ARABIA. Charachmoba. Elagabalus, 218-222. Diassarion (Bronze, 21 mm, 7.06 g, 6 h). Α Κ Μ ΑΥ ΑΝΤⲰΝΙΝΟ Laureate head of Elagabalus to right; in field to right, star. Rev. ΧΑΡ-ΑΧ/[ΜⲰΒΑ] Altar of Zeus-Dusares with staircase, seen from left, supporting three piles of holy stones and topped by a sacred baetyl; to right, priest seated left, holding vase (?) in his hands. BMC 3. Rosenberger 2. RPC VI online 9365.24 (this coin). SNG ANS -. Samel -. Shoshana -. Sofaer 3. Spijkerman 5. Unusually well preserved and with a very interesting reverse. Light deposits and with a faint scratch on the reverse, otherwise, very fine.



Charachmoba had belonged to the cultural and political sphere of the Nabataean kingdom before its incorporation into the Roman province of Arabia in 106 CE. Remarkably, the city issued coins only once, under Elagabalus, and one of its most distinctive types, represented by the present coin, looks directly back to this Nabataean heritage.

On the reverse, a priest sits before a stepped motab altar bearing groups of sacred stones and a baetyl, preserving the aniconic cult of Dusares, the principal deity of the Nabataeans. Closely related issues of Bostra make the identification explicit by naming ΔΟΥϹΑΡΗϹ ΘΕΟϹ. The type thus provides striking testimony to the survival of Charachmoba’s Nabataean religious traditions more than a century after the Roman annexation.