On the Beginning of Coinage in the Cimmerian Bosporus
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doi: 10.2143/AWE.12.0.2994447 AWE 12 (2013) 181-204 ON THE BEGINNING OF COINAGE IN THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS SERGEI A. KOVALENKO AND VLADIMIR P. TOLSTIKOV Abstract The article deals with the time and circumstances of the beginning of coinage in Pantica- paeum, the future capital of the Bosporan kingdom. Recent discoveries made by the archae- ological expedition of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, are considered. Numis- matic, archaeological and historical evidence allows the authors to conclude that the earliest Bosporan coins were being struck in the beginning of the 5th century BC. Their production was caused by the necessity to cover the expenses of the large-scale programme of public and cult building that turned Panticapaeum into a real urban centre. The problem of the chronology and circumstances of early coin issues in any Greek polis undoubtedly has great importance for a better understanding of various aspects of its early history, culture, religion and economy. The Archaic coinage of Pantica- paeum, the main Bosporan city and future capital of the Bosporan kingdom, has remained enigmatic to a great extent as scholars until recently have possessed neither written evidence nor helpful archaeological contexts for restoring the picture of the first steps of coin production in the Cimmerian Bosporus. In the Russian literature, the traditional view (expressed more than 50 years ago by the prominent Soviet numismatists Alexander Zograph and Dmitrii Shelov1), which placed the beginning of Bosporan coinage in the middle of the 6th century BC, has been dominant.2 Attempts to lower the possible date of this event, either with the help of quite artificial calculations3 or the mechanical linkage of the emer- gence of the first Panticapaean coins with the beginning of stone building-construc- tion in the city,4 had a speculative character and did not solve the problem. On the other side, Western scholars, feeling the necessity for such a low dating, and at the same time faced by the difficulties of the language barrier and scarcity of available information on the history and archaeology of the Archaic Bosporus, 1 Zograph 1951, 164–68; Shelov 1949a; 1951; 1956, 13–30. 2 Cf. Frolova 2004, 17–18. 3 Anokhin 1986, 17–18. 4 Tereshchenko 2004, 6. 96073_AWE_12_07_Kovalenko-Tolstikov.indd 181 24/10/13 11:25 182 S.A. KOVALENKO AND V.P. TOLSTIKOV which did not produce conclusive arguments, also dated the beginning of its coin- age in a rather speculative manner.5 However, there are some factors which nowadays allow an approach to these problems on a more solid basis. Nina Frolova has completed the first Corpus of early Bosporan coins, which, leaving aside its anachronistic chronology,6 represents in the whole data-base a quite useful tool for further research.7 Recent studies of Archaic Greek coinages conducted by Western scholars, apart from the important chronological implications, offer rich comparative material, demonstrating various models for the emergence and development of the polis coinage, and raising ques- tions on the function of the first coins,8 thus allowing us to put early Bosporan coins in a broader numismatic context. Archaeological investigations, which have been carried out on the sites of ancient Panticapaeum and other Bosporan cities during last few decades, have brought to light some new important finds, and also clarified the chronology and the possible function of the first Bosporan coins. The obverse type of these coins was represented invariably from the very begin- ning and for many decades by the facing image of a lion’s head. On the other hand, the appearance of the reverse gradually changed, starting with a crude quadratum incusum and developing into more advanced shapes (Fig. 2.32–54). Earlier scholars underlined the similarity of the obverse type of the first Panticapaean coins with those of early Milesian and Samian electrum issues (Fig. 1.1–14).9 It was this very similarity, in particular, that caused the dating of the early Panticapaean coins to the middle of the 6th century BC. One should note, however, that Panticapaean coins were being struck from silver, the metal which started to be used in the coinages of Asia Minor during the reign of the Lydian king Croesus (561–546 BC), who initiated the issue of gold and silver coins in the state.10 In Miletus, the metropolis of Panticapaeum, the appearance of the first silver coins was dated to the period from the middle to the last decade of the 6th century BC (Fig. 1.15–16).11 In Samos, silver coins with a facing lion’s head have been dated to the last third of the century (Fig. 1.17–20).12 Numismatic evidence in general testifies that the popularity of the facing lion’s head as a coin type on the silver coinages of the Greek cities of Asia Minor and mainland Greece occurs at the 5 Cf. SNG 1993, nos. 836–839; 2000, nos. 509–513; MacDonald 2005, 10–11. 6 Cf. Ireland 2005, 387. 7 Frolova 2004. 8 Cf. relevant chapters in the ‘Surveys of numismatic research’ published on a regular basis by the International Numismatic Commission. 9 Podschiwalow 1882, 5; Zograph 1951, 164; Shelov 1951, 45–48; 1956, 17–18. 10 Franke and Hirmer 1964, 121. 11 Pfeiler 1966, 14–15; Becker 1988, 24; Cahn 1970, 122, Anm. 318. 12 Barron 1966, pl. V, 1a; Matzke 2002, 27, Abb. 5–7. 96073_AWE_12_07_Kovalenko-Tolstikov.indd 182 24/10/13 11:25 ON THE BEGINNING OF COINAGE IN THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS 183 Fig. 1: 1–6 – Asia Minor, electrum coins, end of the 7th–first half of the 6th century BC; 7–9 – Samos, electrum coins, first half of the 6th century BC; 10–14 – Miletus, middle–beginning of second half of the 6th century BC; 15–16 – Miletus, silver obols, second half of the 6th century BC; 17–22 – Samos, silver coins, end of the third–beginning of fourth quarter of the 6th century BC; 23–25 – Asia Minor, silver coins, last quarter of the 6th century BC; 26 – Macedonia, Acanthus, silver coin, first quarter of the 5th century BC; 27–28 – Bruttium, Rhegium, Anaxilaios, silver drachms, 494/3–480 BC; 29 – Sicily, Zancle; 30 – Bruttium, Rhegium, silver tetradrachm, 461–445 BC. 96073_AWE_12_07_Kovalenko-Tolstikov.indd 183 24/10/13 11:25 184 S.A. KOVALENKO AND V.P. TOLSTIKOV Fig. 2: 31 – Bruttium, Rhegium, silver tetradrachm, 461–445 BC; 32–34 – Panticapaeum, silver coins of issue I; 35–41 – Panticapaeum, silver coins of issue II; 42–43 – Panticapaeum, silver coins of issue III; 44–47 – Panticapaeum, silver coins of issue IV; 48 – Panticapaeum, silver coins of issue V; 49–50 – Panticapaeum, silver coins of issue VI; 51–52 – Panticapaeum, silver coins of issue VII; 53–54 – Panticapaeum, silver coins of issue VIII. 96073_AWE_12_07_Kovalenko-Tolstikov.indd 184 24/10/13 11:25 ON THE BEGINNING OF COINAGE IN THE CIMMERIAN BOSPORUS 185 end of the third –last quarter of the 6th century BC.13 Such images, no doubt, still preserved their similarity with the analogous earlier motifs of electrum coinage, which treated the lion’s head quite schematically, with irregularities of proportion and the artificial enlargement of such elements as eyes and ears and following in general the traditions of Archaic art (Fig. 1.21–26). The last quarter of the 6th century BC might thus be considered as the terminus post quem for the emerging first coins of Pantica- paeum, exploring the motif of the facing lion’s head, which could have originated from the abovementioned specimens of Asia Minor coins. The weight data of the first Bosporan coins point in the same direction. They were being struck according to the Aeginetan system, with the drachm weighing ca. 6 g. Wide use of the Aeginetan standard in the silver coinage started not earlier than the last quarter of the 6th century BC. The earliest issues of the silver coins were produced according to the Lydian (Milesian), Attic-Euboean, Samian and Phocaean weight stand- ards. The main region of the initial spread of the Aeginetan system was situated to the south-east of Aegina and restricted to the south of the Cyclades, Cnidus and Caria.14 The Bosporan coins in question also demonstrate one technological peculiarity, which does not allow dating them earlier than the last quarter of the 6th century BC: the flattening of the surface around the quadratum incusum on the coin reverses (cf. Fig. 2.32–37). This is the result of the use of the so-called flat-nose trussel die, which prevented the coin from slipping off the anvil and prolonged the production- life of the punch. Coins struck in this way differed in appearance from the earlier specimens, which had a characteristic bean-shaped flan and the quadratum incusum deeply impressed in the roundish surface (cf. Fig. 1.1–14). The emergence of the new reverse dies indicate considerable progress in the development of coin-tech- nique and, judging by the hoard finds of the coins struck with those dies, might have been dated from 520–510 BC.15 Analysis of the Bosporan numismatic material itself allows us to specify the initial date of Bosporan coinage. Frolova has collected and systematised all available material and conducted a die study.16 This work made possible an objective estimate of the volume and the duration of production of the first coin series struck at the Pantica- paeum mint. Various groups of the early coins were classified by Frolova as separate types on the basis of their changing reverse. As a matter of fact, these types represent 13 Head 1892, 350, nos.