Nub Nefer

A while back on social media I was wondering about how we know what certain hieroglyphics mean. I still don’t know the answer to that and would like to, but I was reading for another blog post and came across this discussion by Fischer-Bossert:

FROM: Suspène, Arnaud, et al. 2023. “Aureus, le pouvoir de l’or actes du colloque Aureus, le pouvoir de l’or comprendre les usages économiques, politiques, sociaux et culturels de l’or monnayé en Occident (IVe s. av. J.-C. – Ier s. ap. J.-C.), Orléans, 12-14 novembre 2018 proceedings of the international conference Aureus, the power of gold investigate the economic, political, social and cultural uses of gold coins in the Western world (IVth c. BC. – Ist c. AD).” In . Bordeaux: Ausonius.

It was news to me that Tachos (Teos) struck before Nectanebo II and thus that heiroglyphic coin in fact suggests a rejection of designs that emulated outside traditions even as the striking of coinage was itself an innovation for of Pharonic Egypt. What I’ve not managed to find yet is any illustration of Tachos’ coinage.

I finally found some bad photos here:

James W. Curtis. “Coinage of Pharaonic Egypt.” The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 43 (1957): 71–76. https://doi.org/10.2307/3855280.

The coins are supposed to be in the BM so I’m not sure why I can’t get the online catalogue to spit out a better image or just a record with not image as of yet.

Got there, I couldn’t find it in the first instance as the BM has it under the primary name Djedher.

In my hunt I also came across this little coin in the BnF. Not sure what to make of it. Genuine?

Interesting that the symbol for gold repeats above the horse.

The primary reason I wanted to write up a quick post was is that the Egyptians here in the 30th Dynasty are using the Persian weight standard even as it is the Persian from whom they are trying to maintain autonomy and are in active conflict.

We’re mostly comfortable with the idea that a coin must be spendable within the dominant denomination system even if that system derives from the ‘enemy’ or ‘other’, but it is still nice to have parallel examples. Think of the allies denarii of the social war, or Rome’s early didrachms. I’m sure there are other examples as well.

Ok back to the other blog post I was try to write.