By: Leaya Chen

Christopher Ratté, an archaeologist from the University of Michigan, and his team recently discovered a cache of coins during excavations beneath a third-century B.C. building in Turkey. The coins, buried in a corner of an earlier structure, were not what they were searching for. They were searching for artifacts that might teach them more about the ancient city of Notion.

Ratté’s theories are that in the late fifth century B.C., a soldier buried his savings—a pile of gold darics, each worth a month’s pay—under the dirt floor of a house in Notion, the ancient city-state in what is now modern-day western Turkey.

Darics are rare in Asia Minor since they were only given as payment to rich soldiers. Andrew Meadows, a professor from the University of Oxford and not involved in the project, called it a significant find that could refine our understanding of Achaemenid gold money. Notion, a Greek-speaking community in Anatolia, was a frontier zone amid historical conflicts, mindful of ancient tales like the Trojan War.

Anatolia got its first state-issued coin, the Stater, around 610 B.C. Croesus, known for his wealth, minted the first true gold coin, the Croeseid. After the Achaemenid Persian Empire conquered Ionia in 546 B.C., the Persians continued using gold coins, introducing the gold daric.

The stash of coins found may relate to significant events like the 427 B.C. attack by Athenian general Paches or later Athenian evacuations. However, Ratté suggests it might simply be the savings of a mercenary left behind due to disaster to its owner. The coins are now at the Ephesus Archaeological Museum in Turkey.