Origin of the tin ingots from Uluburun

It largely remains an open question of how much Alexander knew about the lands he set out to conquer. The answer or answers keep amazing me. 

Imagine that Alexander was familiar with the trade routes of the precious minerals like copper and tin that existed nearly one thousand years before he was born. Today, we would say it is rather obvious but is it? 

Merchants were always very innovative and perseverant in exploring and finding new markets for their goods to be sold at the highest prices. The shipwreck of Uluburun was a true eye-opener, exposing the variety of ware from distant countries that were traded mainly around the Mediterranean. 

In my earlier blog, The flooded remains of Kekova Island and Uluburun, I mentioned that the ship was on its way from Egypt to the Black Sea when it sunk off the coast of Uluburun in modern Turkey. It carried, among others, 10 tons of copper ingots from Cyprus and an unspecified number of tin ingots from Persia. 

It was lengthy to bring the cargo from the Uluburun ship to the surface, as it took 22,430 dives. The precious finds are now safely exhibited inside the Museum of Bodrum Castle, surrounded by lively reconstructions of the ship’s haul. I somehow missed spotting the tin ingots as I focused on the copper and glass ingots instead. 

It is common knowledge that copper and tin are needed to make bronze. Since the second millennium BC, bronze has been in high demand to create tools and objects of prestige, but most of all for weapons. It is noteworthy that the Uluburun ship held enough metal to supply swords to 5,000 soldiers! 

A recent study published in The Past established that two-thirds of the 105 tin ingots originated from the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, and one-third was traced back to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. These two countries are roughly 3000 kilometers east of Uluburun! 

[Map: provided by Michael Frachetti/Washington University in St. Louis]

During the Bronze Age, the mines of Central Asia were local operations led by small mobile villagers. Tin from the Musiston mine traveled over rugged and rough terrain to Haifa - a distance of more than 3,000 km – before it was shipped across the Mediterranean.

Dating Kampyr-Tepe, Alexandria-on-the-Oxus

Kampyr-Tepe, ancient Alexandria-on-the-Oxus, whose foundations go back to the 4th and 3rd century BC, has been continuously excavated by Edvard V. Rtveladze and Alexei N. Gorin. They have concentrated on the citadel and the city proper with its striking Hellenistic entrance gate (see: Alexandria on the Oxus is at Kampyr-Tepe).

Alexander copper coins

By now, the citadel has yielded several Hellenistic coins that shed light on daily life in the city. Altogether, 30 coins of interest have been retrieved, mostly small-denomination copper coins. Two of them belong to King Antiochus I and 28 to the Graeco-Bactrian kings. Among them were rulers like: 

Antiochus I (281-261 BC)

Only two Seleucid coins were found in Kampyr-Tepe, and both were chalki (χαλκι, meaning copper) of Antiochus I, one minted in Babylonia (Seleucia-on-the-Tigris) and another one in Bactria.

Other examples came to light north of the Oxus River in places such as Afrasiab/Maracanda (see: Afrasiab, ancient Samarkand), Termez, and Bukhara.
 
Diodotus (c. 250-230 BC)
Scholars cannot agree whether Diodotus I or Diodotus II issued the coins. There are four copper coins: two dichalki, one chalkous, and one hemichalkous (half a chalkous). The chalkous was the smallest fraction of a Greek coin; in Athens, one needed eight χαλκι to make one obol. Based on their graphic design, these coins could have been issued by the mint of Bactra or Ai-Khanoum.

Tetradrachm of Euthydemus I

Euthydemus I (c. 230-200 BC)
Ten copper coins of Euthydemus I were found in Kampyr-Tepe, among which seven dichalki and one chalkous. Some of these coins have been extremely useful for dating the city’s buildings. Euthydemus I coins are the most common type found in northern Bactria, and six χαλκι are known from the Oxus Treasure (see: The Oxus Treasure, pieces Alexander must have known).
 
Euthydemus II (c. 190-185 BC)
Coins with the effigy of Euthydemus II are scarce. Some χαλκι, dichalki, and trichalki cuprum-nickel coins were found in Kampyr-Tepe, together with copper dichalki and trichalki.

Demetrius I (c. 200-185 BC)
Kampyr-Tepe has yielded one Demetrius obol and several copper χαλκι, dichalki, hemichalki, and trichalki.
 
Eucratides I (c.171-150 BC)
Eucratides is very much present in Kampyr-Tepe with seven coins, i.e., one drachm, one octuplus (a copper obol), and five obols. The obols belonged to the beginning of Eucratides’ reign when he started using his new title Megas, Great. One of these obols has been important to date when the fortified walls of the acropolis were last used as it was found in its top layer. It is noteworthy that Eucratides’ obols have also been recovered from Afrasiab/Maracanda, Bukhara (see: Alexander in Bactria and Sogdiana), and Ai-Khanoum.

Tetradrachm of Eucratides I

A bonus from Kampyr-Tepe was the find of two hitherto unknown coins of Heliocles and imitations of Demetrius I and Eucratides. Counterfeit is of all times!
 
Heliocles I (c. 139-129 BC) drachm imitation
The exact dates of Heliocles’ reign are not known. This drachm raises questions because of the mistakes in the inscriptions and the sloppy engraving of the letters. It may well be one of the first imitations.
Another drachm of Heliocles has surfaced in Takhti-Sangin, which may have been the source of the Oxus Treasure (see: The Oxus Treasure, pieces Alexander must have known).
 
Heliocles III (1st century BC) imitation
This king is so far unknown among the Seleucid or Graeco-Bactrian coins. Two coins with his bust were made according to Hellenistic traditions, but the shape of the letters on the coin’s inscription is problematic, especially the square omicron. The square version of the omicron first appears on Indo-Greek coins circulating at the end of the 2nd /beginning of the 1st century BC. The tradition continued until the last Indo-Greek King Hippostratus, who ruled over western Punjab.
It is quite possible that these coins were issued locally for Heliocles III, who shortly ruled over (northern) Bactria.
 
Demetrius drachms - imitation
Besides the abovementioned copper coins, two rare imitations of a Demetrius drachm have been unearthed. They were minted using a different die and showed distortion of the prototype. It has been possible to establish that they were issued in Bactria.
 
Eucratides obol - imitation
Among the Eucratides’ coins found at Kampyr-Tepe, one obol is an obvious imitation. The inscription on the obol is distorted and illegible, and the depiction of the ruler’s head is stylized compared to the real thing.
 
It is noteworthy that all the above finds and considerations treat coins from surface finds in Kampyr-Tepe, not from archaeological diggings. As in other Bactrian and Sogdian cities, the problem is that their remains are buried under thick layers of deposits hampering excavations.
 
Hellenistic coins unearthed from the banks of the Oxus River may suggest that the river played a significant role in the transportation and exchange of goods.

[For the above illustrations, I used my own pictures taken at the Numismatic Museum of Athens, because I lost the link to the reference photographs. We always stare at gold and silver coins, and I had no idea that copper Alexander coins ever existed. My pictures of Euthydemus and Eucratides are both tetradrachms, i.e., made of silver in Bactria].