PHILISTIA. Central Mint. Philistian-styled, circa 420-350 BCE. Rbʾ Šql = Drachm (Silver, 15 mm, 3.79 g, 9 h). Female head to right, the hair drawn back and tied into a ponytail. Rev. Bearded head of Zeus Ammon to right, with ram's horn over his ear, hair gathered at the back, and wearing pearl necklace, within incuse square. Gitler & Tal XVI.10Da (this coin). Hendin -. Jeselsohn -. Shoshana -. Sofaer -. Extremely rare, the finest of just two known examples, and the only one in private hands. Beautifully toned. Die break on the obverse and with a test cut on the reverse, otherwise, very fine.



The horn worn by the bearded god on the reverse of this extremely rare issue alludes to Zeus Ammon, the oracular god of the Siwa Oasis in the western Egyptian desert, where Alexander the Great was hailed as the son of the god in 331 BCE. Egyptian influence is well attested in Philistia: as a frontier staging ground and defensive buffer against invaders, Gaza in particular played a historically important role, and it is quite possible, though not certain, that parts of the Philistian coast came under Egyptian influence, or even Egyptian control, during the period of Egyptian independence from 404/399 to 343 BCE.

Philistian coinage, however, drew on iconographic elements from across the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. Its motifs should therefore not automatically be read as direct political messages or professions of allegiance, but rather as evidence of Philistia’s position at the crossroads of the north-south route between Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, the Arabian trade routes, and the Mediterranean sea lanes. Thus, in the case of the present coin, one need not necessarily assume direct iconographic influence from Egypt; it may instead point to connections with Kyrenaica, where Zeus Ammon was repeatedly depicted together with a female figure or head on coins.