A Note on a Samarian Coin Type. A Royal Horseman?

Abstract

Some new, unlisted types of Samarian coins have appeared recently on the antiquities market. In the present paper I would like to discuss some points concerning one of them, which is especially interesting because of its iconography. The coin appeared on the market in Autumn 2021. Its reverse shows an image of a cavalryman with a spear or a javelin. Unlike the other images of the Iranian cavalrymen depicted on Samarian coins, the exemplar probably shows "the Great King like figure" having long beard and wearing a kidaris. So far, such an image is not only unique in Samarian coinage, but finds only one analogy in the coinages of the Achaemenid period in general. The image of "the Great King like figure" on horseback is, on the one hand, an interesting extension of the iconographic repertoire of Samarian coins, and on the other hand, it complements my earlier findings concerning the images of the Iranian horseman on Samarian, but also broadly speaking, on satrapal coins.

Keywords

• samaria
• coinage
• iranian horseman
• royal horseman
• achaemenid period
• samiriye
• sikke
• i̇ran atlısı
• kraliyet atlısı
• akamenid dönemi