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Author Topic: Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights  (Read 882 times)

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Offline Ron C2

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Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights
« on: May 25, 2022, 08:16:04 pm »
I am actively collecting severan era denarii and to a lesser degree third century crisis roman silver coinage (among other ancient coin intrests).  There were several emperors in this timeframe that minted commemorative coins for previous emperors, and in some cases, these coins celebrated the emperor's funeral pyre on the reverse, or other funerary rights.

Here's an example from my colleciton of what I'm talking about:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=171366



There are all sorts of variations on the commemorative theme, including replicating a prior emperor's issues in sestertii, deceased notables riding flying crane birds into the heavens, or veiled and draped images of the deceased emperor on the reverse, usually seated. What I'm more curious about is coins depicting pyres or specific funerary rights images.

Has anyone got any typical images of these types of coins?  Is there any good literature on how and when the phenomenon started?

Happy for all perspectives, and not just for Roman era coinage :)



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Offline mauseus

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Re: Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2022, 03:51:07 am »
Not a coin but related. I lived, for a while, in a Victorian terraced house off Severus Street in Acomb, York. It is the reputed approximate location, down from Holgate Hill, for the funeral pyre of Septimius Severus who died in York in AD211. The former HSBC bank at the end of the street closed to become a tile shop but there is a fabulous reproduction bust of Severus in the courtyard.

Rev Francis Thackeray: ‘Researches into the Ecclesiastical and Political State of Ancient Britain’ . He wrote that Severus died at York in AD211 and his ‘body was carried forth by the soldiers to the funeral pyre, kindled in a place westward of the city, where is a large hill of earth which according to Camden, Radulphus Niger says was called in his time, Siver’s Hill from Severus. His ashes, deposited in an urn of porphyry, were conveyed to Rome and placed in the sepulchre of the Antonines’

If he isn't referring to Holgate Hill the other most likely site to the west of  York is the hill in Acomb where St Stephen's Church is now located.

Regards,

Mauseus

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2022, 07:24:32 am »
What a great story mauseus!
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Offline *Alex

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Re: Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2022, 09:12:36 am »
Hi Ron,

My Roman Commemorative Gallery has a variety of commemorative types if you are interested. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=572

Regards,

Alex

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2022, 07:23:33 pm »
Great gallery Alex! In looking at the coins, there are a lot of reverse motifs, some of which I don't understand the context for.  Do you know which ones are linked to funerary rights?
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Offline Virgil H

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Re: Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2022, 08:54:09 pm »
This one is not Roman, although probably Roman Provincial given the dating, but I still struggle with that definition. I call it Greek and it was in the Greek section. I literally just ordered it from Forum yesterday. I ordered it more because it is a mint I wanted and is nice while being inexpensive, not necessarily due  to the images on it. I wanted a new coin and had very little money, LOL, and I like this one and have missed it before. I need to look, but I have a few more Greeks that have similar or funeral type images, all IIRC from Asia Minor.

Sandan was a Hittite-Babylonian sun, storm, or warrior god, also perhaps associated with agriculture. The Greeks equated Sandan with Herakles (Hercules). At Tarsus an annual festival honored Sandan-Herakles, which climaxed when an image of the god was burned on a funeral pyre.

GB93605. Bronze AE 21, SNG Levante 940; SNG BnF 1321 - 22; SNG Cop 333 var. ff. (different controls); BMC Lycaonia p. 180, 95 var. ff. (same), VF, dark patina with highlighting red earthen deposits, bumps, porosity, Tarsos (Tarsus, Mersin, Turkey) mint, weight 6.871g, maximum diameter 20.7mm, die axis 0o, c. 164 - 27 B.C.; obverse veiled and turreted head of Tyche right; reverse Sandan cult image standing right on horned and winged animal, on a garlanded base and within a pyramidal pyre surmounted by an eagle, two monograms over filleted club on left, TAPΣEΩN downward on right; from the Errett Bishop Collection.

This is Forum's image.

Virgil

Offline Meepzorp

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Re: Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2022, 07:14:20 pm »

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights
« Reply #7 on: June 03, 2022, 09:01:51 am »
Thanks meep. I find the pyre motif itself both interesting and remarkably consistent between emperors.

I wonder if the pyres really all were constructed similarly, apparently several stories tall, draped with garlands, and surmounted with apparently disposable quadriga statues?

Are there other reliable depictions apart from on coins?
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Offline *Alex

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Re: Coins depicting funeral pyres or funerary rights
« Reply #8 on: June 03, 2022, 07:37:48 pm »
They were not really pyres, that is a misnomer. They were ustrinums, more akin to modern crematoriums, the same buildings were often used for several emperors or their family members. The remains of some of them can still be found in Rome today.

Alex

 

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