Pot of Persian gold coins found in Turkey

Archaeologists have discovered a pot of Persian gold coins likely dating to the 5th century B.C. in the ancient city-state of Notion in western Turkey. The coins are gold darics, characterized by the image of a kneeling archer wearing a long tunic on the obverse. The reverse has no image, only a punch mark. They were likely minted in Sardis, 60 miles northeast of Notion, and were buried in a small wine jug known as an olpe.

Built on two promontories overlooking a bay on the Hales River where it meets the Aegean, Notion was a harbor town twinned with the inland city of Kolophon. The first textual record of the city dates to the 6th century B.C., but most of the archaeological remains in its current location date the Hellenistic period (3rd-1st century B.C.). Researchers believed it may have been refounded at that time, reconstructed with a planned grid structure, fortified walls, terracing for expanded residential neighborhoods and a complex water supply system.

Notion was largely abandoned after the 1st century A.D. The isolated location kept it from being rebuilt after its abandonment, and it is basically devoid of post-Roman construction. There has also been very little ground shifting or build-up to speak of, which makes its ancient remains extraordinarily legible on the surface. The University of Michigan’s Notion Archaeological Project has been documenting and excavating the site since 2014.

The 2023 excavation found remains pre-dating the Hellenistic reconstruction of the city, including pottery from the 5th century B.C. and a section of ancient wall that had been incorporated into the foundations of a 3rd century B.C. Hellenistic house. The pot of coins was discovered under the courtyard of the house. They had been buried in a corner of the older building that had once stood on that site.

A daric was the equivalent to one month’s pay for a soldier at that time, and were primarily used to pay mercenaries employed by the Persian Empire. This hoard may have been buried by a soldier involved in the conflicts between the Persian Empire and the Greek cities.

Notion was incorporated into the Persian Empire together with the other Greek cities on the west coast of Turkey in the mid-sixth century B.C. It was freed from Persian rule in the early fifth century B.C., but then reintegrated into the Persian empire in the early fourth century B.C. It remained a Persian possession until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 334 B.C.

Ancient historians frequently mention military operations around Notion. During much of the fifth century B.C., Notion, while freed from the Persians, lay under Athenian domination. The conflicting loyalties of the inhabitants of Notion and nearby cities, which occupied a border region between the Persian and Athenian spheres of influence, are illustrated by a dramatic episode related by the Greek historian Thucydides.

Between 430 B.C. and 427 B.C., a group of Persian sympathizers from the nearby city of Colophon had occupied part of Notion with the help of Greek and “barbarian” mercenaries. In 427 B.C., an Athenian general called Paches attacked and killed the pro-Persian mercenaries, after luring their commander into a trap. The Persian sympathizers were then expelled, and Notion was reorganized under Athenian supervision.

The archaeological context suggests these battles could be the background of the deposition of the hoard and its having been left behind instead of retrieved by the person who buried it for safety. However, the current chronology of Persian coins categorizes the darics found in the jug as 4th century B.C. The chronology may have to be rewritten because most the coin discoveries on which the scholarship is based were not made in their original archaeological context. In fact, this is the only Persian gold coin hoard in its archaeological context ever discovered in Asia Minor. One of the exciting aspects of the find is that it gives researchers the opportunity to correct the timeline of Achaemenid gold coinage based on the analysis of the archaeological stratigraphy and absolute dating of pottery found in the layer with the coins.

The gold coins are now at the Ephesus Archaeological Museum in Selcuk, Turkey, as are the Athenian pottery fragments recovered in the courtyard excavation.

* This article was originally published here