Turkmenia, Margiana V, c. 2500-2000 BC. A round carved alabaster stamp seal.

Turkmenia, Margiana V, c. 2500-2000 BC. A round carved alabaster stamp seal with a drilled design of a seated man; his arms and legs akimbo.  The edge is serrated and the raised loop (for suspension) on the back was broken  off in antiquity. D:22 mm. See Sarianidi, Die Kunst Des Alten Afghanistan, p. 253, fig 86 on bottom. Considerable work was invested in this seal.

A seal.  It comes from Turkmenia which is another way of referring to Turkmenistan, one of the (now) independent central Asian republics.  Margiana is an area familiar to ancient historians.  It's about 500 miles east of the southern end of the Caspian Sea.  There is a modern town there called Mary (or Merv), which preserves the root of the word Margiana.  The V probably indicates date and is saying that this seal comes from the fifth phase (or period) of this particular culture.  Detailed work on this culture has really only started in the last quarter of the 20th century.  So its chronology is still vague.   A Russian archaeologist called Sarianidi is the big name associated with it.  Phase five roughly equates to the second half of the third millennium BC, c2500-2000.

The Kingdom of Macedon. AR Tetradrachm of 125 - 65 BC. Mesembria, Thrace. 16.21g. Head of Herakles rt., wearing lion's skin. / Zeus seated lt., holding an eagle and sceptre, monograms below arm and seat. Price 1103. a VF with attractive toning and a busy reverse.

A Greek coin.   It is true that Alexander the Great was king of Macedon and that he ruled from 336 to 323 BC. AR is short for argentum, silver.  It is a silver coin.  16.21 g is the weight in grams.  Tetradrachm is the denomination - four drachmas, a coin with considerable purchasing power.  Mesembria is a Greek city on the Black sea coast of modern Bulgaria (it's Nesebar today).  In the period 125 to 65 BC, when the coin was produced, Mesembria  was in the kingdom of Thrace, which was not yet part of the Roman empire.  Mesembria would have been a trading city; so an independent coinage would have been important to it.  On the obverse (ie the front side), there is a head of Heracles, facing the right (rt.) and wearing a lion's skin (he's often so depicted; it's probably the Nemean lion, one of his twelve labours). On the other side (the reverse), there is Zeus seated on a throne, with symbols of his authority as father of gods and men, as usual an eagle (symbolizing his rule over the sky) and here a sceptre (indicating that what he says goes).  Alexander the Great is depicted with tousled hair(?) however it is true that all subsequent rulers to Alexander the Great liked to associate themselves with Alexander because he had been so extraordinarily successful.

 

Rome. Aurelian. 270-275 AD

Antoninianus. 271 AD. Serdica. 4.16 g.

A Roman coin.

'Rome' indicates that this is a Roman coin.  Aurelian was emperor from 270 to 275 AD; one of his claims to fame was that he built the walls around the city of Rome; they are still standing.  Antoninianus is the name of a certain type of coin of the third century AD, introduced by the emperor Caracalla, one of whose names was Antoninus.  Hence (perhaps) the word antoninianus.   271 AD is the particular year in which the coin was produced and Serdica is the ancient name of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.  It was an important town in the Roman province of Moesia which roughly equated to Bulgaria;  It is probable that there was a mint there and that this coin was a product of that.