Ancient Coins from The Drew Institute of Archaeological Research Excavations of Caesarea Maritima, 1971-1984
By Jane DeRose Evans
Caesarea was Herod's jewel on the sea. Its warehouses, temples, wide streets, and statues sparkling in the sunshine, and especially the harbor announced that, as Josephus wrote, Herod "conquered nature herself" (Jewish War 3.408). Yet he was not the first to take advantage of the shoreline here, and the city lived on long after he died and became an important center of the early Christian world. The Drew Institute of Archaeological Research (DIAR) worked in the ancient city for eleven seasons between 1971 and 1984. An analysis of the coins found in the excavation sheds light on the fascinating question of the economy of the city and region.
Approximately 2300 identifiable coins were excavated. About 2000 more coins were unidentifiable (even within broad time periods); some were blanks (most likely dating to the fourth or fifth centuries, when coins were not used individually, but in groups, and were traded in bags). A small group belong to Crusader or Arabic Caesarea and will not be examined here. Only three silver coins were found; all the rest were bronze.
Strato of Sidon was said to have settled the site in the fourth century bce; there is some disagreement whether remains of his settlement have been found (Vann 1992; Oleson 1989). There is evidence of a wall, probably a defense wall, and various structures associated with it, though it has been suggested that the wall dates to the second century bce, when the tyrant Zoilos opposed the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus. The city was controlled by the Ptolemies until ca. 275 bce, when it became disputed territory, variously claimed by the Ptolemaic and Seleucid kings. After the revolt of the Maccabees, the area was controlled by the Hasmonean kings, except during the reign of Zoilos.
Only one coin, from Cyme, Aeolis, dates to the earliest period (350-250 bce), and only three well-worn coins date to the first two-thirds of the third century bce. These coins were not necessarily lost in the third century (but they could not have been lost before the third century), which means there is no good numismatic evidence for Strato's settlement and only slightly more for Zoilos's fortification of the site. Since there was not yet a mint at Caesarea, the coins come from the mints of Antioch, Side (Pamphylia), and an unidentifiable Ptolemaic mint. These results are comparable to the only other reported early Hellenistic coins, from the 1990 season at Caesarea, which recovered two Ptolemaic bronzes minted in Alexandria of the third century (Lampinen 1992).
The city was controlled by the Hasmoneans until 63 bce, when it was "freed" by Pompey and given to the Roman province of Coele Syria. It is thought that the city suffered a decline through the Hasmonean period of the second and first centuries bce, and the coin finds support this hypothesis (Levine 1975).
Caesarea began to have a more monetized economy in the late third century; coins from the mint of Tyre, the closest operating mint to Caesarea, date from the reign of Antiochus III (223-187) and Ptolemy V (204-198). One coin reported from earlier excavations also dates to the reign of Antiochus III, and one from a period not represented in the DIAR excavations, from Tyre, between 146-138 (Ariel 1986). It is not surprising to find the next group from the mint of Ake-Ptolemais (which opened around 200 bce), dating between 175 and 164, the reign of Antiochus IV. Only coins from the mints of Antioch, Tyre, and Ake-Ptolemais were found through the 120s bce, a situation that was also found in Caesarea's sister city of Samaria (Reisner 1924; Barag 1982/3) and in the 1990 season at Caesarea (Lampinen 1992). These coins are well-worn and testify to hard use through the second century.
No coins from the reign of Seleucus IV (187-175) were found at Caesarea; very few come from Palestine at all, except in Jerusalem (Ariel 1982; Tushingham 1985). Seleucus imposed a heavy tax on Palestine and looted the Temple treasury, which was again plundered by Antiochus IV in 168. Seleucus was faced with a heavy tribute to Rome, after the defeat of his father, Antiochus III in 191/90. The tribute money may have come in a large part from Judea, which would explain the relative lack of coins at Caesarea-the local economy may have switched back to barter as coins were handed over as tax.
The revolt of the Maccabees also seems to have interrupted the commercial life of Caesarea; only one Hasmonean coin has been reported found at Caesarea, in the DIAR excavations. Interestingly, the only non-local coin from the first century comes from the mint at Dor, Phoenicia, and dates to 64/63 bce. It may have been brought in when the troops under Pompey the Great pacified the region in 64.
Caesarea was given to Herod by Octavian after the Battle of Actium in 30 bce, along with most of the other territory that had been "freed" by Pompey thirty years earlier. Herod entirely rebuilt Caesarea between 22-10/9 bce, as only one of the cities he rebuilt in an effort to strengthen east-west trade routes. It also provided the Roman government with a much-needed military port in the troublesome province of Judea. Caesarea was governed by a strategos (a general) and housed a contingent of royal troops. It remained more of a Roman than a Judean city, especially when it became, at the beginning of the first century ce, the headquarters of the Roman procurator and part of the Roman Empire, when Augustus removed rule of the province from Herod's son Archelaus.
The political situation is reflected in the coinage. Herod minted his coins in Jerusalem, and they almost entirely drove out the non-Herodian coins; not a single non-Herodian coin of the first century bce was reported in any of the excavation reports of Caesarea. Yet the coins are a puzzle, too, for Herod built the harbor as an international port, though he does not make a reference to the port in the coin types (Raban1992; "type" in reference to coinage refers to the design on the coin). Neither the coins nor the pottery reflects much international trade in the late first century bce/early first century ce (Blakely 1987). This may be explained by the type of coin found, as small change would have been used locally, while the higher denominations were used for more complex business deals. These coins of higher denomination, when dropped, would have insured that the loser would look for the coin. Not surprisingly, no coins of Philip or Antipas, the rulers who succeeded Herod were found; instead, procuratorial coins were the mainstay of the everyday Caesarian economy.
There has been some argument recently whether the mint for Palestine was transferred from Jerusalem to Caesarea in the procuratorial era, since the coins minted by the procurators look physically very much like the Herodian coins, except for the different types used (Ariel 1982; Carradice 1982/3). Unfortunately, the excavations cannot demonstrate whether or not this transfer took place. The coins of the Hasmoneans, Herod, and the procurators are made with flat, irregularly-shaped flans (or blanks), cut from a sheet of bronze. Both the Hasmonean and Herodian coins had aniconic types, in deference to powerful political forces in Judea, but Herod did use his name on the coins, along with some ambiguous types, like the winged caduceus, a Greek symbol of prosperity. Although earlier procurators kept the aniconic or Herodian types, Pilate broke from this tradition, using types that were sure to anger the Jewish population, including Roman religious symbols like the lituus and simpulum. The lituus was a crook shaped staff used by the augers for divination and the simpulum was a ceremonial ladle or pouring vessel.
Output under Pontius Pilate was especially heavy, as he built an aqueduct to Jerusalem and seized the Temple treasury to pay for this project. Antoninus Felix (52-60 ce) also seems to have minted a large number of coins, perhaps because of his military activities in putting down rebels in the desert. After Pilate, the procurators reverted to aniconic symbols, as a canopy (to indicate the kingship of the ruler), or a palm branch, or the name of Nero.
Although it has been suggested that the mint at Caesarea officially opened during the reign of Agrippa I (37-44 ce), only one of the several types minted by Agrippa were found in the excavations. To be sure, none were recorded in Jerusalem either, and this may only mean that some types were minted in small numbers (Hamburger 1970; Meshorer 1967). Nor were any of the (rare) coins of Claudius' legate, C. Umidius Durmius, found in Caesarea.
Procuratorial coins ceased being issued when Vespasian (then a general) and his troops arrived in 67/68 ce to put down the Jewish revolt. The coins of Nero from the mint of Caesarea were some of the first in Judea to show the emperor on the obverse, which was a deliberate slap at Jewish religious sensibilities (although, to be sure, Caesarea was not a city with a large Jewish population). The reverse type had a long life in Caesarea, though it was a common type in the east. Tyche (a personification of the city) stands with her foot on a prow, alluding to the great harbor of Caesarea, holding the bust of the emperor (?) and a scepter. A sword slung round her chest testifies to the city's military role in the province; the small male who often crouches to left is Sebastos. The inscription, in Greek, reads, "Caesarea by the harbor Sebastos."
The first century ce coins show more of the international flavor we would expect from the port city. Coins from the mints of Paneas (Caesarea Philippi, which opened in the first century), Berytus, Ake-Ptolemais, and Nabatea were found. Coins from Antioch and Alexandria, the two largest cities in the east, were also found, and figure in every other phase of Caesarea's life. Yet the coin evidence seems to contradict the pottery evidence, as amphorae from the west and the Aegean are common in first century contexts. Part of the explanation may be that the western and eastern halves of the empire operated on different standards, and coins tended to remain in the realm in which they were standard. Nor does small change tend to travel, as pointed out above, though the larger denominations, which were not found in the excavations, would.
The First Revolt began after the gentile inhabitants of Caesarea massacred the Jews living in the city. It is not surprising that just two stray coins of the Revolt were found in the city (two more were reported by Ariel 1986). Yet even the coins minted by the Romans after crushing the revolt, the well-known "Judea Capta" series, were not especially common, even though they were minted for Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. The types were sharp reminders of the Jewish defeat, and under Domitian the inscriptions boasted-in Latin-of Caesarea's new rank of colony in the Roman empire.
The mint at Caesarea remained in operation until 253 ce (with a hiatus from 96-98 and 235-244); yet coins from the first third of the second century are not entirely plentiful in the excavations. Some scarcity may be explained by the rebellion under Trajan that was quelled by L. Quietus, and revived under the leadership of Bar Cochba. Coins from Trajan's reign found at Caesarea mostly consist of very small bronzes, with the head of the emperor and an animal as types (Ariel 1986). These coins continued to be minted into the reign of Hadrian.
After the brutal repression of the Bar Cochba rebellion, the province was depopulated, and reorganized under the name Syria Palestina. Archaeologists are currently debating the state of the harbor in the first and second centuries ce, with some arguing that the harbor had fallen into disrepair; others see the abandonment of the harbor occurring later, in the third century, though it still must have been accessible when Eudocia landed here in 439 (Hohlfelder 1984, 1992; Oleson 1989).Yet as the Roman governor's seat, Caesarea enjoyed a spate of building projects when the Temple of Hadrian, its aqueducts, and perhaps the hippodrome were built. The number of coins from this era was correspondingly high, and a number of coins from the mint of Alexandria may point to the eastern travels of Hadrian. For the first time, the mint of Rome was represented in the coins.
The position of Caesarea as the head of the Roman province became abundantly clear by the reverses of the second and third centuries, which figure many pagan gods in them, especially the Egyptian god Serapis. There were several cult places in the city and the reverse types may allude to worship that occurred within the city limits.
The second half of the second century is another period not well represented in the finds. Some of the Palestinian mints closed in the 170's, perhaps in part because of a plague that swept through the region. Yet between the end of the second and beginning of the third century, Caesarea became the main supplier of bronze coins to the region, if we can judge by the reported finds from Jerusalem.
We have better evidence of coins from the third century ce. The emperor Septimius Severus (193-211) made a fast tour through Syria in 199/200, and his son, Caracalla, came in 215. Both of these visits should have pumped money into the local economy as the city was "spruced up" for the royal visits, and as the emperors normally bestowed money for civic projects during their stops. Severus did establish games at Caesarea that brought in performers and spectators from all over the East. The increase in coins may have been due to the civic building undertaken in this era, especially the rebuilding of the major streets. Many bronzes of Severus Alexander (222-235) were found in the excavations, perhaps due to increased mint output in his preparations for a campaign against the Persians. Interestingly, this increase in local coins meant a corresponding decrease in the number of coins from other mints represented in the finds. Most of the sites in Palestine in the third and fourth centuries show a large number of coins in their inventories (Levine 1972). This can be explained in part by the decreasing value of an individual coin, which insured that the loser spent correspondingly less time looking for the lost coin.
The reverses of the third century coins became quite varied, although not all of the reverse types minted at Caesarea were found in the excavation. A great many of the eagle carrying a wreath, or a variation of the type, were found.
When the mint at Caesarea closed in 253, coins from all over the Empire replaced the local issues: the mints of Antioch, Tripolis, Tyre, Alexandria, Cyzicus, Nicomedia, Thessalonica, Siscia, Aquileia, Ticinum, Arles, Lyons, Rome, and even one from Britain were found. The number of mints can also be explained by the adoption of one coin standard across the entire Empire.
Yet by the end of the third century ce, the economy of the Empire began to become regionalized, as political upheavals and invasions threatened each area of the Empire. Although the emperor Diocletian (284-305) standardized the reverse types and the weights, which should mean that coins from all over the empire again circulated in Caesarea, only coins from the eastern half of the Empire were found. The situation is paralleled by the finds at Jerusalem, and was only rectified after ca. 312, when coins from the west actually outnumbered coins from the east.
The great bulk of the coins found at Caesarea dated to the fourth and fifth centuries ce, and were small bronzes, weighing about 1 gram. The presence of the coins may point to an economic revival, but if so, the ancient sources are silent, and the building projects are much fewer (Hohlfelder 1984). After a short period when only the western mints were represented (322-335), mints from all over the empire became common, although the largest supplier of coins was Antioch. Part of the explanation of the number of coins found can be seen even in a cursory glance at the coins; they are small, and often counterfeits, lead slugs, or blanks were substituted for some of the coins. Coins were traded in bags, not individually, and when the bags of coins were opened, people rejected the inferior coins by throwing them away-to be found by archaeologists. Yet no other reported site in Palestine shows such a percentage of late Roman bronzes, which may testify to the importance of the harbor at Caesarea to the Palestinian economy.
This economic boom was more wide-spread in Byzantine Palestine (the sixth and seventh centuries ce) and was reflected in the large number of coins found in Caesarea-again a far larger number and percentage than any reported Palestinian site (Avi-Yonah 1958; Metcalf 1961). There were extensive building projects undertaken in Caesarea, including the city walls, rebuilding of the warehouses in Area S, a martyrium, and the "Byzantine Esplanade" (Vann 1992, Oleson 1989, Hohlfelder 1985). Civic troubles were reported in 484, 529/30, and 555, when the Samaritan populations revolted. In 614, a more potent force entered Palestine, when the Persian army captured Caesarea. The city was retaken by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius in 627/8, but besieged by the Muslims in 634, and finally captured by Mu'awiya in 640 or 641.
The Byzantine coins at first looked much like the late Roman coins, but with the reforms of Anastasius in 498, coins became bigger and heavier and were marked with the date of issue and mint. Constantinople, as the main mint of the empire, supplied most of the coins to Caesarea (replacing Antioch), and no coins of the western mints were found (cf. Hohlfelder 1984, Ariel 1986, and Lampinen 1992).
Plate: Numbers and Percentages of Bronze Coins Excavated at Caesarea and Other Palestinian Sites
Plate: Coins from Caesarea Represented in Various Reports
Large numbers of Vandal coins were found as well. This does not mean there were strong trade links with North Africa, but the small Vandal bronze coins supplied a need that was not being met by the Byzantine mints (which concentrated on gold, silver, and large bronzes), and thus these coins were traded across the Mediterranean basin. Small change was also obtained by using coins from the mint at Alexandria. This use of coins is seen at other sites in Palestine. After 614, the number of Byzantine coins dropped off remarkably; some imitation Byzantine coins minted by the Persians may date to the years between 614 and 627/8. When Heraclius recovered the city, he set up a mint in Caesarea to countermark Byzantine coins, to place a small stamp on one of the faces of the coin to show the coin was still an official issue (Evans, forthcoming). The loss of Byzantine control of the city is amply shown in the almost entire lack of Byzantine coins dating to after 640, so we end our study as Caesarea fell under Muslim control.
The excavations have given archaeologists and numismatists an important body of information about Caesarea. The coins help us to understand the economy of Palestine. As more sites report their numismatic finds, a more complex picture can be formed. Thus the jewel that was Caesarea continues to sparkle today.
INSERT: Trajan Honored on Syrian Coin
Acknowledgments
The Drew Institute of Archaeological Research (DIAR) is headed by Dr. Robert Bull, to whom I am indebted for the permission to publish the material. The Institute is joined with other colleges and universities to form the Joint Expedition to Caesarea Maritima (JECM), one of the groups currently excavating in Caesarea. The underwater research is being conducted by Caesarea Ancient Harbour Excavation Project (CAHEP).
Bibliography
Ariel, D.
1982 A Survey of Coin Finds in Jerusalem. Liber Annuus 32:10-326.
1986 The Coins. In Excavations at Caesarea Maritima 1975, 1976, 1979, Final Report, edited by L. Levine and E. Netzer. Qedem 21. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University.
Avi-Yonah, A.
1958 The Economics of Byzantine Palestine. Israel Exploration Journal 8:39-51.
Barag, D.
1982/3 Tyrian Currency in Galilee. Israel Numismatic Journal 6/7: 7-13.
Blakely, J.
1987 Caesarea Maritima: Pottery and Dating of Vault 1. Queenstown, Ontario: Joint Expedition to Caesaea Maritima.
Carradice, I.
1982/3 Coinage in Judaea in the Flavian Period, A.D. 70-96. Israel Numismatic Journal 6-7:14-20.
Evans, J. DeRose
n.d. The Byzantine Countermarks on Coins from Caesarea Maritima, American Journal of Numismatics. In press.
Fitzgerald, G.M.
1931 Beth Shan Excavations, 1921-23. Philadelphia: University Museum.
Hamburger, H.
1950 Caesarea Coin Finds and the History of the City. Bulletin of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society 15:78-82 (in Hebrew).
1955 Minute Coins from Caesarea, «Atiqot 1:115-38.
1970 The Coin Issues of the Roman Administration from the Mint of Caesarea Maritima. Israel Exploration Journal 20:81-91.
Hohlfelder, R.
1984 Ca
esarea Maritima in Late Antiquity. Pp. 261-285 in Ancient Coins of the Graeco-Roman World: the Nickle Numismatic Papers. Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press for the Calgary Institute for the Humanities.
1985 Byzantine Coin Finds from the Sea: a Glimpse of Caesarea's Maritima's Later History. Pp. 179-184 in Harbor Archaeology, edited by A. Raban. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
1992 An Introductory Note of Coin Finds at Caesarea. Pp. 167-168 in Caesarea Papers: Straton's Tower, Herod's Harbour, and Roman and Byzantine Caesarea, edited by R. Lindley Vann. Suppl. Series 5. Ann Arbor: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
Holum, K., et al.
1988 King Herod's Dream: Caesarea on the Sea. New York: Norton and Co.
Kadman, L.
1957 The Coins of Caesarea Maritima: Corpus Nummorum Palestinensium, Vol.2. Jerusalem: Schocken Press.
Lampinen, P.
1992 The Coins, Preliminary Report. Pp. 169-172 in Caesarea Papers: Straton's Tower, Herod's Harbour, and Roman and Byzantine Caesarea, edited by R. Lindley Vann. Suppl. Series 5. Ann Arbor: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
Levine, L.
1972 Some Observations on the Coins of Caesarea Maritima. Israel Exploration Journal 22:131-140.
1975 Roman Caesarea. Qedem 2. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University.
Levine, L. and Netzer, E.
1986 Excavations at Caesarea Maritima 1975, 1976, 1979, Final Report. Qedem 21. Jerusalem: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University.
Metcalf, D.
1961 The Byzantine Bronze Coinage in the East Mediterranean World. Pp. 521-530 in Congresso Internazionale di Numismatica. Rome: Instituto Italiano di Numismatica.
Meyers, E.
1979 A Preliminary Report on the 1977 and 1978 Seasons at Gush Halev. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 233:33-58.
Meshorer, Y.
1967 Jewish Coins of the Second Temple Period. Tel-Aviv: A.M. Hassefer.
Oleson, J.P., ed. 1989 The Harbours of Caesarea Maritima: Results of the Caesarea Ancient Harbour Excavation Project 1980-85. BAR International 491. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
Raban, A.
1992 In Search of Straton's Tower. Pp. 7-22 in Caesarea Papers: Straton's Tower, Herod's Harbour, and Roman and Byzantine Caesarea, edited by R. Lindley Vann. Suppl. Series 5. Ann Arbor: Journal of Roman Archaeology.
Reisner, G.
1924 Harvard Excavations at Samaria. Vol.1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Tushingham, A.D.
1985 Excavations in Jerusalem. Vol.1. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum.
Vann, R. Lindley, ed.
1992 Caesarea Papers: Straton's Tower, Herod's Harbour, and Roman and Byzantine Caesarea. Suppl. Series 5. Ann Arbor: Journal of Roman Archaeology.