Reports indicate that a collection of Hellenistic coins dating back to the era of Alexander the Great in northern Syria have been found by a local man.
According to reports from the Global Arab Network and Associated Press, a local man found the coins near Najm Castle in the Manbej area in Aleppo governorate, as he was preparing his land for construction, uncovering a bronze box that contained around 250 coins.
He promptly delivered the coins to the authorities who in turn delivered them to Aleppo Department of Archaeology and Museum.
Yousef Kanjo, the director of archaeological excavations at Aleppo Department of Archaeology and Museum, said that the box contained two groups of silver Hellenistic coins: 137 tetra drachma (four drachmas) coins and 115 drachma coins.
One side of the tetra drachma coins depicts Alexander the Great, while the other side depicts the Greek god Zeus sitting on a throne with an eagle on his outstretched right arm.
34 of these coins bear the inscription “King Alexander” in Greek, while 81 coins bear the inscription “Alexander” and 22 coins bear “King Phillip.”
The drachma coins bear the same images as the tetra drachma, with “Alexander” inscribed on 100 of them and “Philip” on 15 of them.
After Alexander the Great’s conquests, many of the successor kingdoms in the Middle East adopted drachmas as their currency.
“The discovery is extremely important and would be added to our archaeological treasures that date back to the Hellenic era,” said Youssef Kanjo, the head of archaeological excavations in the ancient city of Aleppo.
