2013/03/01 by David M. Jacobson · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Archaeology and Historical Studies #Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History #Rose (mathematics) #Art #Horticulture #Biology
paper · doi:10.5615/neareastarch.76.1.0016
openalex publication_date 2013/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Following the fall of Babylon to Cyrus the Great in 539 b.c.e., Judah was reconstituted as an administrative unit of the Persian Empire. It maintained its semi-autonomous status under the leadership of the high priests of Jerusalem until Alexander the Great's conquest of the southern Levant in 333/332 b.c.e., when Judah passed to Macedonian control. It was relatively late during the period of Persian dominion, sometime between 375 and 333 b.c.e., that Yehud began to issue its own coinage in the form of minute silver pieces. One coin type features a stylized lily. Flowers reappear on later Judean issues, and scholars have generally taken it more or less for granted that these, too, are lilies. This article will demonstrate that the flower on several of the coins struck by Hasmonaean rulers of Judea in the latter part of the second—first century b.c.e. is, in fact, a rose modeled on the floral emblem of the island state of Rhodes. Possible reasons for this particular choice will be presented and explained.