A hoard of Myrmekion coins from Cyzicus

Butyagin A.M. 

Third International Congress On Black Sea Antiquities: 
The Black Sea and its Relationship with Ancient Central and Eastern Europe, 1st Millennium B.C. - 5th Century A.D. Prague. 2005. P. 58.

 

In August 2003, in the course of excavation of the ancient settlement of Myrmekion (Kerch in the Ukraine), the State Hermitage expedition discovered a hoard of electrum staters from the town of Cyzicus. The hoard had been kept in a bronze jug hidden under masonry. It contained 99 well-preserved coins of 53 types, mostly dating from the 5th century BC (2nd and 3rd groups according to H. Fritze). One of the types (a sitting warrior wearing a helmet with a bow placed to the right of him) is absolutely unique. The building under which the hoard was discovered had been a sanctuary put up in the 4th century BC, but the wall where the hoard was found was constructed no earlier than the 370s BC, so the coins from Cyzicus may have been wrongly dated to an earlier period. Most probably the hoard was not private property but part of the temple's treasure concealed in some unclear circumstance. The hoard in scale is comparable to similar finds from Prinkipo, Clazomenae, Piraeus and Orlovka. Three hoards with coins from Cyzicus are known to have been excavated in the territory of the Bosporan kingdom but they have been plundered and nowadays scholars possess only a few coins. The hoard from Myrmekion is the only one owned by a museum, its integrity preserved and its archaeological origin clear.

Рубрика: Библиография.