three from the 1970 Bahrain hoard (O. Mørkholm, "New Coin Finds from Failaka" in Kuml 8 [1972], pp. 183-202; these are now in the Bahrain Museum), one in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and one in the Vienna collection. To these must be added the two pieces in the recently published Huth collection (Huth 106 and 106a). Two of the seven coins (Vienna and Huth 106) show the throne with a back rest, while the others lack this feature.

With D. Potts (The Arabian Gulf in Antiquity. Vol II: From Alexander the Great to the Coming of Islam [Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990]) having convincingly established modern-day Thaj in Eastern Saudi Arabia as the site of the ancient mercantile town of Gerrha, considerable progress in the study of these and related coins has been made with Callot’s ("A New Chronology for the Arabian Alexanders" in CCK, pp. 383-402) publication of a revised chronology for the Arabian Alexanders. According to Callot, Gerrha had already been an important settlement on the trade route connecting the Gulf with South Arabia and India when the Seleukids (Seleukos I and Antiochos I) installed themselves in the north of the Gulf and founded the fortress of Ikaros/Failaka (in modern-day Kuwait). Seleukid power in the region, however, rapidly declined with the beginning of the rule of Seleukos II (246-226), and the famous rebellion of Molon in 222 (just after the accession of Antiochos III) unsettled Seleukid Mesopotamia, causing a breakdown of control over the traditional caravan routes. Gerrha thus became the leading regional power, and asserted its independence by issuing its own coins modelled on Seleukid coinage of Alexander type, but adding the name of the local supreme deity, Shams, in full. Other territories under Gerrhaean influence followed suit, with Ikaros/Failaka producing tetradrachms and obols with a vertical shin, and two otherwise unknown Arab chieftains, Abyatha and Harithat, issuing coins with their own names. Thus started the long series of Alexander imitations, most of which were produced in the name of various queens with the name of Abi’el (cf. Potts and Potts Suppl. for general study of this coinage; cf. M.C.A. Macdonald, "The ‘Abiel’ coins of Eastern Arabia: A study of the Aramaic Legends" in CCK, pp. 403-548, for Abi’el as a female ruler).

Shams/Shamash is a sun-deity of Mesopotamian origin, viewed as a male in Northeast Arabia and a female in South Arabia. While Robin, Mørkholm, Potts, Callot, and Arnold-Biucchi held differing views as to whether the seated figure actually represented the deity, Huth (“Gods and Kings: On the Imagery of Arabian Coinage” in CCK, pp. 107-24) has followed Mørkholm and Robin in associating the figure with the deity.

 

 

apollonia

[numa numa]

Interessante, @@apollonia :)

Si tratta veramente della prima moneta dell'Arabia Saudita?

Assolutamente no

Nonostante il grande interesse questi tetra di Alessandro possano suscitare ( e l'alto prezzo dovuto allalpro rarita'), vi sono altre monete precedenti dell'area del Sud della penisola arabica emesse ad imitazione delle tetradramme di Atene ad esempio con delle raffigurazioni mto primitive ma di estremo fascino.

Anche queste sono monete rare e costose.

Inoltre vi sono delle monete autoctone- emesse dagli Himyairiti - con caratteri sabei coniate sullo standard e sui tipideidenari romani nel primo secolo. Anch'esse sono monete di grande interesse.

[g.aulisio]

Giusto per fare il pignolo, una precisazione.

 

Con Arabia Saudita si denomina un'entità politica sita nella Penisola Arabica nata nel 1932 e che prende il nome dalla dinastia Al Saud che ne esercita il governo tramite l'istituzione monarchica. 

 

Le prime monete dell'Arabia Saudita sono pertanto i Riyal e frazioni emessi da Ibn Saud nel 1935 (e tra l'altro, a seguito di un accordo tra i due paesi, prodotti in... Messico!)

 

Sarebbe più corretto pertanto fare riferimento ad un'entità geografica, e quindi parlare di Penisola Arabica.

[apollonia]

Questo ‘Arabian Alexander’ è uno dei più antichi tetradrammi di Mleiha, che erano modellati su quelli di Alessandro Magno come fecero molti monarchi nell’antichità. La moneta è stata emessa in nome di ‘Abi’el, figlia di Baglan, come scritto in aramaico sul rovescio al posto di ALEXANDROY.

 

 

Extremely Rare ‘Abi’el Tetradrachm

ARABIA, Southeast. Mleiha. ’Abi’el. Late 3rd–early 2nd centuries BC. AR Tetradrachm (25mm, 15.17 g, 8h). Imitating types of Alexander III of Macedon. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; clockwise around from right, reading from the outside: ’by’l br[t] bgln (’Abi’el, daughter of Baglan) in Aramaic. Van Alfen, Die 383 (O2/R7 – this coin); Potts Class C2; Huth 118. Superb EF, toned. Extremely rare, one of only 12 tetradrachms known.

 

 

apollonia

 

[apollonia]

Anche le dracme sono ben quotate.

Dracma dell’Arabia, regno di Hagar, Abyatha (ROMA E-SALE 92, 16 dic. 2021).

Lot 584. Arabia, Kingdom of Hagar, Abyatha AR Drachm. Dumat al-Jandal(?), circa 220-204 BC. Imitating Alexander III 'the Great' of Macedon. Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress / Beardless male figure, sporting contemporary Arabian hairstyle, enthroned to left, legs crossed resting footstool, holding long sceptre in left hand and reed or pipe from which he appears to smoke in his right; 'a' in South Arabian in left field, ''byt'', denoting Abayatha in South Arabian, in right field. Arnold-Biucchi 9; CCK 116; Mørkholm, Failaka, 11-16; Potts 2; HGC 10, 694. 3.97g, 18mm, 8h.

Very Fine. Extremely Rare; one of just eleven known examples.

Starting price: 300 GBP - Estimate: 500 GBP - Result: 4.600 GBP

Modificato 17 Dicembre, 2021 da apollonia

[apollonia]

Tetradramma della serie in nome di Abyatha (Leu Numismatik, Auction 10, lot 2235, 24.10.2021).

The Martin Huth Collection
ARABIA, Northern. Kingdom of Hagar. Dumat Al-Jandal (?). Series in the name of Abyatha, circa 220-205/4 BCE. Tetradrachm (Silver, 29 mm, 16.61 g, 6 h), imitating Alexander 'the Great' (336-323 BCE). Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress. Rev. ????? (''byt'' in South Arabian) Beardless male figure with long hair seated left on low throne with back, legs crossed and resting on footstool, holding long dotted scepter in his left hand and reed or pipe from which he seems to smoke in his right; to left, ? ('a' in South Arabian); to right, dotted vertical line. Arnold-Biucchi 7-8. BMC pl. L, 5 (same obverse die). CCK 115 (this coin). Huth/Potts fog. 5 (this coin). Potts 1. Of exceptional historical interest and extremely rare, the finest of just eleven known examples. A splendid piece of wonderful early native style, illustrated, as the only coin, in the Louvre’s lavish 'Roads of Arabia' exhibition catalogue of 2010 (p. 380). A few light marks, otherwise, very fine.
From the collection of Ambassador Martin Huth, ex Spink, 11-12 December 2000, 492.
Robin (1974) identified Abyatha as a ruler of Hagar, a North Arabian Kingdom, possibly situated in the region of Dumat Al-Jandal on a caravan route linking the Mediterranean, via Nabataea, with the Gulf. Since the first publication of the Aberdeen coin by Head in 1880 (labelled incorrectly as 'Minaean'!), the gesture of the reverse figure has defied all efforts at interpretation. This figure is certainly not smoking since tobacco arrived only in about the 1600s in this region. A flute (possibly played with one hand only) also comes to mind, but there are no known parallels. The other unique element present is the footstool and a throne with a back only occurs on the rarest of the full Shams tetradrachms (see lot 2223 above). The obverse style of Abyatha’s coinage is very peculiar and appears to have been imitated by some of the coins in the name of Abi’el, daughter of Baglan (see lot 2237 below), and in particular on issues in the name of Abi’el, daughter of Labash (see lot 2240 below).
Huth/Potts (pp. 77-79) demonstrate how the Arabian and non-Arabian findspots of coins in the name of Abyatha match the route Antiochos III took after his visit to Gerrha, i.e. to Tylos/Bahrain, Ikaros/Failaka, Seleukeia, and onwards to Syria and Asia Minor, and how this provides circumstantial evidence that the 500 talents of silver received from the Gerrhaeans may in fact have been offered in coin (see lot 2229 above).

Starting price: 8.000 CHF - Estimate: 10.000 CHF - Result: 18.000 CHF

[apollonia]

Tetradramma dell’Arabia orientale (Leu Numismatik, Auction 10, lot 2240, 24.10.2021).

Lot 2240. ARABIA, Eastern. Oman Peninsula. Mleiha (?). Abi’el, daughter of Labash, circa early to mid 2nd century BCE. Tetradrachm (Silver, 27 mm, 16.58 g, 6 h), imitating Alexander 'the Great' (336-323 BCE). Head of Herakles to right, wearing lion skin headdress. Rev. ??????????? ('’by’l brt lbš' in Aramaic) Male figure seated left on low throne, holding long scepter in his left hand and forepart of a horse in his right; to left, palm stem; to right, dotted vertical line. CCK 121 = van Alfen 12a (this coin, O4/R12). Mørkholm, Bahrain, 218-231. Very rare, one of twenty-three known examples, only four or five of which are in private hands. Beautifully toned and of particularly vigorous style, an exceptional coin. Good very fine.

From the collection of Ambassador Martin Huth, privately acquired in the 1990s from R. Freeman.

The coins of Abi’el, daughter of Labash, were dated to circa 150 BCE in CCK, but their excellent metal, as well as stylistic similarities to the coinage of Abyatha from Hagar (see lot 2235 above. Note the distinct curls on forehead and temples, and the fully visible knotted paws of the lion’s pelt) indicate that a date closer to 200 BCE may, in fact, be preferable. It is a shame we know virtually nothing about the background of these Arabian queens, but it is clear from their beautiful coinage that they played a major role in the 'international' trade network of the time, connecting Seleukid Mesopotamia and inner Arabia with the markets of south-eastern Arabia, the Indus Valley, and beyond.

Starting price: 4.000 CHF - Estimate: 5.000 CHF - Result: 9.000 CHF

[gpittini]

DE GREGE EPICURI

Trovo molto interessante al post 8 il personaggio del rov., che sembra fumare la pipa. Che cosa avrà fumato?

[apollonia]

È certo che il soggetto non sta fumando in quanto il tabacco è arrivato solo verso il 1600 in questa regione. Un’ipotesi è che stia suonando un flauto con una sola mano, ma non ci sono esempi noti.

Ha me viene in mente una lingua di Menelik, popolarmente chiamata lingua di Menelicche, un giocattolo in uso nel periodo di carnevale.

apollonia