PHILISTIA. Azotos (Ashdod). Circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 16 mm, 3.83 g, 12 h). Bearded male head to right, hair gathered at the back and with a horn- or animal-ear-like projection on the forehead. Rev. Bovine walking right, head lowered and raising right foreleg, an owl concealed within its body; to upper right, miniature male (?) head to right; above bovine, 𐡀𐡔 (ʾŠ in Aramaic); all within square guilloche-pattern border within incuse square. Gitler & Tal II.9Da = YC p. 144, Fig. V.13 (this coin). Hendin -. Jeselsohn 21 = Mildenberg, Palästina, pl. LV, 22 = Shoshana I 20045 (same dies). Sofaer -. Of the highest rarity, and the finest of apparently just two known examples. An exceptionally charming and very well-preserved coin, beautifully toned, perfectly centered, and with remarkable detail. Very light roughness, otherwise, extremely fine.



The remarkable archaic head on the obverse is usually described – sometimes with a question mark – as a satyr head, presumably on account of its large, staring eye, snub nose, and, above all, the curious horn- or ear-like projection on the forehead, which has apparently been interpreted as a pointed animal ear of the kind familiar from Greek depictions of satyrs. This interpretation, however, is not without difficulties: in Greek art, a satyr’s ear, no matter how prominently rendered, would be expected in its anatomically correct position, not at the hairline above the forehead. Its placement rather suggests a horn; yet this, too, is not entirely convincing, since horns are normally set higher on the head or at the temples. Even in the case of Zeus Ammon, the characteristic ram’s horn is placed laterally, behind or above the ear, not on the forehead. The image therefore remains enigmatic. It is perhaps best understood as one of those hybrid visual creations in which Philistine artists freely combined Greek, Persian, Egyptianizing, and local elements.

The reverse, too, reflects this taste for visual hybridity: once again, an Attic owl is concealed within the body of the bull, while the small male (?) head in the upper right field adds an additional human element to the predominantly animal composition; compare also lot 16 below.