Samaria Silver M'h, Samarian Coinage 163

Monetary Context

During the mid-to-fourth century BC, the southern Levant operated as part of the fifth Achaemenid satrapy, Eber-Nari (Across the River). While the Persian royal administration maintained an imperial currency of gold darics and silver sigloi, provincial and civic authorities across Phoenicia, Philistia, Judah, and Samaria developed robust regional coinages dominated by small silver fractions. The m'h (often equated with the Greek obol or one-sixth of a shekel/drachm) formed the essential backbone of everyday retail commerce, taxation, and military provisioning. Rather than relying on a centralized imperial mint, provincial administrations in Samaria were permitted to strike fractional silver under local supervision. Samarian Coinage 163 represents this autonomous yet culturally integrated monetary expression, where local officials acknowledged Persian imperial hegemony through standardized iconography while asserting provincial fiscal authority through native Aramaic administrative legends.

Production and Mints

The precise mint facility responsible for Samarian Coinage 163 has not been archaeologically identified, though numismatists agree that production was centralized in the regional capital of Samaria (modern Sebaste) or its immediate administrative perimeter. Striking silver m'h pieces required exceptionally skilled die-engravers capable of rendering intricate multi-figure compositions on flans measuring less than ten millimeters in diameter and weighing generally between 0.6 and 0.8 grams. The physical execution reflects classic late Persian provincial mint techniques: hand-hammered flans struck between iron or bronze dies, with the reverse die often positioned in a shallow incuse circle. The presence of a dotted border on the obverse indicates careful die preparation designed to prevent flan cracking and to frame complex narrative scenes.

Obverse Iconography

The obverse die depicts a dynamic narrative drawn directly from royal Achaemenid courtly art: a horse-drawn chariot advancing to the left. The chariot carries two individuals. The foremost figure, acting as the charioteer or an armed official, holds the horse reins in one hand and brandishes a drawn sword in the other. Standing behind the driver is a companion or attendant wearing a pointed Persian headdress (tiara or kyrbasia) who raises one hand in a gesture of authority, salute, or balance. The entire composition is contained within a delicate border of dots. Chariot scenes of this kind carried potent symbolic associations of military command, judicial presence, and elite mobility across Persian-governed territories from Sidon to Cilicia.

Reverse Iconography

The reverse of Samarian Coinage 163 displays a solo equestrian figure framed within a recessed incuse circle, a characteristic striking feature of fourth-century Levantine mints. The rider, typically identified in numismatic literature as a satrap, provincial governor, or elite officer, is shown mounted on a horse pacing to the left. The rider wears full Median riding attire, including the distinctive Persian headdress and tunic, while holding the reins with one hand and extending a raised sword forward in the other. Positioned beneath the equestrian figure in the exergual field is the Aramaic name of the issuer, grounding the martial imperial motif directly in provincial administrative authority.

Legends and Epigraphy

The reverse field below the horse bears the clear Aramaic legend BRWḤBL (read as Brochubelus or Baruch-Bel). Imperial Aramaic served as the primary administrative language and script of the western Persian Empire, and its deployment here contrasts with earlier regional scripts. Scholars debate the exact linguistic origin and office of Brochubelus. While some identify the name as a Semitic compound combining elements meaning blessed of Bel, others link the official to historical Persian or Babylonian appointees stationed in the Levant during the campaigns of Artaxerxes III Ochus or the final years of Darius III. The legend does not carry a formal title such as satrap or governor (peḥah), a common omission on late Samarian fractions where personal names alone denoted official responsibility.

Typology and Chronological Classification

Catalogued definitively as entry 163 in the corpus of Meshorer and Qedar, this type belongs to the final chronological stratum of Achaemenid Samaria, dated between circa 345 BC and 332 BC. This period spans the aftermath of the Teno-Sidonian rebellion against Artaxerxes III down to the arrival of Macedonian forces under Alexander the Great in 332 BC. Within the broader Samarian typological sequence, type 163 forms part of a tightly connected group of issues naming high-ranking figures such as Sanballat, Hananiah, and Jeroboam alongside distinct military types. The deliberate pairing of chariot and cavalry scenes indicates that the series likely accompanied increased fiscal expenditures or troop mobilizations across the Levant in the decade preceding the fall of the Persian Empire.

Circulation and Archaeological Context

Find distributions of Samarian silver fractions demonstrate that issues such as type 163 circulated predominantly within the hill country of Samaria, the Sharon plain, and adjacent districts of Judah and Galilee. Major hoard deposits discovered throughout the twentieth century, including the celebrated Samaria Hoard and Wadi ed-Daliyeh cave assemblages, show that these tiny silver pieces were hoarded alongside larger Athenian-style tetradrachms and Phoenician shekels. They served as vital fractional money in a highly monetized regional economy where small transactions required recognized intrinsic silver. Circulation of native Samarian types ceased abruptly following the Macedonian conquest and the establishment of Hellenistic administrative control under Alexander and his successors.

References

1. Levantine Coins Online: Samarian Coinage 163. Type CSC 163
2. Populations et territoires de la Palestine a l'epoque perse. Transeuphratene 3, pp. 31-74
3. The Coinage of Samaria in the Fourth Century B.C.E.. pp. 13-17
4. Samarian Coinage. p. 103, no. 163