Catalog
Drachm
| Issuer | Gaza |
|---|---|
| Year | 400 BC - 350 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Bare male head facing right, rendered in the Greek style with short, closely cropped hair and a lightly bearded chin. The facial features are finely modelled with a prominent eye, aquiline nose, and strong jaw, reflecting the Hellenizing artistic tradition prevalent in Philistian Gaza during the Persian period. The portrait is set within a beaded border partially visible at the coin's periphery, with the field otherwise plain. The overall style closely follows Athenian and Ionian prototypes adapted by local Philistian engravers. |
|---|---|
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Gaza occupied a uniquely exposed position in the fourth century BC — a Phoenician-administered mint city operating under Achaemenid suzerainty while simultaneously processing trade revenues from the Arabian caravan routes terminating at its port. The Philisto-Arabian series to which this drachm belongs was struck to facilitate commerce rather than assert political authority, which explains the stylistic borrowing from Athenian prototypes that dominates the type.
Gitler and Tal's taxonomy of this series, published in their 2006 corpus, identified multiple die groupings within what had previously been treated as an undifferentiated mass. The 17D subgroup specifically reflects a later phase of the series, likely postdating 375 BC.