A hoard of silver coins from the 3rd century B.C. stashed tightly in a pottery jar has been discovered at the archaeological site of Mleiha in the United Arab Emirates. The pot contained 409 silver coins of the tetradrachm type, the designs inspired by the coins minted by Alexander the Great and his Seleucid heirs.
The pottery jar was unearthed in 2021. Shaped like a clamshell with one flattened half, it has a small opening at the neck flanked by two pierced tabs where a handle or rope may have been threaded. When archaeologists excavated it, they were surprised at how heavy it was, weighing 9 kg (just shy of 20 lbs). The pot was then opened at the Sharjah Archaeology Authority research laboratory, revealing 387 single-sided coins and 22 two-sided coins weighing between 16 and 17 grams apiece.
The earliest of the coins depict Alexander the Great wearing the Nemean lion skin, trademark of Hercules, on the obverse, and Zeus enthroned with the eagle on his staff on the reverse. The single-sided coins feature Zeus enthroned. The more recent coins chance so that the Greek inscription is replaced by Aramaic inscriptions and local iconography.
Located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, Mleiha was one of the most important cities in the Arabian Peninsula during the pre-Islamic period. Believed to have been the capital of the Kingdom of Oman, it was a thriving desert farming community sustained by an underground irrigation system known as falaj, and a stop on the trade routes that connected India and the Mediterranean. Merchants carrying spices, textiles and precious metals traveled through Mleiha, and needed identifiable currency that would be accepted no matter where they were. Hence the minting of money inspired by Greek originals.
Similar Hellenistic-style coins have been found at other ancient sites on the Persian Gulf, evidence that the Hellenistic commercial and cultural power extended to the Arabian Peninsula where it was altered and personalized to incorporate local culture. The Mleiha hoard’s transition from imitation to customization is a microcosm of the region’s shift from Greek dominance to the evolution of Arabia as a cultural and economic power player in its own right.
The coins and the pot have been extensively photographed to create 3D models. This is the first coin hoard I’ve seen where every piece can be explored digitally close-up from every angle. It’s interesting to see the progression of
The trade route to India was still a hot topic in the 15th century AD.
As Columbus presented ideas for a westbound one, to get his expedition funded, he must have had the report about Vinland by Adam of Bremen and Pliny’s Natural History that reported trading ‘Indians’, who had been washed ashore the coast of Germany.
The eastbound route from Egypt, however, had been very well documented already in Antiquity, i.e. in works like e.g. the ‘Periplus of the Erythrean Sea’ (notably, the ‘Red’ Sea had been what today is ‘the Persian Gulf’) or Ptolemy’s ‘Geography’.
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“49. (Periplus) There are imported into this market-town (Bharuch), wine, Italian preferred, also Laodicean and Arabian; copper, tin, and lead; coral and topaz; thin clothing and inferior sorts of all kinds; bright-colored girdles a cubit wide; storax, sweet clover, flint glass, realgar, antimony, gold and silver coin, on which there is a profit when exchanged for the money of the country; and ointment, but not very costly and not much. And for the King there are brought into those places very costly vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful maidens for the harem, fine wines, thin clothing of the finest weaves, and the choicest ointments. There are exported from these places spikenard, costus [Saussurea costus], bdellium, ivory, agate and carnelian, lycium, cotton cloth of all kinds, silk cloth, mallow cloth, yarn, long pepper and such other things as are brought here from the various market-towns. Those bound for this market-town from Egypt make the voyage favorably about the month of July, that is Epiphi.”
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Indian archival sources declare that in the Indo-Persian and Indo-Arab trade of the 3rd century BCE, the Gujarati banias, Konkana, and Malabari traders were the business partners for the Persian and Arab counterparts.
Indian ports on the Arabian seafront welcomed foreign traders at Porbandar, Ghoga, Diu, Surat, Lothal, Bharuch, Nala Sopara, Kalyan, Chaul, Vengurla, Arabo (Goa), Gopakapattna/Govapuri, Chandrapura, Raitura, Mangalore, Cannanore, Beypoor/Calicut, Muziris (Cranganore), Allepey, Quilon, Nelcynda, and Kochi.
On India’s Eastern seafront, foreign ships found lucrative anchor points at Nagarkovil, Korkai, Arikamedu, Alagankulam, Kaveripattinam, Kayalpattinam, Mamallapuram, Nagapattinam, Periyapattinam, Dharanikota, Kalingapatna, Kottapattanam, Machilipatnam and Motupalli.
Business tycoons would negotiate the prices for Indian spices like pepper, ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg. Luxury goods included perfumes, obsidian, tortoise shells, gemstones, rubies, precious and semi-precious stones, leather of exotic animals, ebony, gold, diamonds, sapphires, pearls, beads, ivory items, sandalwood, and fine textiles.
Indians imported horses, gold, glass, frankincense, myrrh, and wine. Overland routes helped the international trade initially, but maritime trade routes led to tremendous growth in commercial activities within India, in the Arab world and across Europe. Large hordes of gold and silver coins have been found around Madurai. Coins of different countries and eras including the Roman aurei, solidi and denarii are found at several archaeological sites in peninsular India. Substantial coin hoards have been reported from Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra Pradesh and next come Kerala, Karnataka, and Goa in that order.