Mut-Dağpazarı Aspendos Hoard

Abstract

This hoard of 270 silver staters of Aspendos with representations of wrestlers was found in 2007 in the province of Mersin, district of Mut, town of Dağpazarı, the site of the ancient city of Koropissos in Rough Cilicia. The hoard is kept in the Mersin Museum. The coins of this hoard belong, according to Von Aulock's classification, to his Third Group (370-330 B. C.) of staters of Aspendos with representations of wrestlers, but according to Oğuz Tekin, who wrote his doctoral thesis on this subject, to Group D (380-325 B. C.). Group D (380-325 B. C.): the coins of the Mut - Dağpazarı hoard in the Mersin Museum which constitute the subject of our article belong to this group. On the obverse of the coins in this group are various letters between the wrestlers. These are the first letters of the name of a single magistrate, or of two magistrates. Babelon wrote that it is difficult to explain these letters of magistrates' names as Greek, because these are Pamphylian names translated into the Greek language. The hoard of Mut - Dağpazarı is the second-largest group of coins of Aspendos. The largest, kept in the İzmir Museum, comes from the province of Konya, Derbent - Çiftliközü and comprises 450 coins. The third-largest, in the Antalya Museum, comes from Varsak - Düden. There are 16 names of magistrates in the Derbent - Çiftliközü hoard, 21 in the hoard from Varsak - Düden and 35 in that from Mut - Dağpazarı, of which 8 are new. Among the 270 coins in the hoard from Mut - Dağpazarı in the Mersin Museum, with groups comprising 35 different magistrates and one without a magistrate, 148 different obverse and 251 different reverse dies were used. This hoard must have been buried during the period when Alexander the Great was in Pamphylia and Cilicia, in 333 B. C.