Review: H. Gitler, C. Lorber and J.-P. Fontanille, 'The Yehud Coinage: A Study and Die Classification of the Provincial Silver Coinage of Judah', 2023

Book Reviews to provide a snapshot of what has been published to date and the picture is likely to continue to evolve with new archaeological discoveries being made, evaluated and published. I fear that this somewhat hopeful dynamic risks being undermined by the extensive looting and destruction of sites that is, if anything, accelerating at an alarming rate throughout the Near East, largely due to political instability and conflict, exemplified by the campaign of destruction wrought on Palmyra in recent times. Despite the omission of some important topics, such as those mentioned earlier, which I suppose is inevitable in a single volume anthology, this publication accomplishes the purpose of this series, in this case providing a gateway to researchers seeking critically reviewed up-to-date information about different aspects of the ancient world in a nutshell, backed by an authoritative bibliography. Without doubt, this publication offers a wealth of knowledge on the Hellenistic and Roman Near East in a convenient format. David M. Jacobson Institute of Classical Studies, London Haim Gitler, Catharine Lorber and Jean-Philippe Fontanille, The Yehud Coinage: A Study and Die Classification of the Provincial Silver Coinage of Judah. Numismatic Studies and Researches 12. Jerusalem: Israel Numismatic Society, 2023. Pp. xi + 533 + numerous illustrations and tables. £118.28. ISBN 9789655982299. This publication is a comprehensive monograph on the provincial silver coinage of Judah in the late Persian and Early Hellenistic periods. The corpus addressed is called the Yehud coinage because most of them bear that name in Aramaic or palaeo-Hebrew letters, referring to the district (medina) of Judah, where they were produced or associated with, which constituted an administrative subdivision of the Persian satrapy of ʿAbar Naharā (‘across the river [Euphrates]’) of the Persian Empire. These coins are miniscule. Most are 8 mm or less in diameter and weigh just 0.2 to 0.5 g. They are easily overlooked in archaeological excavations, which helps to explain why most of them have only been identified and given a proper synthesis relatively recently. The first comprehensive classification was undertaken and posted online in 2002 by Jean-Philippe Fontanille as part of the Menorah Coin Project that he initiated (www.menorahcoinproject.com). A unique Yehud coin specimen that is believed to be one of the largest and oldest in the corpus, being attributed to around 400 BCE, entered the collection of the British Museum sometime before 1814, when it first appears in an early catalogue. In 1877, a Dutch scholar, J. P. Six, read the Aramaic inscription on the 158 Book Reviews reverse as YHWH, the ineffable name of God. That created a stir which has still not completely abated, because that inscription accompanies an image of a deity seated on a winged wheel (representing a chariot). In partial mitigation, it has been established to the satisfaction of most scholars, that this quarter-sheqel along with another recently discovered example displaying a facing female head resembling that of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, were minted in Philistia for a commission from Judah. This magisterial study is a mine of valuable information. The historical background to this early coinage of Judah is succinctly reviewed, with appropriate references provided for further reading. Non-specialists may be surprised to learn that the period of Achaemenid-Persian rule in the Near East was disturbed by considerable political upheaval and intrigue, against the background of a resurgent Egypt. The next chapter is on ‘Methodology and Classification.’ It is pointed out that this study is based on the examination of a sample of 1960 coins held in the Israel Museum, private collections and from a single excavation, that of Khirbet Qeiyafa. The 44 coin types are separated into three chronological groups, Persian (17 types), Macedonian (15 types) and Ptolemaic (12 types). From a careful metrological analysis, the authors have determined that these small coins belong to weight systems that change several times through their century or so span of issues. The first one used was the Phoenician/Philistian sheqel of 14.3 g, the Judahite sheqel of c. 10 g and its 1/24-th fractional, the gerah, the Attic drachm of 4.2 g and, finally, the lighter Ptolemaic drachm 3.6 g, both with their 1/6-th fractional, the obol. The reasons for some of the seemingly abrupt changes in the units employed for the Yehud coinage are not entirely clear. The chronological sequence of these coins has been ingeniously deduced from an examination of iconographic associations in conjunction with die links. Coin hoards have also helped to determine their relative chronology and a special chapter deals with them. A substantial chapter is devoted to the iconography of these coins. It is an eyeopener into the cultural and artistic influences that were manifested in Judah during the early Second Temple period. Conspicuously, the Yehud coins all bear images of human or animal subjects. Regarding religious content represented, there is the evocation of the Judahite deity by a Philistian hand mentioned earlier (coin type 1). Of course, we do not know whether that representation was endorsed or not by the client in Judah — the unique specimen was said to have turned up in Gaza. Four of the other images on Yehud coins from the late Persian period have been interpreted as bearing on religion. One of these is a striated ram’s horn (coin type 12) which the authors associate with the shofar blown to appeal to the deity in the Temple ritual. Another of the coin types (no. 13), which is unique in the repertoire of ancient coins depicts a human ear, symbolising God’s attentiveness to the invocations of worshippers. The third coin type depicts a stylised lily, that has 159 Book Reviews been connected to the Jewish high priesthood. A fourth coin image said to convey a religious theme is one of a bird, believed to be a dove that is shown perched on an object which may conceivably be a sacrificial basin. It is known from the Bible and other ancient Jewish sources that the dove was the preferred sacrificial animal in the Jerusalem Temple. However, ambiguities attach to these images. First and foremost, none of them explicitly refer to a monotheistic cult. We cannot be sure that the blowing of a ram’s horn did not form part of religious rituals in polytheistic communities in the Levant. As for the ear, the authors demonstrate that it symbolised divine attentiveness in ancient Egyptian religion. In addition, it is anthropomorphic, thereby blatantly violating the biblical proscription of graven images. Of course, the bird, like the other animate subjects on the Yehud coins, contravenes Mosaic Law regarding images. In terms of ambiguity, it is known that doves played an important role in the cult of Aphrodite, especially at Ascalon. As the authors compellingly demonstrate through their comparative iconographic analysis, Judaea was open to the cross-cultural influences that percolated into the southern Levant from Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia. In this respect, Judah was hardly different from its neighbouring regions, Philistia and Samaria, whose coin images reflect a similar range of influences that encompass religious imagery, albeit involving a larger repertoire of motifs in both cases. André Lemaire contributes a chapter to this volume on palaeography of the Yehud coinage. An allied chapter to the previous two follows, detailing the artistic and technical qualities of the coins and the dies that produced them. Included in this section is consideration of the effects of coin striking and progressive die wear. The organisation and operations of the Yehud mint, and its likely location, are examined in a separate chapter. A chapter on ‘The Archaeological Provenances and the Circulation of the Yehud Coins’ reports on the finding that the coins of Yehud, like those of Samaria, are rarely found outside their respective territories. For Judah, these limits are Bethel in the north, ʿAzeqa in the west, Beth Zur in the south, and the environs of Jericho in the east. In comparison, Philistian coins circulated much more widely, covering both the areas of Judah and Samaria. Not surprisingly, the most monetised part of Judah was the area nearest the Philistian coast, followed by the district of Jerusalem. Yoav Farhi, who found 28 Yehud coins at Khirbet Qeiyafa, ʿAzeqa, Ramat Raḥel and elsewhere with the aid of a metal detector, provides a tailpiece in which he argues for metal detection forming an integral part of excavation programmes. The distinguished French Numismatics scholar, François de Callataÿ, is the author of an essay describing a statistical analysis based on the known number of coin dies which he used to determine the total number of Yehud coins minted. He arrived at a figure of 3 million coins, assuming an average productivity of 10,000 coins per obverse coin die as an upper limit of the entire output. Half that number is likely to be more realistic. Bearing in mind that the average weight of 92% of 160 Book Reviews this output, consisting of gerahs, half-gerahs, hemiobols and quarter obols, is just 0.31 g, the total monetary value is not at all large. Based on a production total of 1.5 million total of these coins, the authors of this volume point out this figure is equivalent to 125,000 Attic drachms, or about half a tonne of silver, spread over a period of a century or more. They point out that it would correspond to just two months’ worth of monetised silver generated by the average Seleucid king! These data prompt several intriguing questions, in particular the purpose of the Yehud coinage. It could not possibly have represented the pay of even the lower echelons of the Judahite administration, who might be expected to earn around an obol a day, as attested by papyrus records. At that rate, I have estimated that the entire Judahite coin output could not have supported more than twelve employees in total over its duration! The proposal that a unit of Yehud currency represented the basic day wage is counterintuitive to the frequent change in weight standard of that coinage and hence its monetary value. Nevertheless, this purpose is assumed and reiterated in the concluding chapter, albeit tentatively. Along with the unsolved mystery of the main function of the Yehud coinage, the highly unusual phenomenon of generally only one denomination being struck at any one time awaits a convincing explanation. The concluding sections of the book consist of connection tables between the coin types and their various dies, which is a particular forté of Fontanille, and a definitive catalogue of the 44 Yehud coin types. There are also a couple of appendices. One of these reports the non-destructive metallurgical analysis of two of the early quartersheqels in the Israel Museum collection and the other a list of the sources of the coin specimens covered in the current study: these exclusively refer to commercial sales and communications from private collectors, but, sadly, do not include find provenance. Finally, there are the ample bibliography and indexes. All the authors of this new monograph are to be congratulated for producing a work of high standard and utmost importance for all those engaged in biblical studies and interested in the history, culture, and economy of the ancient Near East, as well as for numismatists. Without doubt, it should be an essential addition for any library covering these fields. The technical quality of this large format publication is outstanding, too, in terms of the paper used, the typeface, layout and illustrations. All in all, it represents a major publication achievement. David M. Jacobson, Institute of Classical Studies, London Shahal Abbo and Avi Gopher, Plant Domestication and the Origins of Agriculture in the Ancient Near East. With a contribution by Gila Kahila Bar-Gal and translated by Halo (Hilla) Ben Asher. Forward by Simcha Lev-Yadum and Paul Gepts. 161