Coins from the Bar Kochba uprising

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Bar Kochba coin depicting the temple facade, probably the showbread table in the middle between the columns

The coinage of the Bar Kochba uprising was a currency that was valid in the territory of Eretz Israel (a part of the province of Judea liberated from Roman occupation ) controlled by Bar Kochba from AD 132 to 136.

Similar to the coinage of the First Jewish War , own coins were also minted during the Bar Kochba uprising . This is a privilege of sovereign states and in itself a declaration of war on Rome, as it was only carried out among all the rebellious provinces of the empire in Judea - namely in both wars against Rome.

Traveling mint Bar Kochbas

While the insurgents in the first war against Rome with the Jerusalem mint were able to fall back on the silver stored in the temple treasures , such a resource was not available to Bar Kochba's administration. Instead, local coins that had been in circulation for a longer or shorter period were overminted. In view of the dating of the Bar Kochba uprising, it would be interesting to see a coin that was only issued shortly before the start of the uprising. Mildenberg refers here to an overstinted Gaza bronze coin on which the date 192 of the Gaza era (= 131/132 AD) can still be seen.

The minting of Roman coins with their pagan symbolism was, according to Ya'aḳov Meshorer, both a religious and a political message. In contrast to the issue of new coins, the minting of existing coins was not a source of state income and tied up workers. The administration accepted this despite the strains of the war, because own coins offered the possibility of communicating a message to the population. It was also, but not exclusively, about coins whose motifs corresponded to the ban on images . The main material used were the following coins confiscated by the rebels:

material Mint
silver Tetradrachms from Antioch and Tire
Bronze, great Provincial coins from Antioch and Alexandria
Bronze, medium Provincial issues from Askalon, Gaza, Caesarea
Bronze, small Provincial coins from Askalon

The bronze coins were filed down before they were struck. With the silver coins, they wanted to avoid the associated loss of material and hammered them flat. Meshorer does not accept a permanent mint like the one that existed in Jerusalem during the First Jewish War. Rather, the respective mint master stayed at Bar Kochba.

The makers of the coin dies were not specialists. The craftsmen involved usually took an existing coin die as a template when it was necessary to make a new one. They tended to simplify the motif. They had particular problems with the ancient Hebrew script , which was used by the Bar Kochba administration for their coins because of its dignity, although the square script had already fully established itself in everyday life . You can see from the coins that the craftsmen did not know these letters and changed their shapes, sometimes grouping them awkwardly around the coin motif. Occasionally unqualified people were busy striking the coins and working under time pressure. For the reasons mentioned, the quality of the minting is significantly worse than that of the coins from the First Jewish War.

Peter Schäfer gives the following rough overview of the coin types:

  • Coins marked “Year One of the Redemption of Israel”;
  • Coins marked “Year Two of Israel's Liberation”;
  • Dated coins (year 1, year 2) labeled "Jerusalem";
  • Coins whose inscription can be translated as "for the freedom / liberation of Jerusalem". They were probably minted in the third year of the uprising.

Finds of Bar Kochba coins

After the end of the war, the Bar Kochba coins were withdrawn from circulation. They were preserved in coin hoards and as pieces of jewelry, recognizable by the holes drilled into them. In 2000, David Hendin published a hoard that was offered on the antique market. In a fragmentary oil lamp of the "Herodian" type, which was allegedly discovered near Hebron , the following coins were found: four Roman gold coins ( aurei ) from the time of Domitian , Trajan and Hadrian , five silver denarii from the time of Markus Antonius , Trajan and Antoninus Pius , as well as seven bronze Bar Kochba coins. As the final coin from the reign of Antoninus Pius shows, 15 years later the rebels' bronze coins, which were worthless after the end of the war, were still so important to someone that he kept them together like a small private coin collection and finally deposited them with coins that represented significant value.

In 2011, in Me'arat haTe'omim (east of Bet Shemesh ), the Bar Kochba administration (Hoard A) managed to secure a hoard of 83 silver coins. At the end of the uprising, people sought refuge in this karst cave. They had kept the coins together with a silver jewelry in a no longer preserved organic container and deposited them in a cavity in the rock. This is the only such hoard found known through a controlled excavation, compared to 29 hoard finds of bar Kochba coins that appeared on the antique market between 1889 and 1982. In the same cave there were two other coin hoards, B and C, which contained bar Kochba coins along with Roman coins. Presumably the owners had not exchanged all of their coins for rebellion currency because the bar Kochba coins were only valid in a limited area.

A curiosity are bronze coins from Bar Kochbas, which were found in remote Roman provinces in the context of military camps. Hanan Eshel , Boaz Zissu and Gabriel Barkay list sixteen specimens: one coin in Britain ( Londinum ), 12 in Pannonia ( Vindobona , Carnuntum , Brigetio ) and three in Dacia (Sarmizegetusa, Ilişua and Pojejena). They suspect that legionaries who were involved in the suppression of the uprising took these coins with them as souvenirs.

Coin designs

Silver coin, obverse: wind instruments, inscription: For the freedom of Jerusalem ; Back: stringed instrument (type A), inscription: year two of the liberation of Israel
Hellenistic-Roman parallel for the lyre of type A, group of statues Farnesian bull , 1st century AD (Naples, Museo Nazionale)

Plants and fruits with religious symbolism are depicted on the coins, along with the temple facade, as well as temple equipment and musical instruments. The musical instruments are two types of lyres and wind instruments.

Temple facade

The coin image of the temple facade shows a detail in the middle, the interpretation of which was long controversial in the 20th century. The Ark of the Covenant , a door or a Torah shrine were suggested . Dan Barag was able to make it probable that it is the showbread table by consulting rare bar kochba coins . The original was carried along in Titus' triumphal procession in Rome; After the Bar Kochba uprising, the showbread table (unlike the menorah ) disappeared from Jewish iconography.

Musical instruments

The evaluation of the musical instruments on the coin images to understand the music of ancient Israel has a long tradition. Already in 1817 Johann Jahn mentioned depictions of two “cithers” on coins, which he considered Maccabean ; the attached copper plate shows a Bar Kochba coin with a stringed instrument of the type A. Joachim Braun points out that lyres were a common motif on ancient Greek coins, which over time led to a stylization of the coin image at the expense of realistic instrument representation . A small group of coins from Ptolemais (Acre) from the Seleucid period (between 125 and 110 BC) shows the head of Apollo on the obverse and the depiction of a lyre on the reverse. There are two lyre forms, both symmetrical: with three strings (type A) and with six strings (type B, unique). Braun considers these coin images to be depictions of local instruments and suspects that they served as prototypes for later coinage. The lyre, which exists in two forms, “became a characteristic of the lyre iconography of Hellenistic-Roman Palestine” and is found on coins from Antioch and possibly also on the Bar Kochba coins.

"Most researchers can only accept with caution the claim that the Bar Kochba lyres are authentic instruments from the Second Temple period." There are two types of lyres on the Bar Kochba coins: Type A was created by the music historian Bathja Bayer assigned the biblical instrument name kinnor in a fundamental study (1968) and type B the instrument name nevel . The fact that the strings were not pulled further over the sounding body in both cases indicates a stylization of the coin image. Hellenistic-Roman parallels exist for both types of lyre.

The chazozrot described in Num 10.2  ZB and mentioned several times in Tanach were metal trumpets that were ritually played by priests in the Jerusalem temple . Joachim Braun does not consider the wind instruments on the Bar Kochbas coin images to be trumpets. In his view, the short, almost conical shape of the instruments depicted on the coins speaks against this interpretation. Braun interprets a disc on the mouthpiece as a pirouette , as is typical for some double-reed instruments: He compares the thickening that is also recognizable there with the wind chamber of a platter game . However, this interpretation does not fit with the interpretation of the bar Kochba coin as a representation of an instrument in temple music, because there is no reference to the use of reed instruments in cult music. Braun also refers to a similarity between the coin representations and the nafir trumpet, which was widespread in Persian-Islamic culture in the Middle Ages .

Jug

Silver coin (1/2 Zuz), obverse: wreath, inscription: Shim . Reverse: jug and branch, inscription: Elazar the priest

The coin motif of a slim jug usually comes across with a twig. Since the jug is clearly a vessel for liquids, MA Levy had already suspected in 1862 that the golden jug was represented here, which was used in the ritual of drawing water on the Sukkot festival . The scientific consensus that the branch was a palm frond of the Sukkot festival bouquet ( lulav ) was questioned by Yonatan Adler. He refers to the willow branch ceremony, which is described in the Mishnah and which was closely related to the water libation. The priests placed freshly cut willow branches on the sides of the altar, so that the tips of the branches bent over the altar.

Symbolic plants and fruits

A clear reference to the Sukkot festival, the popular pilgrimage festival in autumn, is given by the representation of Lulav and Etrog (on tetradrachms), or only Lulav (on didrachms). Other coins only depict a palm frond or a willow branch. Depictions of grape leaves, vines or grapes are common motifs on Jewish coins. They can also be interpreted as referring to the golden vine, which was used in the Herodian Temple as a kind of stand for hanging votive offerings.

The menorah is not depicted on Bar Kochba coins, although it was an important motif in ancient Jewish art. David Hendin considers that the coin motif of the date palm with its seven palm fronds was related to the seven-armed chandelier.

Web links

Commons : Coins from the Bar Kochba uprising  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Yonatan Adler: The Temple Willow-Branch Ritual Depicted on Bar Kokhba Denarii . In: Israel Numismatic Journal , 16 (2007/08), pp. 129-133 ( PDF )
  • Hanan Eshel, Boaz Zissu, Gabriel Barkay: Sixteen Bar Kokhba Coins from Roman Sites in Europe. In: Dan Barag, Boaz Zissu (ed.): Studies in Honor of Arnold Spaer (= Israel Numismatic Journal. Volume 17) Jerusalem 2010, pp. 91–97. ( PDF )
  • David Hendin: Jewish Coins of the Two Wars: Aims and Meaning . In: David M. Jacobson, Nikos Kokkinos (ed.): Judea and Rome in Coins 65 BCE - 135 CE. London 2012, pp. 123–144 ( PDF )
  • David Hendin: A Bar Kokhba Lamp Hoard Collection . In: Israel Numismatic Journal 14 (2/2000), pp. 180-184. ( PDF )
  • Ya'aḳov Meshorer: Ancient Jewish Coinage. Volume 2: Herod the Great Through Bar Cochba. Amphora Books, New York 1982, therein: pp. 132-165.
  • Leo Mildenberg : The Coinage of the Bar Kokhba War. Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1984, ISBN 3-7941-2634-3 .
  • Leo Mildenberg: Numismatic evidence on the chronology of the Bar Kokhba survey . In: Swiss Numismatic Rundschau 34 (1948/49), pp. 19–27. ( Digitized version )
  • Boaz Zissu, Ro'i Porat, Boaz Langford, Amos Frumkin: Archaeological remains of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the Te'omim Cave (Mu˘ghâret Umm et Tûeimîn), Western Jerusalem Hills. In: Journal of Jewish Studies 62/2, autumn 2011, pp. 262–283. ( PDF )
  • Boaz Zissu , Hanan Eshel: Coins and Hoards from the Time of the Bar Kokhba Revolt. In: Hoards and Genizot as Chapters in History. Hecht Museum Haifa, spring 2013, pp. 31–40. ( PDF )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Leo Mildenberg: The Bar Kochba War in the light of coinage. In: Hans-Peter Kuhnen: Palestine in Greco-Roman times , CH Beck, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-406-32876-8 , Göttingen 2016, pp. 357-366, here p. 358.
  2. ↑ Leo Mildenberg: Numismatic Evidence for the Chronology of the Bar Kokhba Survey , 1948/49, p. 25.
  3. ↑ a b Ya'aḳov Meshorer: Ancient Jewish Coinage , Volume 2: Herod the Great Through Bar Cochba , New York 1982, p. 135.
  4. ^ Ya'aḳov Meshorer: Ancient Jewish Coinage , Volume 2: Herod the Great Through Bar Cochba. 1982, p. 158.
  5. ^ Ya'aḳov Meshorer: Ancient Jewish Coinage , Volume 2: Herod the Great Through Bar Cochba , New York 1982, p. 159.
  6. ^ Leo Mildenberg: The Coinage of the Bar Kokhba War , Aarau 1984, p. 21 f.
  7. ^ Ya'aḳov Meshorer: Ancient Jewish Coinage , Volume 2: Herod the Great Through Bar Cochba , New York 1982, p. 160.
  8. ↑ Peter Schäfer: History of the Jews in antiquity , Tübingen 2010, p. 186.
  9. ^ Martin Goodman: Coinage and Identity: The Jewish Evidence. In: Christopher Howgego et al. (Ed.): Coinage and Identity in the Roman Provinces , Oxford University Press, Oxford 2007, pp. 163–166, here p. 166.
  10. ↑ David Hendin: A Bar Kochba Lamp Hoard Collection , S. 181st
  11. ↑ Boaz Zissu, Ro'i Porat, Boaz Langford, Amos Frumkin: Archaeological remains of the Bar Kokhba Revolt in the Te'omim Cave (Mu˘ghâret Umm et Tûeimîn), Western Jerusalem Hills , 2011, pp. 273-275.
  12. ↑ Hanan Eshel, Boaz Zissu, Gabriel Barkay: Sixteen Bar Kokhba Coins from Roman Sites in Europe, 2010, p. 94 f.
  13. ↑ a b c d Joachim Braun: The music culture of old Israel / Palestine. Studies on archaeological, written and comparative sources , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, p. 203.
  14. ^ Steven Fine: Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish Archeology, Cambridge 2005. p. 150. Dan Barag: The Table of the Showbread and the Facade of the Temple on Coins of the Bar Kokhba Revolt . In: Hillel Geva (ed.): Ancient Jerusalem Revealed , Jerusalem 1994, pp. 272-276.
  15. ^ Johann Jahn: Biblical Archeology , Part 1: Domestic Antiquities , Volume 1, 2nd Edition, Carl Ferdinand Beck, Vienna 1817, p. 496 and panel V.
  16. ↑ Joachim Braun: The musical culture of old Israel / Palestine. Studies on archaeological, written and comparative sources , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, p. 201.
  17. ↑ Joachim Braun: The musical culture of old Israel / Palestine. Studies on archaeological, written and comparative sources , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, p. 202.
  18. ↑ Bathja Bayer: The Biblical fog. In: Yuval 1, 1968, pp. 89-131
  19. ↑ Joachim Braun: The musical culture of old Israel / Palestine. Studies on archaeological, written and comparative sources , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, pp. 203–205.
  20. ^ Yonatan Adler: The Temple Willow-Branch Ritual Depicted on Bar Kokhba Denarii , p. 131.
  21. ^ Yonatan Adler: The Temple Willow-Branch Ritual Depicted on Bar Kokhba Denarii , p. 135.
  22. ↑ David Hendin: Jewish Coins of the Two Wars, London 2012, p 138th
  23. ↑ David Hendin: Jewish Coins of the Two Wars, London 2012, p 139th