By: Jerry Zhang
Archaeologist Christopher Ratté from the University of Michigan discovered a stash of ancient coins in the ruins of Notion, an ancient city-state in modern-day Turkey, in July 2023. While excavating beneath the courtyard of a third-century B.C. house, Ratté and his team found an older dwelling that contained a stash of coins, specifically darics, which were primarily used to pay soldiers. This discovery is “a find of the highest importance,” said Andrew Meadows, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford. “The archaeological context for the hoard will help us fine-tune the chronology of Achaemenid gold coinage.”
Notion is an 80-acre archaeological site located on a promontory in western Anatolia, which is known as the birthplace of the Western world’s first state-issued coin, the stater, created by the Lydians. King Alyattes of the Lydians standardized the weight and design of the Lydian stater, and it was first struck in electrum, a natural alloy of gold and silver, around 610 B.C. His son and successor, Croesus, expanded on his father’s idea. However, instead of minting coins with electrum, he minted a coin made of pure gold, the Croeseid, which he is famous for. In fact, the phrase “rich as Croesus” refers to his immense wealth and the prosperity of Lydia during his reign.
One possible explanation for why the coins were buried is the exile of their owner. In 546 B.C., the region known as Ionia, which includes Notion, was conquered by the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Despite Croesus’s defeat by Cyrus the Great, his gold-based monetary system persisted, and the Persians continued to mint Croesids. Later, in 427 B.C., according to the Greek historian Thucydides, an Athenian general named Paches attacked and killed a troop of pro-Persian mercenaries at Notion, after luring their commander into a trap. The Persian sympathizers were expelled, and Notion was reorganized under Athenian control. Two decades later, a decisive naval battle in the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta took place off the coast of Notion, which was evacuated and used as an Athenian naval base. Dr. Ratté suggested that the gold hoard might be connected to the events of 427 B.C. or the subsequent Athenian evacuation of Notion.
Alternatively, the hoard could have simply been the savings of a veteran mercenary. Many Greeks served as soldiers for the Persian Empire, including the Athenian historian Xenophon, who was an active mercenary for Persian King Cyrus the Younger from 401 B.C. to 400 B.C. This coincides with the period when the Notion hoard was hidden away.
Nevertheless, Dr. Ratté believes that the fact the loot was never retrieved indicates a disaster in the region. “No one ever buries a hoard of coins, especially precious metal coins, without intending to retrieve it,” he said. “Only the gravest misfortune can explain the preservation of such a treasure.” There is still so much of human history remaining covered just beneath our feet. Who knows what could be unearthed in the future.