Athens’s oldest coins reveal an ancient, widespread silver trade
Sunday, March 9, 2025 - 16:54
in Paleontology & Archaeology
Before Athens adopted the world’s first form of democratic government, it was ruled by the tyrant Peisistratos in the sixth century B.C.E. The well-connected Greek politician had been exiled from the city numerous times but finally amassed the power—and money, in the form of silver—needed to raise an army, return, and take charge. Historians have wondered how the exiled Peisistratos managed to set up silver mining operations given that hostile local tribes controlled the region and its mines. A new analysis of the oldest Athenian silver coins recently published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences suggests an answer: He outsourced it. Researchers analyzed 22 ancient coins, known as wappenmünzen ...