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Stater - Lysimachos Kolchis imitation
| Issuer | Bastarnae Celto-Scythians |
|---|---|
| Year | 150 BC - 25 BC |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
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| Obverse description | Celticised head of Herakles facing left, rendered in a distinctly barbarian artistic style derived from the Lysimachos prototype. The facial features are schematically abstracted, with a prominent circular eye, a broad nose, and a stylised open mouth. The hair is elaborately rendered in the Celtic manner, with large curling locks terminating in pellets and volutes radiating across the field. The lionskin headdress, characteristic of the Herakles type, is suggested by vestigial elements atop the head, reduced to decorative curvilinear forms. The overall treatment reflects the progressive Celticisation of the Hellenistic original through successive copying. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Celticised seated figure facing left, derived from the enthroned Nike type of the Lysimachos stater, with the figure holding a small subsidiary figure or trophy in the extended right hand. The accompanying legends, originally reading BASILEOS LYSIMACHOU on the Hellenistic prototype, have degenerated through successive copying into sequences of dashes and abstract linear marks flanking the figure at left and right. A monogram occupies the inner left field, and a trident symbol appears to the lower left below the seated figure. The design is executed in a schematic barbarian style, retaining only the general compositional arrangement of the Greek original. |
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| Additional information |
The Bastarnae occupied a peculiar position among the peoples of the Pontic steppe — Germanic in origin by most ancient accounts, yet so thoroughly intermixed with Celtic and Scythian populations that their material culture defies clean categorization. Their gold staters imitating Lysimachos of Thrace were not nostalgia; Lysimachean types had circulated as prestige currency across the Black Sea region for generations, and the Bastarnae were producing functional trade instruments recognized from the Danube to the Bosphorus. The Kolchis attribution distinguishes this imitation geographically from the Balkan series.