Herodes the Great, King

Jerusalem

3 Minas

Limestone

Carved

Disc or similar (ellipse, etc.)

11.60 cm

11.60 cm

4.50 cm

Mass (g)	Mass (grain)	Date of measurement	Reference	fragmented	cleaned	reference weight
1233.00	-	-	Meshorer 1970	No	No	Yes

Symbol	Technique	Direction	Position	Number	Synecdoche

Meshorer 1970: Round limestone weight. […] The stone is 11.6 cm in diameter, is 4.5 cm high and weighs 1233 gr. The inscription is not very deeply incised, but the strokes of the letters are quite wide. The lettering is somewhat clumsy and far from calligraphic. The inscription is composed on one line running around the field on top, and two horizontal lines within: L ΛΒ ΒΑϹ ΗΡ ΕV ΦΙΛΟΚ/ΑΓΟΡ/ΜΝΑ ΤΡ. An additional sign in a different technique seems to have been added at a later date. The inscription is composed of abbreviations which may be interpreted as follows: LΛΒ ΒΑϹ[ΙΛΕΩϹ] ΗΡ[ΩΔΟV] ΕV[ΕΡΓΕΤΟV?] ΦΙΛΟΚ[ΑΙϹΑΡΟϹ] / ΑΓΟΡ[ΑΝΟΜΟV] ΜΝΑ ΤΡ[ΙΑ]. – “Year 32 of King Herod, the Benefactor, Loyal to Caesar. Inspector of Markets. Three Minas.”
CIIP I, 1: Stone weight of squat cylindrical shape. One of the faces bears an inscription in three lines. One line runs along the borders, reading inward. Two other lines are placed in the centre, one under another. Along the border: ΗΡ in ligature, square sigma; in the centre: ΜΝ in ligature. Meas.: ⌀ 11.6, th 4.5 cm; wt 1233 gm. Pres. loc: Israel Museum, Jerusalem, inv. no. 53475a; IAA inv. no. 1968-119. Autopsy: 2000. Along the border: LΛΒΒΑΣΗΡΕΥΦΙΛΟΚ. In the centre: ΑΓΟΡ | ΜΝΑ Τ(?). “Year thirty-two of the king Herod, Pious and Friend of Caesar. Mina of the market.”

No

Language	Technique	Legend type
		Authority, Date, Denomination

(Ἔτους) λβ´, βασ(ιλέως) Ἡρ(ῴδου) Εὐ(σεβοῦς) Φιλοκ(αίσαρος) | ἀγορ(ανόμων) | μνα(ῖ) γ´. “Year 32 of the king Herod, Pious and Friend of Caesar. 3 minas of the agoranomoi.”
Εὐ(σεβοῦς) Kushnir-Stein 1995: Εὐ(εργέτου?) Meshorer 1970
ἀγορ(ανόμων) Doyen: ἀγορ(ανόμου) Meshorer 1970: ἀγορ(αία?) Kushnir-Stein 1995
μνα(ῖ) γ´ Doyen: μνᾶ τρ(ία) [rectius: τρ(εῖς)] Meshorer 1970 μνᾶ (τ ?) Kushnir-Stein (CIIP I, 1)

ROMAN

FROM -37 TO -4

Meshorer 1970: Year 32 = 9 BCE (the era beginning in 40 BCE). Reign of Herodes the Great (37–4 BCE).

Name	Date of acquisition	Inventory number
Israel Antiquities Authority (Jerusalem)	Dec. 31, 1967	1968–119
Israel Museum (Jerusalem)	None	53475a

Reference	Page/Column	Reference (number)	Plate / Figure	Comment
Meshorer 1970	97–98	None	pl. 27A	None
AÉ 1972	214	672	None	None
Hestrin et al. 1973	None	228	None	(non vidi)
Kushnir-Stein 1995a	83–84	None	None	None
SEG 45	565	1933	None	None
CIIP I, 1	660–661	666	None	None

CIIP I, 1: The sign after ΜΝΑ is unclear. Meshorer read it as a ligature of ΤΡ and interpreted it as τρ(ία). However, what can be clearly discerned of the sign are a long vertical bar with a short horizontal bar at its upper end. The sign resembles a gamma (Γ) with part of the upper horizontal bar protruding to the left, or, alternatively, a tau (Τ) with assymetrically placed horizontal bar. There is a kind of small round bulge on the right side close to this horizontal bar. Whether the sign as a whole can be interpreted as the ligature of tau and rho is questionable.