Dear friends of
ancient coins!
Pharaohs on
ancient coins are very
rare. This is one of these
rare coins. It is a
Nome coin, which shows the Pharaoh Amenemhet III on the
reverse.
The Coin:Egypt,
Alexandria, Arsinoites
Nome,
Hadrian, 117-138
AE -
Obol, 19.19mm, 4.52g, 0°
struck 126/127 (year 11)
Obv.:
AVT KAI - TPAI AΔPIANOC
Bust, left shoulder slightly draped, laureate, n.r.
Rev.: APCI - L IA (year 11)
Head of Pharaoh Amenemhet III, with Nemes-Headscarf and
Uraeus snake, r..
Ref.:
Milne1229;
Dattari 6210; Emmet 1221;
Geissen 3381/3382;
BMC 72/73;
SNG Copenhagen 1083/1084
rare (as all
Nome coins!),
good F
Nome CoinageFor thousands of years, Ancient
Egypt was divided into administrative districts that
had developed from Neolithic principalities. In
Egyptian they were called spt (sepat). The name
Nome comes from Greek νομος (nomos), which was used to designate these districts. The districts were often divided, merged into others or were newly founded. In Greco-Roman times there were 22 Upper
Egyptian and 20 Lower
Egyptian districts. Each of them was headed by a nomarch (a
Strategos in Greek times), who was relatively independent of the ruling pharaoh. Almost every region
had a local deity with its own
mythology. This deity was the tutelary god of the
nome and was particularly revered. Important are the
Nome coinages, which were all struck in
Alexandria, because they show representations of these local deities and thus give us an insight into the local religiousness. A list of all districts was found in the "white chapel" of Sesostris I. in Karnak.
The Arsinoites NomeOur coin
comes from the
Nome Arsinoites. It is located at the confluence of a Nile
arm and the ancient Fayum lake. This place was called Crocodeilonpolis by the
Greeks because of the adoration of the
crocodile. The Fayum Basin lies
west of the Nile southwest of Cairo. It was already known in ancient times (e.g. by Herodotus) and was an extensive swamp
area in Predynastic times, until it was drained and made fertile by Sesostris III and
his son Amenemhet III. Today it is the "vegetable garden" of Cairo. In 2006 over 2.5 million people lived there. The Arsinoites-Nome was added to the list a little later and was divided into the 4 sub-districts (Meris) of Herakleides, Themistos, Polemon and the capital Arsinoe. The capital was named after
Arsinoe II. (316-370/360 B.C.), wife of
Lysimachos and later, together with her brother
Ptolemy II
Philadelphus, ruler of
Egypt. In
Roman times this place was, along with Memphis and
Alexandria, the place of jurisdiction of the governor. Numerous papyri in Greek, Coptic and Arabic script originate from here (Förschner).
Amenemhet III His name means as much as "Amun is at the top". Amun was an ancient
Egyptian god of wind and
fertility which the
Greeks equated with
Zeus (not to be confused with Amon, the surname of Re!). On the coin Amenemhet III. is depicted with the royal insignia Nemes-headscarf and Uraeus-snake.
Amenemhet III, son of Sesostris III, was pharaoh of the 12th dynasty from about 1842-1795 BC with a very long reign.
His father
had made him co-regent and with him he ruled the first 20 years together. While
his father was more active in foreign affairs with campaigns, Amenemhet III was responsible for domestic politics. One of
his most important works was the drainage and cultivation of the Fayum Oasis. He built the Great Canal, which connected Lake Fayum with the Nile.
His reign is regarded as the Golden Age of the Middle Kingdom. A local cult of this pharaoh was widespread in Fayum.
After the death of
his son and successor Amenemhet IV
his daughter Nofrusobek became the first woman ever to become pharaoh and thus a model for Hatshepsut.
He also went down in
history as a great architect. On the rocky plateau of Dahshur, 26km south of Giza, which was used as a cemetery since the 3rd dynasty and on which the famous Snofru's pyramid stands, he
had the so-called "Black Pyramid" built. It got its name from the black colour of the Nile mud bricks used. The pyramid has two entrances leading to numerous chambers, corridors and stairs, as well as several burial chambers. Amenemhet III followed
King Djoser of the 3rd dynasty with this construction, because only
his pyramid has such a complicated substructure. However, the pyramid has never been used as the tomb of the pharaoh. Shortly before the completion of the construction
work, considerable building defects became apparent. The subsoil was unstable and the ceiling construction defective, so that the pyramid sagged. The pyramidion made of black granite, which covers and secures the building at the top, was found unused.
For this reason Amenemhet III
had a 2nd pyramid built in Fayum near Hawara. It forms the center of the necropolis of Hawara. With 58m height it was the last big pyramid of its kind. Like the Djoser pyramid, it is located in a rectangular pyramid district with a courtyard and a temple of the dead, whose structure must have been unique. The Greek geographer Strabo (63-20 BC) described it and praised it as a wonder of the world. He compared the 1500 rooms with the labyrinth of Minos (
Wikipedia)
After being a restricted
military area for years, archaeological research is again being conducted there. Today, the
German Archaeological Institute (Cairo Department), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York and Waseda University in Tokyo
work there.
Also reported is an expedition that Amenemhet III undertook in the Sinai.
Sources:(1)
Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov, The Coinage of Nicopols ad Istrum, 2020
(2) Angelo
Geissen, Altes und Neues. Bemerkungen zu den Gau-Prägungen aus dem römischen
Alexandria,
XII. Congreso Internacional de Numismatica, Madrid, 2003
(3) Der Kleine
Pauly, 1979
(4) Gisela Förschner, Die Münzen der römischen
Kaiser in
Alexandria, 1987
(5)
www.daist.org(6)
Wikipedia