Tyrants, democrats and the first silver 'owl' coins of Athens

Anthropological and Archaeological Sciences, 2025

This study addresses longstanding questions concerning the ore sources used in the first series of coins of ancient Athens known as the Wappenmϋnzen (c.540-c.500 BCE) by combining comprehensive numismatic data on 22 coins (16 new and 6 legacy analyses) with lead isotope and surface elemental measurements (MC-ICP-MS and XRF). It finds usage of ores from Spain to Romania and Türkiye and frequent mixing. This upends current thinking based on a (mis)interpretation of historical sources which argues that the tyrant Peisistratos and his sons, who ruled Athens during the period, sourced most silver from the districts of Mt Pangaion and Strymon River in northern Greece and that silver did not flow from the western Mediterranean into their coinage. The data suggest that domestic 'Lavrion' mines of Athens did not contribute to the ore stock of the Wappenmϋnzen until the subsequent production of the 'owl' series when it was also used in some Wappenmϋnzen fractions and show that there is no correlation between coin types and ore sources. Elemental compositions nuance our understanding of the coins, but do not shed light on provenance. Together, these new findings force a reappraisal of numismatic and historical perceptions of the period of the Athenian tyranny in the lead up to democracy, not least because the multiple silver sources point to trading relationships with a greater variety of regions than previously contemplated.

Mines, Metals and Money: Ancient World Studies in Science, Archaeology and History (Metallurgy in Numismatics Vol. 6), 2020

Archaic owl tetradrachms form an important subset of our research into Early Attic coinage. This paper analyses their physical characteristics and silver content based on measurements of 424 owl tetradrachms and 81 owl obols for comparison with fractional coinage. The paper proposes that the tetradrachms were deliberately minted at their ideal standard weight and with a consistently high purity of silver to make them acceptable as an export coinage. This stood in contrast to the preceding 'Wappenmünzen' and contemporary fractional coinage both of which were minted primarily for use in the domestic market place. Test-cutting in antiquity appears to have been carried out as a matter of routine checking primarily by overseas end-users, rather than on suspicion of individual coins.

Journal of Archaeological Science

This article demonstrates that distinct and coherent silver sources can be discriminated from surface composi-tional analyses. In the first large-scale study of Archaic (pre-479 BC) Athenian silver coins in museum collections around the world, we analysed 788 coins by Energy Dispersive X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry with a mathematical correction to provide a reliable composition for key diagnostic elements. Principal Component Analysis reveals compositional patterns including at least one copper-lead-gold (Cu, Pb, Au) triplet with strong clustering of data. The pattern for bismuth (Bi) was similar to, but not as clear as Pb. Considering elemental compositions in combination with a die study and isotopic analyses in the literature, we reveal when Lavrion was the metal source from which Wappenmünzen and Owl coinage types were struck, providing important new understanding about Athenian history in the pivotal period of transition from tyranny to democracy in the late sixth century BC. Beyond this specific example, we contend that XRF spectrometry could have wider application in studies of ancient silver, not least for a simplified triage protocol to help determine which silver artefacts should be subjected to slower, more costly and invasive trace elemental and isotopic analyses.

Metallurgy in Numismatics vol. 6. Mines, Metals and Money: Ancient World Studies in Science, Archaeology and History., 2020

This paper uses the analytical results from inductively-coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and lead isotope analysis (Q-ICP-MS) of Athenian-style tetradrachms found in excavations in Israel, in order to investigate their origins. Some of these coins have been classified as Eastern imitations based on style, but the analysis suggests that many of these coins may actually be authentic Athenian issues. This is because they were in all probability produced from bullion that came from the silver mines of Laurion in Attica. Given the stylistic variability of the Athenian(-style) tetradrachms found in Israel, we can assume that they are representative of the ‘owls’ circulating in the East in Achaemenid times.

is paper draws attention to evidence that was overlooked in Christophe Flament's recently proposed revisions for the chronology and interpretation of Athenian silver coinage of the 3rd century bc. is evidence supports the prior dating of the quadridigité silver to the 280s and of all three known issues of silver pentobols to the years of the Chremonidean War (268-262 bc). In addition, the paper contends that the heterogeneous tetradrachms and fractions should be accepted as genuine Athenian emissions, and that the 3rd-century tetrobols are still best interpreted as specie minted for compensating garrison troops in Attica.

Internet Archaeology, 2021

Silver-bearing lead ores at Laurion in Attica were considered to have been first exploited with the introduction of coinage sometime around the birth of Classical Greece. However, in the late 20th century this chronology was radically revised earlier, to the Bronze Age, largely supported by lead isotope analyses (LIA). Here, we acknowledge that lead and silver metallurgy emerged from the earliest times but we propose that any correlation between these metals in the archaeological record is not a consequence of a geological association between lead and silver in ores such as galena until the middle of the first millennium BCE. We suggest that ancient metallurgists recognised that silver minerals (such as horn silver) dispersed in host rocks could be concentrated in molten lead and that LIA signatures of Bronze Age silver artefacts reflect the use of exogenous lead to extract silver, perhaps applying processes similar to those used to acquire silver in Bronze Age Siphnos. We further propose that lead from Laurion used for silver extraction resulted in the inadvertent transfer of its LIA signature (probably aided by roving silver prospectors) to silver objects and metallurgical debris recovered around the Aegean. New compositional analyses for the Mycenaean shaft-grave silver (c. 1600 BCE) support these conclusions. We believe that reverting to the mid-first millennium BCE for the first exploitation of silver from argentiferous lead ores is consistent with the absence of archaeological evidence for centralised control over Laurion until the Archaic period, the paucity of lead slag associated with silver-processing debris at Bronze Age sites, the scarcity of silver artefacts recovered in post-shaft grave contexts at Mycenae and throughout the Early Iron Age Aegean, the few Attic silver coins with LIA signatures consistent with Laurion until after 500 BCE and a single unambiguous mention of silver in the Linear B texts.

Notae Numismaticae / Zapiski Numizmatyczne XIV (2019), 59–91., 2019

The existence of a number of Thessalian bronze coins minted during the late Classical and the Hellenistic times, which were countermarked later on at some point, constitutes an intriguing puzzle in the coin history of Thessaly. While brief reference is made to a broader chronological context of such phenomena in the area, the focus is turned on two noticeable countermark types, the wheat-ear and the owl. The present study aims at a comprehensive overview of these countermarks, which appear on bronze coins struck by various issuing authorities (Gomphoi, Gyrton, Larisa, Metropolis, Phalanna, Pharsalos, the Thessalian Koinon). Quite interestingly, the pieces on which the said countermarks are applied span from the 4th to the 1st century BC. A few samples of silver staters issued by the late Hellenistic Koinon (with a wheat-ear countermark only) are also taken into account, but they seem to constitute a separate occasion of countermarking. The Thessalian bronzes under discussion bear either the wheat-ear countermark or the owl countermark or both of them; counterstamping of the owl over the wheat-ear is more common, but coexists with the more rare combination of the wheat-ear over the owl. As it seems that the two countermarks were employed largely in tandem, their synchronicity can be assumed. From the examination of the extant specimens interesting elements can be gleaned, such as that the two-thirds of the material are constituted by coins safely or probably dated in the 2nd–1st centuries BC or that probably all the pieces have been located in Thessaly. A few extraneous coins (of Pella and Amphipolis, with the same pair of countermarks) were obviously included in the sample while the countermarking of the local ones was in process. The treatment attempts to deal with several aspects of the matter; a key factor is implied by the wheat-ear symbol, alluding to the significance of Thessaly through the ages as a major grain-producing region; at the same time, it can be argued that the resurfaced pieces were demonetised and utilized probably as tokens. Additionally, some consideration is given regarding the rather perplexing practical use of such countermarked pieces and the end-users involved. The advanced wear of many of the coins in question supports the idea that the counterstamping could have taken place some time in the 1st – 2nd century AD. Based on scarce evidence, an appropriate historical context is sought in the form of a certain, likely one-off, incident. Towards this direction a possible connection to a case of Thessalian wheat exported to Athens is examined; such an extraordinary episode is traced to have occurred in the 140s AD. While the precise function of the re-used bronzes remains difficult to pinpoint, a suggestion is offered for their employment in the hands of their intended users through a conceivable modus operandi.

2021

Over the last 60 years, much analytical research has sought to determine the ore sources of ancient Greek silver artefacts. Lead isotopic analysis has played a key role in this endeavor. While most studies so far have limited their search to places mentioned in historical sources, the present study takes a different approach by first identifying Ag-bearing ore sources in the Aegean world based on their geological characteristics and then using Pb isotopes to determine whether they were exploited in antiquity. To this end, we have geolocated, sampled, and measured high-precision Pb isotopic compositions of 17 Ag-bearing mineralizations in Greece for which we have evidence of ancient mining activity, and a further 10 exhibiting minor Ag occurrences that may also have been exploited in ancient times. We found that Pb model ages provide better discrimination of ore sources than the more conventional plots of raw Pb isotope data. Our study establishes Lavrion, northeast Chalkidiki, Pangaeon, Thasos, Siphnos, Palaea Kavala, Angistron, and south Euboea as the most important ancient silver mining districts in Greece. Two previously undiscovered ancient mining areas in Pelion and in the Kroussia mountain range are also documented. The latter may be identified with ancient Mount Dysoron, from which King Alexander I of Macedon reportedly extracted the fabulous sum of a talent of silver per day. For the first time, we isotopically differentiate some of the mining districts in Thraco-Macedonia, and show that the mines of Thasos include geologically different silver-bearing ore sources. We further identify the hitherto unrealized importance of Euboean silver mines and demonstrate that they isotopically overlap those of Siphnos, with major implications for our understanding of ancient Greek history.