Foundation Myths in Ancient Societies by Sweeney Naoíse Mac;

Author:Sweeney, Naoíse Mac;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2019-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Mints and Monograms

Material from the temenos of Kineas feeds into another debate on the foundation, status, and ancient name of Ai Khanoum. This particular argument draws on evidence for the location of a mint at Ai Khanoum; for the association of a particular monogram with this mint; and for the deduction of the ancient name of Ai Khanoum from this monogram.

The sarcophagus of the earliest, principal burial at the shrine (of the late fourth or early third century BC) was sealed with burned bricks, many of which bear a monogram consisting of a circular frame containing a delta-like triangle with a semicircle on its base.36 This same monogram appears on a series of silver coins struck around 285–280 BC in a Bactrian workshop by Antiochus in the name of his father, Seleucus, and in his own name as viceroy of the eastern provinces of the Seleucid Empire.37

On the face of it, the identification of these two monograms offers an opportunity to deduce the ancient name of Ai Khanoum, or to say something about its position under the Seleucids, but it is doubtful that the monogram on the coins relates specifically to Ai Khanoum. That Ai Khanoum was the location of a mint has been argued from finds of bronze flans at the site,38 but it was not the principal royal mint of Bactria.39 There is no evidence for the minting of silver coinage, such as that which bears the relevant monogram, at Ai Khanoum; and the issues with the monogram occur more widely across Bactria. The majority, if not all, must still be attributed to a main royal mint at Bactra.40 As for the appearance of the monogram in question on the bricks from the main burial at the shrine of Kineas, we are not in a position to say much about what these represent. The cautious argument presented by Bernard in the initial volume of Fouilles d’Aï Khanoum41 is still about as far as we can reasonably take this material. Bernard suggests that the monogram represents an official in charge of brick production. He mentions the flans and evidence that coins were minted at Ai Khanoum, and he then tentatively postulates a connection between the brick and the coin marks. The presence of this mark—one made up of simple geometric shapes or letters, on different media, of different dates—does not presuppose any real connection between them.

It seems unlikely that the monogram represents the name of the city itself, even if it were the case that it derived from a mint or other authority at Ai Khanoum. One might read a delta and an omega, but these do not allow us to reconstruct a plausible name. Narain suggests a Dionysopolis, possibly later renamed Diodoteia or Diodotopolis.42 There is no evidence for a Dionysopolis in the region, and Diodotid rule in Bactria, from the mid-third century, postdates the main burial in the shrine of Kineas and, of course, Antiochus’ vice-regency and minting activities in the region. We do not know if

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