PHILISTIA. Azotos (Ashdod). Circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 14 mm, 3.69 g, 9 h). Janiform head composed of a bearded male head to left and a female head to right; above, recumbent bovine left, head turned back to right; all within circular guilloche-pattern border. Rev. Recumbent bovine right, head turned back to left, an owl concealed within its body; below, two confronted ram heads; above, 𐡔𐡃𐡃 (ŠDD in Aramaic); all within dotted square border within incuse square. Gitler & Tal II.5Dc (this coin). Hendin -. Jeselsohn 12-13 (same dies). Mildenberg, Palästina, pl. LV, 20 (same dies). Shoshana -. Sofaer -. Extremely rare, very well centered, and nicely toned. Minor roughness and with the usual reverse test cut, otherwise, good very fine.



An interesting minor detail of this beautiful coin is the small owl concealed in the forepart of the bovine’s body on the reverse – a charming echo of the profound influence exerted by the Athenian owls on the coinage of the Levant and beyond. Another playful element is found in the ethnic legend: while only ŠDD is written, the bovine’s head, turned back to the left, may be understood as a pictographic substitute for the missing initial aleph, thus completing the city name as ʾŠDD, Ashdod. Here, the die-cutter appears to allude to the origin of the letter-name aleph / ʾalp, meaning 'ox' in West Semitic, and to the letter’s pictographic ancestry, generally thought to go back ultimately to an ox-head sign in the early alphabetic tradition.