Heron the Alexandrian and the Coins of Tebtunis Temple “A Study to the Evolution of Offertory Coin Box in Egypt during the Ptolemaic and Roman Eras”

Abstract

A few briefed lines, without any details, suggested by Joseph Grafton Milne in 1935 and none of the researchers since that time approached to shed light and verify their authenticity. Milne mentioned that one of the Ptolemaic coin hoards that were found by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, in 1900 at the temple of the god Σοκνεβτύνεως (Soknebtunis) in Tebtunis (modern Um El-Burigat in Fayoum), was one of the inventions of Heron the Alexandrian (the second half of the second century BC??). This invention, which is called θησαυρός by Heron, is represented in the laying of the worshipper as soon as he enters the temple five drachmas into a certain machine to obtain a glass of the holy water instantly. Several questions are aroused here: To what extent can Milan’s point of view be put into consideration? Did Heron consider his invention an evolution of the offertory coin box which was also known as θησαυρός in Greek and Roman temples outside Egypt? Have models of Heron's machine been discovered, whether in Tebtunis or in the surroundings of other temples? Were the temples in Egypt, during the Ptolemaic and Roman eras, provided with the same methods of coins collection mechanisms as in Greece and Rome? Is it possible to apply Milne’s point of view on other coin discoveries?Based on the above, this research aims, through applying analytical, descriptive and comparative methods, to monitor the relationship between offertory coin boxes and Heron’s machine on the one hand, and to discover on the other hand to what extent the Egyptian temples at the time used to rely on such means for collecting coins.

Keywords

• the machine of heron the alexandrian
• the denomination of five drachmas
• meaning of θησαυρός
• thesaurus
• cult fee
• offertory coin boxes.