Early Qatabānian coinage: the as‐Surayrah coin hoard

Abstract

In 1994 a hoard of more than 300 silver coins was found near the village of as‐Surayrah, in the area of Tacizz. Typologically, it consists of three groups: 1)‘old style’Athenian imitations with the head of Athena on the obverse and an owl on the reverse (further divided into the ‘tetradrachm’,‘didrachm’and‘hemid‐rachm (triobol)’denominations according to the pseudo‐Attic standard), 2) imitations of owls with the head of the local king on the obverse and 3) coins with the head of the local king on the obverse and a‘hellenistic’head on the reverse. For a variety of reasons this hoard is attributed to the early period of Qatabānian coinage. These include the region where the coin hoard was found, the presence of the Qatabānian royal monogram on the coins as well as a tentative reading of the legend on the third group of coins as Ydccb on the obverse and mlk Qtbn or mlk Qtbn s2ym on the reverse, written in the South Arabian script.