A Celtic imitation of Alexander’s gold stater

Slovenia does not immediately spring to mind when it comes to archaeology but this message is truly an exception.

[Picture from RTV Slovenia - Photo credit ZRC SAZU]

Earlier this year, archaeologists were at work in Podzemelj unearthing as many as fifteen graves dated back to the 4^th century BC. Among these finds was a bronze belt with a gold coin, and this coin happens to be a Celtic imitation of an Alexander the Great stater, with Nike and Athena on the reverse. These figures are helpful to narrowing the coin down to the first half of the 3^rd century BC. Finding such a stater in Europe is very rare.

Among the grave goods, they found some pottery together with spears, fibulae, belt buckles, etc. Further study will tell us more about these kinds of burials, which strangely enough were almost void of human remains.

The origins of Podzemelj go back to prehistoric times but the city continued to exist into the Roman era as some inscriptions have confirmed. The town lies in southeastern Slovenia, close to the border with Croatia – definitely a region where one will not expect finding anything related to Alexander!