Identifying silver ore sources for the earliest coins of Athens

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-024-02120-3 (2025) 17:45 RESEARCH Identifying silver ore sources for the earliest coins of Athens Gillan Davis1 · Janne Blichert‑Toft2 · Liesel Gentelli2 · Damian B. Gore3 · Kenneth A. Sheedy4 · Francis Albarède2 Received: 8 September 2024 / Accepted: 11 November 2024 © The Author(s) 2025 Abstract This study addresses longstanding questions concerning the ore sources used in the first series of coins of ancient Athens known as the Wappenmϋnzen (c.540-c.500 BCE) by combining comprehensive numismatic data on 22 coins (16 new and 6 legacy analyses) with lead isotope and surface elemental measurements (MC-ICP-MS and XRF). It finds usage of ores from Spain to Romania and Türkiye and frequent mixing. This upends current thinking based on a (mis)interpretation of historical sources which argues that the tyrant Peisistratos and his sons, who ruled Athens during the period, sourced most silver from the districts of Mt Pangaion and Strymon River in northern Greece and that silver did not flow from the western Mediterranean into their coinage. The data suggest that domestic ‘Lavrion’ mines of Athens did not contribute to the ore stock of the Wappenmϋnzen until the subsequent production of the ‘owl’ series when it was also used in some Wappenmϋnzen fractions and show that there is no correlation between coin types and ore sources. Elemental compositions nuance our understanding of the coins, but do not shed light on provenance. Together, these new findings force a reappraisal of numismatic and historical perceptions of the period of the Athenian tyranny in the lead up to democracy, not least because the multiple silver sources point to trading relationships with a greater variety of regions than previously contemplated. Keywords Lead isotope analysis · XRF · Athenian coins · Silver · Wappenmünzen · Owls Introduction Sources of silver used by the ancient Athenians to mint their first coins in the late Archaic period (c.540–479 BCE) have long been a subject of debate. The discussion has centred on mining districts mentioned anecdotally by historical authors, coinages and observed ancient workings (Gale et al. 1980; Gentner et al. 1978; Kraay and Emeleus 1962). The scientific contribution has largely been informed by lead isotopic and chemical analyses carried out over 40 years ago on coins in the Asyut hoard (IGCH 1644 c.475 BCE) by Gale * Gillan Davis 1 Faculty of Education and Arts, Australian Catholic University, Tenison Woods House, 8 Napier Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia 2 Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS, and Université de Lyon, Lyon, France 3 School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia 4 Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia et al. (1980, revised Stos-Gale and Davis 2020), but the fact that so many of these coins are from northern Greek mints skews the data. This paper provides fresh understandings based on new lead isotope and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) elemental analyses combined with legacy data comprising 22 coins (this study: 16 coins from the Athens Numismatic Museum and Gale et al.: 6 coins from the British Museum, excluding a seventh coin which is unidentifiable) from the earliest series of coins minted by the Athenians known as the Wappenmϋnzen (literally ‘heraldic coins’ so named for their changing types once erroneously thought to be blazons of noble families, cf. Sheedy et al. 2009). The elemental and isotopic data are combined with numismatic information on the coins and their types (Sheedy and Davis forthcoming). The key aim of the study is to determine the major silver ore sources accessed by the Athenians to produce the Wappenmϋnzen. The surprising answer has important historical and numismatic implications. Athenian coinage was instigated by the Peisistratid tyrants who ruled Athens from 546 to 510 BCE. The first coinage series is known as Wappenmϋnzen and is characterised by multiple changing types (13 silver types identified in Sheedy and Davis, forthcoming). Of these, the most Vol.:(0123456789) 45 Page 2 of 14 important were the ‘horse’, ‘gorgon’ and ‘wheel’, each of which had their own varieties. They were followed by the long-lasting series for which Athens’ coinage became best known – the ‘owl’ – which depicted the helmeted head of Athena on the obverse and an owl on the reverse along with an olive sprig, another symbol of the goddess, and the abbreviated ethnic – ΑΘΕ (meaning: coin of the Athenians). The change to the owl as the sole type reflected a desire to have an instantly recognisably Athenian currency like other leading Greek trading states such as Korinth and Aigina (Kraay 1956). This decision has been linked with the exploitation of silver-rich mineral veins in the mining district at Lavrion (Laurion) in south-east Attica (Davis 2014a), since the owl type was minted principally in large quantities of high-value tetradrachms intended for export, in contrast to the small obols and didrachms of the Wappenmϋnzen which mainly circulated locally (Kraay 1956). Literary evidence from long after the events described above took place implies, but does not prove, that the Peisistratids derived the silver for the Wappenmϋnzen from the districts of Mt Pangaion and Strymon River in northern Greece (Hdt. 1.64.1; Ath. Pol. 15.2) followed by exploitation of Lavrion for the owls (Hdt. 7.144). This has been widely accepted since the theory was first popularised by Seltman (1924; cf. van Wees 2013; Sears 2013, 2015) notwithstanding serious doubts of other scholars, notably Lavelle (1993; cf. Archibald 2013 and Davis 2014a). Lead isotope analysis of Hacksilber (chopped silver) from Tel Miqne-Ekron in the southern Levant shows that one of its sources was Lavrion in the seventh century BCE (Gentelli et al. 2021; Stos-Gale 2001) and there might be an expectation that exploitation of Lavrion continued into the sixth century BCE. Against this, there is virtually no evidence of silver use in Attica prior to the second half of the sixth century (Davis 2012 contra Rhodes 1975; Kroll 1981). Gale et al. (1980) influentially assumed that silver from the western Mediterranean was ‘virtually unavailable’ to the Greeks after the battle of Alalia in 540 BCE won by the Carthaginians. This was always a somewhat counterintuitive conclusion since their own lead isotope analyses of seven Wappenmϋnzen coins claimed to represent diverse sources ranging from Spain to Iran with only one fractional (small) coin late in the sequence of types from Lavrion, and all 14 owls exclusively from Lavrion ores (Gale et al. 1980; re-examined by Stos-Gale and Davis 2020). Some gorgoneion Wappenmϋnzen were minted as tetradrachms with an image on the reverse of a lioness rather than the unadorned diagonally divided reverse punch used hitherto (Table 1). Kraay (1956) in a seminal article argued that these were the last phase of the (...truncated)