Staircases of the eastern facade and other remains of the Apadana at Persepolis

Image from Cabinet (Oxford University)

I have extended the image to the right to indicate the locations of the surviving foundation deposits (see below)

Darius began the construction of the ceremonial palace at Persepolis at some time before 500 BC.  The illustration above shows the remains of its most important building, which is usually referred to as the Apadana (Audience Chamber). 

Photograph by Hans-Wichart von Busse (1903–1962); Image from Harvard Museum  

As Antigoni Zournatzi (referenced below, 2003, at pp. 1-2) explained, during Ernst Herzfeld’s excavations of the remains of this palace 1933, his colleague Friedrich Krefter:

1. “... brought to light two foundation deposits, ... buried, respectively, at the northeastern and southeastern corners of [the palace]. ... Each of these deposits] contained a pair of tablets, one of gold and one of silver, inscribed with identical trilingual (Old Persian, Elamite and Akkadian) inscriptions of Darius I and encased in a carefully wrought stone box.  In addition, beneath each box, there was a [small number] of archaic gold and silver coins.” 
   

As we shall see, the evidence from these foundation deposits is particularly important for our understanding of  the events of the early years of Darius’ reign. 

Trilingual Inscriptions 

Image from Wikipedia, my additions in white

As Alireza Shapour Shahbazi (referenced below, search on ‘Audience Palace’) observed, Darius’ Apadana was the  largest and most imposing palace of Persepolis.   This is reflected in these inscriptions, which Darius buried in the foundations under at least two (and probably at all four) of its corners.  Ela Filippone (referenced below, at p. 102, note 6) observed that these inscriptions are probably the next after that at Behistun in chronological order of the surviving Achaemenid dahyāva-lists. The following translation of these inscriptions (DPh) is from the website ‘Livius’ (modified by the version of Margaret Cool Root, referenced below, at p. 2):

Darius the great king, king of kings, king of countries, son of Hystaspes, an Achaemenid

King Darius says: This is the kingdom that I hold:

From the Sacae [Scythians] who are beyond Sogdia to Kush [Ethiopia]; and

From Sind [India] to Lydia [Sardis]

[This is] what Ahuramazda, the greatest of gods, bestowed on me

May Ahuramazda protect me and my royal house

Margaret Cool Root (referenced below, at p. 2) observed that:

1. “It has generally been thought that [these inscriptions] should be taken as an accurate (albeit summary) statement of the north-south and east-west boundaries of the Achaemenid empire at the time of the text’s composition.”
   

If this is accepted, then the Apadana itself must have been started (and the coins that were buried under it must therefore have have been minted) before Darius’ general 514 ‘made the coast of Thrace subject to the Persians’ (Herodotus, ‘Persian Wars’, 5: 10: see the main page ‘Alexander I: Persians I; Reign of Darius the Great’).  Root acknowledged that some scholars did not accept this, but, having looked afresh at all the surviving evidence, her conclusion (at p. 11) was that we should: 

1. “...  accept Darius' word about the extent of his empire at the moment when the Apadana foundation tablets were inscribed. ... [These tablets] were, in all probability, composed, inscribed and buried [in the foundation deposits of the northeastern and southeastern corners of the Apadana] before the spear of Darius went forth into Thrace.”
   

Modern scholars (see, for example: Miroslav Vasilev, referenced below, 2015, at p. 40 et seq.; and Mustafa Adak and Peter Thonemann, referenced below, at p. 91) date Megabazus’ campaign to ca. 514-2 BC, which would imply that the inscriptions described the extremes of Darius’ empire in about the 9th year of his reign.

Gold and Silver Coins 

Andrew Meadows ( referenced below, at pp. 342-3) published a detailed description of the coins from these two foundation deposits (having physically inspected most of them):

1. ✴each deposit contained four gold coins, all of which were light ‘Croeseid’ staters (ca. 8.1 gm.); and
   

2. •the northeastern deposit also contained two silver coins; 
   

3. -a tetradrachm from Abdera (13.31 gm.); and
   

4. -a stater/didrachm (probably ca. 12.2 gm.) from Aegina; and
   

5. •the southeastern deposit also contained at least two and probably three silver coins (10-11 gm.) from various mints in Cyprus.
   

He also observed (at p. 344) that:

1. “All the Croeseids now in the [Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran], as well as those illustrated by Schmidt [(referenced below)], are in extremely fresh condition.  This is in marked contrast to the considerably (and consistently) more battered silver pieces.”
   

In other words:

1. ✴the gold Croeseids were deposited soon after minting; while
   

2. ✴the silver coins had probably been in circulation for some time: as Jonathan Kagan (referenced below, at p. 39) observed, hoard evidence suggests that they:
   

3. “...provide just the sort of mixed group one would expect to find circulating in the Persian Empire in the last decades of the 6th century BC.” 
   

Gold Croeseids 

Gold light stater (8.07 gm) from Sardis (of the type found in the Apadana Hoard) 

Obverse: foreparts of a lion and a bull, each with an outstretched foreleg (lion attacking bull) 

Reverse: two incuse square punches of unequal size, with irregular interior surfaces 

Image from Arvind Sharma (referenced below, at p. 1)  

Andrew Meadows (referenced below, at pp. 342-3) catalogued all eight of the gold coins from these deposits, which he characterised as Croeseids of late type (ca. 520-500 BC): he was able to inspect six of them in Iran Bastan Museum, Tehran and to establish that their weight fell in the range 8.05-8.11 gm.  

The earliest reference to gold ‘Croeseid staters’ is found in a fragmentary inscription (IG I3 458, lines 29-30, ca. 440 BC, now in the Acropolis Museum) that seems to represent a year’s accounts for the making of Phidias' gold and ivory statue of Athena at the Parthenon in Athens.  However, coins of this type had a very long history: as John Kroll  (referenced below) pointed out:

1. “The earliest ... solid gold coins were known throughout the ancient Greek world as ‘Croeseids’, after the Lydian king, [Croesus  (561-546 BC], who introduced them.” 
   

As Koray Konuk (referenced below, at p. 49) noted that:

1. “Croesus replaced [his earlier] electrum coinage by a currency system of pure gold and pure silver coins [that were also struck at his capital] Sardis.” 
   

He pointed out (at p. 50):

1. ✴the first gold Croeseid staters weighed ca. 10.8 gm (see this example from Heritage World Coin Auctions, ANA Signature Sale 3109, 17-19th August 2023); but
   

2. ✴this was soon reduced to ca. 8.1 gm (see this exhibition schedule of two gold Croeseids, which came from a hoard of 30 almost identical coins that were excavated at Sardis in 1922.
   

Konuk observed (at p. 51) that, after the Persian conquest of Lydia in 546 BC:

1. “... the death of Croesus did not mean the end of Lydian coinage.  ... Coin hoards indicate clearly that the issues of Lydian type continued until ca. 520 BC.”
   

Matthias Hoernes (referenced below, at p. 797) similarly argued that:

1. “As most scholars agree, the Sardian mint continued to strike Croeseids for at least three decades after the death of Croesus, until almost the end of the 6th century BC.”
   

In other words, it is at least possible that Darius had himself minted the Croeseids in the foundation deposits. 

At some point, Darius began minting his own gold ‘archer’ types (known as Darics) and Margaret Cool Root (referenced below, at p. 11) established a firm terminus ante quem of 500 BC, the 22nd year of his reign.  However, a firm terminus post quem for this development has yet to be established, although it seems likely that the minting of Croeseids ceased when the minting of Darics began.

Tetradrachm of Abdera

Tetradrachm (13.31 gm) of Abdera, from the Apadana Hoard (IGCH 1789)  at Persepolis (now in Iran Bastan Museum)

Obverse: seated griffin (the civic symbol of Abdera

Reverse: Quadripartite linear square

Image from Erich Schmidt, referenced below, Plate 84, number 36, catalogued at p. 113:

also catalogued: by John May (referenced below, at p. 60 as Period I,  coin 4/1; and

by Andrew Meadows (referenced below, at p. 342, who inspected and weighed the coin)

Abdera (on the northern Aegean coast - see the map above) was a colony of the Ionian city of Teos.  According to Herodotus:

1. ✴shortly after Cyrus I had captured Lydia in 546 BC, he ordered his general Harpagus to subjugate the Greek cities of Ionia (‘Persian Wars’, 1: 162); and 
   

2. ✴rather than submit to Cyrus, the entire population of Teos:
   

3. “... sailed away for Thrace, [where] they founded a city, Abdera ...”, (‘Persian Wars’, 1: 168).
   

In fact, as set out in my page on the Coinage of Abdera, the evidence suggests that Teos actually submitted to Cyrus (along with almost all of the other Ionian cities) at this time.   However, there is no reason to doubt that Teos also sent settlers to Abdera at this time and that the two communities maintained a close relationship.  Thus, for example, both communities issued silver coinage:

1. ✴John May (referenced below, at p. 49) pointed out that the Abderites adopted the coin type that was already in used at Teos, the only difference being that:
   

2. •the griffin on the obverse that identified Teos always faced right; while
   

3. •that on the coins of Abdera always faced left; and
   

4. ✴Jonathan Kagan (referenced below, 2006, at 55) argued that:
   

5. •the Teians began minting before the Abderites, using the Milesian standard (based on the stater of Miletus of 14.15 gm.); and
   

6. •when the Abderites subsequently began minting, they used the Aeginetan standard (based on the stater of Aegina of 12.4 gm.), at which point, the Teians also adopted this standard.
   

There was, however, a glaring difference between the two coinages:

1. ✴the coinage of Teos is known from only a single stater/ tetradrachm of 14.2 gm. and a few other lower-denomination coins (although note also the otherwise unpublished tetradrachm (11,96 g) from Teos from the Elmali Hoard in the website ‘Homeland Antalya’); while
   

2. ✴from the start, the copious coinage of Abdera was dominated by octadrachms (ca. 3o gm.)and tetradrachms (such as the early example under discussion here).
   

It seems to me that the Teians probably began to ‘contract out ’ most of their coinage to their colonists soon after their arrival at Abdera” as John May (referenced below, at p. 49) pointed out, one of the attractions of Abdera for the Teians would have been that it was:

1. “... at no great distance from the famous metalliferous region of western Thrace ... That [the settlers] should have been ready to ... exploit native resources is only to be expected. ... The interval we must assume between the coming of the Teians and Abdera’s first issue need not be longer than a few years.  Her earliest coins are probably little later than 540 BC.”   
   

Jonathan Kagan (referenced below, 2006, at pp. 57-8) argued that:

1. “Given current judgments about:
   

2. •the Persepolis deposit [and thus of the date of the important early tetradrachm illustrated above]; and
   

3. •the other hoard evidence, [particularly the so-called Elmali/ Decadrachm hoard (CH 8:48)];
   

4. it is rash to date the beginning of Abdera’s coinage later than 520 BC.  How much earlier it should start is still uncertain. ... [The date of 540 BC, proposed by John May and, more recently, by Michael Matzke, both referenced below] is possible, but we need [harder] evidence to support it.
   

The key point is that the Abderites had almost certainly issued the coin illustrated above before Megabazus’ subjugation of coastal Thrace in to ca. 514-2 BC, the point being that Abdera, as a colony of Teos and largely responsible for most of its coinage, had been effectively under Persian control from ca. 540 BC. 

Stater from Aegina

Stater (12.22 gm.) from the Selinus Hoard (1985: coin 120); type given as Asyut Group II  

Obverse: Sea turtle (the civic symbol of Aegina) with thin collar and row of dots down its back 

Reverse: Incuse square with ‘Union Jack’ pattern

Image from CNG Triton 27 (9th January 2024), lot 187

According to Andrew Meadows (see below), this was the type of the stater in the Apadana Foundation Deposit 

Andrew Meadows (referenced below, at p. 342) was unable to examine the Aeginetan coin in the foundation deposit (which was in the Marble Palace Museum, Tehran).  However, he was able to describe it from photographs as a stater of Asyut group II (turtle with thin collar; Union Jack reverse). 

The coin illustrated above, which came from a hoard at Selinus on the southwestern coast of Sicily, is of the same type as that in the northeastern deposit at the Apadana.  In their publication of this Sicilian hoard, Carmen Arnold-Biucchi and her colleagues (referenced below, at p. 17) observed:

1. “The 81 Aeginetan coins [in this hoard, which were] ... all struck in the 2nd half the 6th century BC, comprise almost 50% of the hoard’s content. ... That should be present here in such relatively large numbers is nothing of remarkable.” 
   

As they pointed out (at p. 20):

1. “Aeginetan coinage in its archaic stages had little artistic merit, but it was recognised as an international currency and thus (like the owl coinage of Athens) was slow to change stylistically.”
   

The coin under discussion here belonged to their Group II (along with another 70 of the 81 Aeginetan coins in the hoard.  They argued (at p. 21) that:

1. “Group 2 coins appear to have constituted a relatively large issue, reflecting Aegina's well-established monetary position, as indicated by its representation in hoards from other areas this general period. The evidence here would indicate a briefer time span for this group than once thought.  At the same time, the Asyut date of 510 BC for the beginning of group 2 now seems too late ... [since] the closing date of the Selinus find must be placed no later than 510-500 BC. ... It is plausible that the transitions to group 2 could have occurred as early as 525-520 BC.”
   

Herodotus confessed that: 

1. “There are not many marvellous things in Lydia ..., except the gold dust that comes down from [Mount] Tmolus”, (‘Persian Wars’, 1.93).
   

However, he did conceded that:

1. “As far as we know, [the Lydians] were the first people to introduce the use of [pure] gold and [pure] silver coins [as opposed to an amalgam known as electrum or ‘white gold’] ...”, (‘Persian Wars’, 1.94).
   

In a later passage, he identified the source of Lydian gold more precisely: during the burning of Sardis in 498 BC (in the Ionian Revolt), the terrified Sardians:

1. “... crushed into the agora and to the river Pactolus [see the map at the top of the page] which flows through it: [this river carries, which down] gold dust from Tmolus, issues into the river Hermus, which flows into the sea”, (‘Persian Wars’, 5: 101). 
   

This information is amply supported by archeological evidence: as Andrew Ramage (referenced below, at p. 17) observed, the archeologists working on the Harvard-Cornell Exploration of Ancient Sardis project had recently (he was writing in 2000) discovered:

1. “... the flashiest source of the [Lydian] luxury that fascinated the Greeks: the gold bullion and coin of Croesus ...: not the treasury, not the royal jeweller’s atelier, not even the mint  has come to light. ... [However, the archeologists have] found a yet more fascinating place: a workshop where the grains and dust of native gold were processed to ... gold of an almost perfect fineness ... from alluvial gold [dredged from the Pactolus that] contained substantial amounts of silver and sometimes copper.”
   

This refinery represented the technology that had famously made Croesus the richest man in the world.

Ramage index Herodotus

Margaret Cool Root (referenced below, at p. 11) argued that these eight coins: 

1. “... which were evocative of the acquired wealth of Lydia, seem a fitting inclusion [in the foundation deposits, alongside the] inscribed tablets of gold and silver proudly proclaiming an empire that stretched from [India] all the way to Sardis.”
   

On this argument, the Croeseids commemorated the fact that the Persians had subjugated the hugely wealthy territory of Lydia.  However, the inscriptions also recorded that the empire that also stretched from ‘Saka beyond Sogdia’ all the way to Ethiopia.  In this context, it seems unlikely that the subjugation of Lydia would have been commemorated in at least two of the probable four foundation deposits, not least because, as Matthias Hoernes (referenced below, at p. 806) pointed out:

1. “... all four ‘frontier’ regions that project the expansion of the empire in the foundation text (the region of the Saka beyond Sogdia, Kush/Nubia, Hindush/India, and Sparda/Lydia) were closely associated with gold resources.”
   

Indian gold bearer from the eastern staircase of the Apadana in Persepolis (electronically enhanced)

Image from Thomas Reimer (referenced below, Figure 1, at p. 58)

The case of India is particularly relevant here: Herodotus recorded that:

1. ✴India was also rich in gold:
   

2. “[The northern Indians] are charged with the getting of the gold ...[from the local] desert, [where there are] ants that are smaller than  dogs but bigger than foxes. ... These ants live underground... and the sand that they expel for their holes is full of gold ... So when the Indians come to the place with their sacks, they fill these with the sand and quickly ride away because (as the Persians say) the ants soon smell them and give chase ... Most of the gold (say the Persians) is acquired in this way by the Indians; there is some besides that they dig from mines in their country, but it is less abundant. ... [In short], the gold in India - whether dugout of the earth, or brought down by rivers, or [collected in the sand expelled from ant holes] - is very abundant”, (‘Persian Wars’, 3: 102-6); and
   

3. ✴much of it found its way into the imperial coffers:
   

4. “The Indians made up the 20th province.  Their population is larger than that of any other nation known to me, and they paid a greater tribute than any other province, namely 360 talents of gold dust”, (‘Persian Wars’, 3: 94).
   

The so-called tribute reliefs of the Apadana are also interesting in this context:

1. ✴the northern and eastern staircases had identical reliefs of 23 delegations bringing tribute to Darius; and
   

2. ✴slides 30-33 of this webpage of the University of Chicageo Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures relate to the depiction of a five-man Indian delegation (which is led by a Persian official).
   

Thomas Reimer (referenced below, at p. 62) pointed out that the second of the Indian delegates (depicted above):

1. “... carries over his shoulder a pole from which two baskets, each weighing about 13.5 kg, are hanging.  From the degree of bending of the pole, it can be concluded that the bags in the two baskets must have contained a heavy granular material. With a reconstructed bulk density of about 6.25 kg/litre this can only have been gold.  As the [putative] gold bearer is depicted in the reliefs, the gold must have been something rather special, i.e. most probably the gold ‘stolen from the ants’ in desert areas of the mountain ranges to the north of India.”
   

Ethiopian delegation from the eastern staircase of the Apadana in Persepolis (electronically enhanced)

Image from Thomas Reimer (referenced below, Figure 4, at p. 61)

Herodotus also recorded that:

1. “Ethiopia is located where the sun sets, at the southwest edge of the known world; the land here produces great quantities of gold ...”, (‘Persian Wars’, 3: 114).
   

If the gold that the Indians sent to Persia (as tribute or perhaps in mercantile exchanges) was generally in the form of gold dust, then it was presumably refined at Sardis, 

An anecdote that Herodotus illuminates the importance that he attributed to his gold coinage at Sardis (which continued with his gold ‘Darics (ca. 8.4 gm.). The anecdote relates to related about Aryandes, who had been appointed satrap of Egypt by Cambyses, Darius’ predecessor, and reinstated by Darius himself after an Egyptian revolt in 522-518 BC.  Herodotus related that: 

“This Aryandes ... had seen that Darius was determined to leave a memorial of himself that was unlike that of any king before him: ...  for he had refined a quantity of gold to an extreme purity and used it to strike the most valuable coins.  Aryandes ... [decided to emulate him], but with silver.  Even today, the the purest silver is called ‘Aryandic’.  But, when Darius heard what Aryandes was doing, he had him executed, not on this charge, but as a rebel”, (‘Persian Wars’, 4: 166).

I will return to the matter of Aryandic silver below: for the moment, we should note that, according to Herodotus, Darius was convinced that the pure gold that was

extracted at Sardis from from alluvial gold using ‘state-of-the-art technology; and

used there for the minting of his Croeseids and Darics;

represented an extraordinary ‘memorial’ to his achievements.  

Ethiopia (‘Persian Wars’, 3: 114)

Saka (‘Persian Wars’, 3: 102-6)

Silver Coinage in the Deposits

This begs the following question: why did Darius choose these particular coins (including ‘our’ coin from Abdera) to accompany the inscribed tablets in the two deposits: as Matthias Hoernes (referenced below, at p. 805) aptly pointed out:

1. “In contrast to a [conventional] hoard, the selection and number of objects included in a deposit [such as this] are not arbitrary: ... [they] are the result of conscious choice, the more so as coinage was then a recent invention’ ...”
   

John May (referenced below, at p. 52) described the Abderite tetradrachm as one of the most elegant of the earliest Abderite coins. 

Peter van Alfen

Price silver refining

Aryandes

Miletus / Aegina standards

Myrcinus

Cyprus web page  favourites new computer

Naucratis

May Abdera hoards Egypt

Cyprus

Herodotus:

1. “The 5th province included the country between:
   

2. ✴Posideium (a city founded on the border between Cilicia and Syria ...) and
   

3. ✴Egypt (except the part belonging to the Arabians, which paid no tribute).
   

4. This [5th province. which] paid 350 talents, included: all of Phoenicia; Palestinian Syria; and Cyprus”, (‘Persian Wars’, 3: 91: 1)
   

Evidence from Susa

text 

DSf, Susa encyclopedia, Susa Jona Lendering