Origin and fate of the greatest accumulation of silver in ancient history
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5413545 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Janne Blichert-Toft (0000-0002-4932-4079, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, corresponding author), François De Callataÿ (0000-0002-5381-2534, Royal Library of Belgium), Philippe Telouk (0000-0001-6627-2947, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), Francis Albarède (0000-0003-1994-1428, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Publication date | 2022-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1866-9557 • E-ISSN: 1866-9565 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s12520-022-01537-y |
| OpenAlex | W4220861078 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 37 |
The capture of the Achaemenid treasuries in 331-330 BCE by Alexander the Great in Persepolis and Susa marked the demise of the 300-year-old Persian Empire and the advent of Hellenistic kingdoms. Alexander seized the equivalent of about 5000 tons of silver, which represented the accumulated tributes paid by subjugated people from the Aegean Sea to the Indus to their Achaemenid rulers. Die studies show that this gigantic amount of silver, the so-called Persian mix, had been used to produce most of the coinage of Alexander the Great himself and to an even greater extent those of the Diadochi, his successors. What remains to be understood is the origin of the silver of this immense treasure. Lead isotope abundances determined on both Persian sigloi and alexanders struck from Achaemenid silver trace the bullion source to the southern Aegean, Macedonia, and Thrace. Lead in pseudo-coinage from early Indian kingdoms is isotopically different from the rest, which attests to a limited Indian contribution to the Achaemenid treasuries. Studies of Iron Age hoards from the Levant leave open the possibility that the making of the Persian mix may have predated the Achaemenid expansion of the seventh century BCE. We speculate on the motivations of such massive hoarding by the Persian kings and on its economic implications
Ancient history · Archaeology · Bullion · Demise · Empire · Indus · Kingdom · Numismatics · Persian · Structural basin · Treasure · Ancient Near East History · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Philosophy · Geology · Paleontology
A new algorithm for using Pb isotopes to determine the provenance of bullion in ancient Greek coinage
Bullion mixtures in silver coinage from ancient Greece and Egypt
Narrowing provenance for ancient Greek silver coins using Ag isotopes and Sb contents of potential ores
Levantine Hacksilber and the flow of silver in early Mediterranean commerce
Years of Bronze Provenance Studies
Tracing metallurgical links and silver provenance in Balkan coinage (5th -1st centuries BCE)
Deciphering Arachosian Tribute at Persepolis
The Spread of Coins in the Hellenistic World
The Emergence and Spread of Coins in Ancient India
Rome'S Rise to Power. Geochemical Analysis of Silver Coinage from the Western Mediterranean (Fourth to Second Centuries BCE)
PCR – Le Plomb argentifère ancien du Mont Lozère (Lozère)
Le complexe minier gaulois des Barrencs (Aude, France) dans son contexte géologique et minéralogique
Investigating Isotopic Niche Space
A Hoard of Silver Currency from Achaemenid Babylon
Metal provenance of Iron Age Hacksilber hoards in the southern Levant
Separating silver sources of Archaic Athenian coinage by comprehensive compositional analyses
Les trésors achéménides et les monnayages d'Alexandre
The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy
The Treasures of Alexander the Great
Money in Mesopotamia
A Geological Perspective on the Use of Pb Isotopes in Archaeometry
From commodity to money
Metal provenancing using isotopes and the Oxford archaeological lead isotope database (Oxalid)
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1.75 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2025 (4) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |