Archaeologists Found a Secret Stash of Gold Coins That Rewrite the History of War (2024)

• Gold coins buried in a small pot and dated to the fifth century B.C. were discovered in modern-day Turkey.
• Archaeologists believe that the coins—based on their location underneath a Helensitic house—were meant to pay off mercenaries.
• Fighting between the Persian and Athenian armies in the ancient Greek city of Notion could explain the existence of these coins and the fact that they were still buried.

Mercenary armies weren’t cheap in the Greek city of Notion during the fifth century B.C.—especially with the Persian and Athenian fighters waging a front-line battle in the area. Getting a little extra muscle in the conflict likely required having a bit of spare cash on hand, and archaeologists recently uncovered some of that loot in the form of a hoard of gold coins, which they found buried in a small pot in western Turkey.

According to researchers led by the University of Michigan, the gold coins—which were originally discovered in 2023, but only recently okayed for publication by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism—depict a kneeling archer. The archer was a key signature of the Persian daric, issued by the Persian Empire and potentially minted during the fifth century B.C. about 60 miles northeast of Notion in the ancient city of Sardis.

The fact that this literal pot of gold was even found shows that an unlikely scenario befell the owner.

“The discovery of such a valuable find in a controlled archaeological excavation is very rare,” said Christopher Ratte, professor of ancient Mediterranean art and archaeology and director of the Notion Archaeological Survey, the project that discovered the coins, in a statement. “No one ever buries a hoard of coins, especially precious metal coins, without intending to retrieve it. So only the gravest misfortune can explain the preservation of such a treasure.”

That grave misfortune could have come in the form of the very thing that experts believe the coins were intended for: war.

According to the Greek historian Xenophon, a single daric was equivalent to a soldier’s pay for one month. Finding a hoard of the coins indicates the possibility that it may have been part of the payment to mercenary troops around Notion.

While Ratte admitted that the evidence for the mercenary theory is “circ*mstantial,” he believes the timing adds up. Notion—along with other Greek cities on the west coast of present-day Turkey—became part of the Persian Empire in the mid-sixth century B.C. Then, come the early fifth century B.C., it came under Greek control. That didn’t last too long, however, as the early fourth century B.C. saw it return to Persian command until the conquest of Alexander the Great in 334 B.C.

All this back-and-forth rule made Notion the front lines of conflict, with Greek historians chronicling the use of barbarian mercenaries during Athenian vs. Persian skirmishes. It is battles like these that could have warranted an army collecting enough daric to pay for additional assistance, but any sort of defeat could have meant that the owners of the coins weren’t able to retrieve them, leaving... say... a pot of coins to be found centuries later.

Of course, the mercenary idea isn’t the only theory in play. As Notion was an important military harbor, the coins could have been part of payment to help build out the waterfront. If a tragedy befell the owner of the hoard, the coins would have simply remained secretly buried.

The history of the daric started in the sixth century and lasted until Alexander the Great’s control began around 330 B.C. The design of the coins remained relatively similar, with only minor stylistic differences in play. Using the new coins—and the independent dating of the coins, thanks to additional artifacts found nearby—to help highlight those style shifts should help set up a distinct timeline for the daric.

“This hoard,” Ratte said, “will provide a firm date that can serve as an anchor to help fix the chronology of the [entire sequence of coins].”

“If it can be established accurately by other means, to allow us to fine-tune the chronology of the Achaemenid gold coinage,” said Andrew Meadows, former curator of coins at the British Museum and the American Numismatic Society and now at Oxford University, in a statement. “This is a spectacular find […] of the highest importance.”