Findings of Seleucid and Ptolemaic coins in Dagestan and the Problem of the Caspian Waterway

Abstract

In 1964 and 1985 in the south of Dagestan, two treasures were found, which included Hellenistic coins. The first consisted of several dozen Seleucid coins, of which only two bronze coins of Antiochus IV, the so-called “Egyptianizing” series, have survived. The second hoard included bronze Ptolemaic coins of the 6c and 6e series, issued in the first third of the 2nd century BC and related to the same type: Zeus-Ammon / two eagles perched side-by-side on two thunderbolts with a double cornucopiae in the left field. The most probable reason why Seleucid and Ptolemaic bronze coins ended up in Sharakun was the participation of their owners in trade along the Caspian waterway. Apparently, their masters arrived from Antioch on the Orontes and Alexandria to Sharakun, intending to follow the Caspian Sea and up the Oxus to Greco-Bactria. The bronze coins they had there would not only be absolutely useless, but also very burdensome. Therefore, merchants could either leave them with a reliable person in the Sharakun settlement, or bury them in a secluded place to pick them up on the way back. However, they, apparently, were not destined to return to Sharakun. After this became clear, the Ptolemaic coins, which were of interest to local residents only for their weight, turned out to be part of the foundry hoard. For us, both Sharakun treasures are the most valuable evidence, proving not only the very existence of the Caspian waterway, but also the implementation of trade contacts between Central Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.