A HOARD FROM THE REGION OF ELAIUSSA (CILICIA TRACHEIA)

Year 2019, Issue: 27, 477 - 500, 25.07.2019

Melih Arslan Annalisa Polosa

Abstract

The coins which are the subject of this article were seized in 1992 at the Edirne Kapıkule Border in the car of a Turkish citizen who was departing to smuggle the coins abroad. 135 bronze coins seized by customs officials are currently in Edirne Museum.

The coins are for the most part minted by Cilician cities. The largest number is from Elaiussa Sebaste, and a large number is from the mints of Corycus and Seleucia on the Calycadnus. Other coins come from Tarsus, Hierapolis-Castabala, Soloi-Pompeiopolis, Selinus, Anazarbus, Anemurium, Aegeae, Mopsus, Flaviopolis. The composition of the group suggests that it may be a hoard, probably uncovered in the area of Elaiussa Sebaste in Cilicia Tracheia, and witnesses a regional pattern of coin circulation that can be observed in the behavior of excavation coins, museum collections and other hoards uncovered in the region. Only two coins, one from Apamaea in Phrygia and another from Aradus in Phoenicia witness a broader area of circulation. The coins are as a whole homogeneous from a chronological point of view, almost all belonging to issues dated between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC; however, there are a few exceptions of imperial times to the end of the 2nd cent. AD. 

Keywords

Edirne Museum Cilician Coins Elaiussa Sebaste Corycus Coin Hoard

References

• SNG Levante Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum Switzerland 1. Levante. Cilicia, Berne, 1986. SNG Levante Suppl. Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum Switzerland I. Levante – Cilicia. Supplement 1, Zurich, 1993. SNG Paris Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum France 2. Cabinet des Médailles. Cilicie, Paris, 1993. SNG Pfälzer Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum Deutschland. Pfälzer Privatsammlungen 6. Isaurien und Kilikien, München, 2001.