NOTES ON GAZA COINS
An article of mine, entitled, "Notes on Gaza Coins," appeared in the
_Quarterly Statement_ of the Palestine Exploration Fund, April 1912.
Since that date my attention has been drawn to an additional coin
referred to by Dr. Meyer in his _History of the City of Gaza_, Chap.
XVI. He begins by mentioning that an early coin attributed to Gaza is
the so-called Jehovah coin of the British Museum. This coin is found
in the printed catalogue of 1814, although purchased about fifty years
previous. On palæographical and archæological grounds it is assigned
to about 400 B.C. On the obverse appears a head with a helmet; on the
reverse, a figure seated in a chariot, with a bird in his hand. Above
the figure, in Phœnician characters, are the three letters (יהו). A
bearded head, wearing a mask, is also to be found on the reverse.
The coinage of Gaza in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C. has been
identified by M. Six, and consists of darics and smaller coins of Attic
weight and of various types.
In Nehemiah vii. 70, the Revised Version of the Old Testament reads
thus: "The Tirshatha gave to the treasury a thousand darics of gold,"
whereas the Authorised Version has "a thousand drams of gold."
The gold daric and siglos (silver shekel) are the first coins that can
possibly have had legal currency in Palestine.
In the second half of the fifth century B.C., the wealthy commercial
cities on the Mediterranean seaboard had begun to issue silver money
under their native kings. The great maritime city of Gaza was among the
principal trade centres of this period.
Herodotus, _c._ 484-409 B.C. (iii. 5), mentions Gaza as scarcely
inferior in size to Sardes, the capital of the kingdom of Lydia.
The influence of Athens at this date is strikingly shown by the coins
of Gaza, which not only imitate the type and legend of the coins of
Athens, but are struck on the Attic standard.
On March 20, 1912, at a meeting of the British Academy, in the rooms of
the Royal Society, Mr. G. F. Hill, of the British Museum, read a paper
on "Some Cults of Palestine in the Græco-Roman Age," from which the
following passage is extracted--
"The coinage of Gaza entirely confirms and amplifies the evidence which
has of late been accumulating concerning the primitive connection
of the Philistine cities with Crete. The name of the great Gazæan
god Marnas, who offered such stubborn resistance to Christianity, is
probably not Syrian but Cretan. He is the Cretan Zeus, a young god,
with a goddess resembling the huntress Artemis for his consort, just
as in Crete there seems to be a connection between the young Zeus
Velchanos and the goddess Britomartis, who is Artemis. Gaza was a
Minoan foundation, and Minos--himself a form of the Cretan Zeus--was
worshipped at Gaza, which, indeed, was actually called Minoa."[16]
After the capture of Gaza by Alexander the Great, 332 B.C., regal coins
were struck there with the frequent monogram Γ͞Α, both under
Ptolemy II, Philadelphus, 285-246 B.C., Ptolemy III, Euergetes I,
246-221 B.C., and Demetrius I, Soter, of Syria, 162-150 B.C.
The autonomous bronze money of Gaza dates from an era commencing 61
B.C. Of this period no silver money of Gaza is extant.
The imperial coins of Gaza from Augustus to Gordian bear two different
sets of dates; the first Gaza era beginning 61 B.C., the second
beginning A.D. 129. The second era probably commemorates the visit
of Hadrian to Gaza.[17] On some of the coins these two eras appear
concurrent. These imperial coins, with inscriptions ΓΑΖΑΙΩΝ,
ΓΑΖΑ, etc., have usually the addition of the Phœnician letter [mem],
from which the Swastica, the characteristic mark on Gaza coins, is
possibly derived, the initial representing the divinity Marnas. The
Temple of Marnas was called the Marneion.[18]
"In the last days of paganism the great god of Gaza, now known as
Marnas (our lord), was regarded as the god of rains, and invoked
against famine. That Marnas was lineally descended from Dagon is
probable, and it is therefore interesting to note that he gave oracles,
that he had a circular temple, where he was sometimes worshipped by
human sacrifices, that there were wells in the sacred circuit, and that
there was also a place of adoration to him, situated, in old Semitic
fashion, outside the town. Certain _Marmora_ in the temple, which might
not be approached, especially by women, may perhaps be connected with
the threshold which the priests of Dagon would not touch with their
feet"[19] (1 Sam. v. 5).
Herod Agrippa I became King of Judæa A.D. 41, and possessed the
entire kingdom of Herod the Great. Among the coins of Agrippa I under
Claudius, Madden (_Coins of the Jews_, p. 137, No. 2) reproduces a coin
which probably represents a ceremony taking place in the temple of the
god Marnas at Gaza. "There were in Gaza eight temples of the Sun, of
Venus, of Apollo, of Proserpine, and of Hecate; that which is called
Heroon, or of the Priests, that of the Fortune of the City, called
Τυχεῖον, and that of Marneion, which the citizens said is the
Cretan-born Jupiter, and which they considered to be more glorious than
any other temple in existence."
Dr. Donald Coles, of Haifa, has, in his collection of over one hundred
specimens of Gaza coins, an exceptionally interesting coin of Hadrian,
A.D. 130, in excellent condition, re-struck under Simon Bar-Cochab,
A.D. 132-135. This Hadrian bronze coin is quoted in De Saulcy's
_Numismatique de la Terre Sainte_, p. 215, No. 1, and the re-struck
coin during the Revolt of the Jews, A.D. 132-135 is reproduced on Plate
XV, No. 4, in his _Recherches sur la numismatique judaïque_.
It was not unusual for these Simon Bar-Cochab coins to be re-struck
from Ascalon, and other current coinage.
Among all the writers in the _Quarterly Statement_ of the P. E. F. from
1894-1901 on the Swastica, or Fylfot, not one of them seems to be aware
that the Swastica is constantly found as the distinguishing mint-mark
of Gaza, _e.g._ on Plate XI of _Numismatique de la Palestine_, Gaza
coins, there are both the sign [swastica sign] of the male Swastica,
and the more common [swastica sign] female Swastica, revolving in the
opposite direction on the reverse of coins of Hadrian, Antoninus Pius,
Lucius Verus, Faustina Junior and Lucilla, Julia Domna, Plautilla,
Geta.
The Swastica is an Eastern symbol of the Sun, and is occasionally known
as Gammadion, and mystic Fylfot. The latest idea formed regarding the
Swastica is, that it may be a form of the old wheel symbolism, and
that it represents the solar system. It is often connected with the
Sun, as in the Island of Melos, first colonised by Phœnicia. Its great
diffusion in Eastern Asia is due to its being a Buddhist emblem, "the
wheel of the law."
In the Catacombs at Rome it is well known on the tunic of the Good
Shepherd, and on the garments of the Fossores, a class of men employed
in the offices of Christian sepulture, and in opening fresh graves and
catacombs.
The Triskelia, or Three Legs of the Isle of Man, and some Syracuse
coins in the reign of Agathocles, 317-289 B.C., and other towns in
Sicily, are only variants of the Swastica.
Dr. Albert Churchward, in _The Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man_
(London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., Ltd., 1910), supplies a mint of
valuable information scattered throughout this learned work. On page 44
he states that this Swastica was also the most sacred sign amongst the
British Druids. Page 115 (figure 49) shows the Mexican Kalendar in form
of a Swastica Cross. On page 261 the Swastica is said to be frequently
found on stones in Devonshire, and a good specimen is in the museum at
Torquay.
"It is a fact that prehistoric man of the two hemispheres had the
knowledge to spin fibre and thread, to wind it on bobbins (see spindle
wheels found in museums) having the same sign on them wherever found,
viz. the Swastika [swastika sign]" (p. 44).
"This symbol has probably a wider range than any other that has been
preserved from prehistoric times" (p. 352).
Dr. Churchward states, in _Primordial Man_, p. 187, that the recent
discoveries of Flinders Petrie at Abydos tend to show that the Druids
derived the Swastika from Egypt more than 20,000 years ago!!!
On April 16, 1912, a few poor specimens of Roman bronze coins struck at
Gaza were brought to me in that city, but the local finds seem to have
become nearly exhausted.
A representation of the temple Tychæon erected to the Fortune of the
City occurs on a coin of Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius (shortly before
A.D. 161), which shows a tetrastyle temple. (Most of the temples
depicted on the Gaza coins are distyle.) The goddess of the town, as
well as the heifer, also appear on this coin.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] On some coins the word ΜΕΙΝΩ occurs. It refers to Minoa,
the legendary name of Gaza, with reference to its foundation by Minos
of Crete.--_Meyer._
[17] Hadrianus, A.D. 117-138, favoured Gaza with several visits from
A.D. 123-135. This probably accounts for De Saulcy (_Numismatique de
la Terre Sainte_, Paris, 1874) being able to describe, on pp. 215-18,
twenty-two Gaza coins of this reign.
[18] _Historia Numorum_, Head, p. 680.
[19] _Encyclopædia Britannica_, "Philistines," pp. 755-6, vol. xviii,
ninth edition.