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Author Topic: Alexandrian modius - perhaps!  (Read 1328 times)

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Offline moonmoth

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Alexandrian modius - perhaps!
« on: July 17, 2007, 02:58:38 pm »
This is probably nothing special, but interesting to me.  There are many interesting types on Imperial Alexandrian bronzes.

This one is a hemiobol of Hadrian (sold as an obol, but not big enough).  18mm, 5.8 grams.  Wider on the reverse than the obverseObverse: laureate bust r., looks like a scrap of drapery on the far shoulder; AYT KAIC TPAIA AΔPIANO CEB.  It's quite a noble bust; as Pat has said, Hadrian promoted good quality carving.  Reverse: a basket-work modius containing three corn ears alternating with two poppy heads.  A ribboned thyrsos on either side.  In the exergue: L KA.

It's interesting to see a modius in Alexandria, where the corn came from.  It suggests that it was necessary to distribute a corn dole there, as well as in Rome.   Of course, being eastern and a basket, maybe this is actually a kalathos.  I am sure Pat will know.  Modii on Italian coins all seem to be metal,  but their origin must have been something like this.

The nearest reference I could fins was Sear's RCV 2002 volume, no. 3828.  But that reference has torches on either side of the modius.  If these are torches, they are rather unusual ones.

"... A form of twisted symbolical bedsock ... the true purpose of which, as they realised at first glance, would never (alas) be revealed to mankind."

Offline slokind

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Re: Alexandrian modius - perhaps!
« Reply #1 on: July 17, 2007, 04:16:06 pm »
Well, it's a basket, OK, but in Alexandria they spoke Greek, and a Greek (right down to a modern wastebasket) would call it a kalathos.  The modius, as Italian as its name is Latin, is broad-bottomed.  But no matter, in practical terms, because it may be intended as something to hold dates or figs or even grain.  The modius in my limited experience of it was used for grain, but I daresay (like bushels) for apples and grapes, et al., as well.  For fruit and olives, Greek art shows soft woven, soft bottomed basket that also can be tied to a donkey saddle.  Today they are made of perforated plastic, faux baskets.
We always call the flaring shape (also used for clumps of wool and balls of spun wool) a kalathosPat L.
P.S. I think they are torches.  Sear calls almost any container a modius.

Offline Jochen

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Re: Alexandrian modius - perhaps!
« Reply #2 on: July 17, 2007, 04:29:18 pm »
Hi moonmoth!

In 'Gisela Förschner, Die Münzen der römischen Kaiserin Alexandrien, Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main' is listed the obol similar to your coin (29mm, 5.88g) on p.177, Nr.537 with a photo. It has the same hatching to left like your basket. The provided information is: Basket (modius) with three grain-ears and two poopy-heads between two ribboned torches.
Datt -, cf. 1926 (modius different patterned). SNG Cop. 412 (hatching a bit different). Coll. Köln 1224 ( hatching to right).

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Offline moonmoth

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Re: Alexandrian modius - perhaps!
« Reply #3 on: July 17, 2007, 04:55:15 pm »
Jochen and Pat, two of the most knowledgeable of those among us here, thanks!  So those objects are probably torches after all.  I was certainly wondering what connection there might be between a basket of grain and Dionysos.  I hadn't come across ribboned torches before.  It's good to learn.

Pat has convincingly identified this basket as a kalathos, from its shape and the very fact that it is a basket.  Be it so, its use here is the same as a modius on an Italian coin.  The grain ears and poppy heads are a common theme on coins showing Annona, goddess of the annual corn supply to Rome, as well as quite a few which show just a modius.  Torches might imply a connection with Ceres, who carries a tall torch on several Roman coins, and sometimes carries a short torch in each hand.  Given the coin's eastern origin, the connection might instead be to Demeter, the Greek equivalent of Ceres; she carried similar torches.  So, this still might be an indication of the importance of a corn dole or corn supply to the city of Alexandria.

Well, it's easy to tie things together with extended rationalisations and hypotheses!  Unfortunately, that doesn't make it true.  (Here's a game: name several random objects and ask someone to explain how they are all connected.)

Bill
"... A form of twisted symbolical bedsock ... the true purpose of which, as they realised at first glance, would never (alas) be revealed to mankind."

Offline Jochen

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Re: Alexandrian modius - perhaps!
« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2007, 05:13:54 pm »
I think in this subject we never can find proofs stringent like in arithmetics or alike. If we can demonstrate a high grade of plausibility we should be satisfied. And the connection to Demeter/Ceres is of this kind of plausibility!

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Offline slokind

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Re: Alexandrian modius - perhaps!
« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2007, 05:51:43 pm »
Yes, it surely has to do with fertile harvest, and the torches suggest celebration of it.  It really is a nice coin!  Pat L.

Offline archivum

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Re: Alexandrian modius - perhaps!
« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2007, 12:22:28 pm »
There are several (4) of these on Coinarchives, all from year 21 (LKA); yours weighs in near the top for an obol.
Temper thy haste with sloth -- Taverner / Erasmus.

 

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