Today, I will be delivering this presentation on behalf of my co-authors Dr. Tim Penn,
Professor Damian Robinson and Franck Goodio on the lead tokens which have recently come up
from underwater excavations of a former temple of Isis on the royal island of
Antirhodos in Alexandria which collapsed into the sea and was rediscovered by the IEASM,
the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology in the 1990s who have subsequently been excavating it
with the support of the Hilti Foundation. While the temple from which these objects have come is
in many ways remarkable, producing a whole array of material culture and this has just been published
by professor Robinson and Mr. Goddio, the lead tokens from this temple represent a unique and important
assemblage in the study of the material culture of the Graeco-Roman period in Egypt. Lead tokens
are an understudied element of Egyptian material culture, because few have been published and fewer
can be associated with detailed contexts. And this article presents for the first time a large
and important new assemblage of lead tokens with contextual information from the temple of Isis
in Alexandria. It therefore represents the largest provenanced collection of tokens from Roman Egypt,
considerably adding to the study of this historically underexamined object type. Its
provenance from a modern excavation also allows us to explore the contextual data around tokens
to a much greater degree, shedding light on the possible role and function of tokens within the
sanctuary and more widely the function of tokens in Roman Egypt in general. We came to the
conclusion that these lead tokens were probably not used as substitution coinage which has
been the most widely accepted argument around their function but they rather seem to relate
to a function within the sanctuary itself either as votives or possibly as banqueting tokens.
Okay, I'm just going to give a brief overview of the current state of knowledge about lead tokens
because you may not have necessarily encountered these objects before. And as you can see from the
first picture on this slide, they are typically circular monetiform, which means they resemble
coinage, but they are usually made of lead for the most part in Egypt. They are similar in size,
shape, and motif choices to coinage, but certainly not identical. And here lies an important
distinction. Although Ptolemaic coinage, for example, could occasionally have a very high lead content,
the tokens appear to be exclusively made of lead, not in other materials such as bronze.
They also lack the typical legends that we find on coinage and they also don't follow
consistent weight standard nor do they feature the imperial or sovereign ruler portraits which are
quite a definitive feature of coinage. Their usage in Egypt appears to be mostly attested
from the Roman imperial period, although there are a few instances which may suggest earlier
usage and indeed elsewhere in the Mediterranean, they are already used by the Hellenistic period as
in Athens and Greece. At the moment there are around 600 published tokens from Egypt in the
existing literature of which however only a fraction come from provenanced contexts and
even those are largely from rubbish dumps. So they are not in their primary use context. The
largest assemblage of tokens with an excavation context come from Roman Oxyrhynchus which you
can see here on the map. But these are again from rubbish contexts. And on this map you can observe
the different attestations of tokens in Egypt with most coming from middle Egypt tombs but
also some from tombs and temple contexts. We also note on this map that there was previously
only a single token attested from the delta from Aboukir Bay. So the addition of this new
material will radically change the look of this map. And you can now see here that the
largest cluster is in fact from Alexandria. And in fact there's another group of the same size
which has been found at Thonis-Heracleion which will be the subject of future work.
And just to give a brief impression of the context where the tokens were found, they
come from the Iseum which you can see here on this map of the Portus Magnus in Alexandria. And we have
the large harbor basin with the Pharos lighthouse somewhere on the left. And we have an island
in the middle of the harbor, which was called Antirhodos Island with a temple of Isis which has
been excavated by the IEASM on the island. And this island was set to have housed a royal palace with
a small harbor and appears to have been a private reserve of the Ptolemies up until the Roman conquest.
And this is exactly where the temple of Isis is located here circled in red. The island and
many of the other structures on the map are today underwater following a combination of different
factors including natural sea level rise but also catastrophic events which affected the stability
of the soil. They were reidentified following extensive surveying of the seafloor which revealed
the ancient contours of the island. Excavation then revealed a series of building remains which
appear to have collapsed into the sea south of Antirhodos Island. And it's from this material
that the tokens have been identified mixed with building remains and other objects which appear
to have belonged to the temple formally. The temple was identified as belonging to Isis
based on a series of finds including this very well preserved statue of a priest
bearing Osiris Canopus which appears to have been located towards the inner sanctuary of the temple.
And here we have a closeup resolution of the material from the temple and its former
position on the island. The temple appears to have collapsed laterally into the sea,
but finds which fell into the water still mirror the positioning of objects on land. We can see
a large cluster of red granite columns from the entrance of the temple to the far left,
followed by lots of limestone blocks from the temple building itself, which is also
mixed with architectural decor, suggesting that this was a Greekstyle building fronted by two
rows of four granite columns. Among this debris of collapsed material were also the remains of wall
paintings of Pompeian first style which suggests that the temple underwent extensive redecoration
in the Augustan period. The tokens here marked in gray on this map were spread out across
the entire temple building it seems with large clusters particularly towards the entrance and
the very rear of the building following largely the outline of where the treasury may have been.
Numerous coin finds were also among the finds from the temple attesting to the riches and wealth of
the sanctuary which in addition to the ceramic finds from the temple also help us follow the
chronology of the building and its collapse into the sea. They suggest that the temple had been
constructed towards the end of the Ptolemaic period, was redecorated and actively used in the early
imperial period and likely collapsed during the reign of Claudius. Since the tokens form part
of the strata of collapse debris, this gives us a terminus ante quem for their usage, meaning that they
must have been largely produced and used before the end of Claudius's reign.
Now moving on to our discussion of the tokens themselves. Here we have some
illustrations of the tokens and what they look like. Just to explain, the tokens are in lead,
which is great anyway. But the images here are also in black and white. And these are
just not not normal photographs. They are in fact RTI images which stands for
reflectance transformation imaging, which helps us better identify the details of these small
objects which can be extremely difficult to see because lead is so malleable and have been
the objects have been heavily weathered in many cases. Sometimes the detail can be very
crisp and clear as you can see towards the mid left but other times the motif depicted
is only barely legible. So these RTI images gives us an overview of the different states
of preservation which we encountered among the material among which some were completely
illeible. And in some cases there was also clearly a motif visible but we weren't able to
identify the motif with certainty. In part, it may be the case that we need more familiarity
with numismatic motifs and motifs on other small objects such as gemstones and intaglios, but in part
this is also the nature of the tokens which are not restricted in their iconography to numismatic
motifs and are more cryptic by nature anyway because they don't have identifying legends.
Now breaking down the iconography of the tokens a little bit here we have a distribution chart
of some 178 examples which were actually legible because many were not sufficiently well preserved
and the clear majority of the tokens depict the syncretic cult imagery of the Graeco-Roman period.
This is figures like Serapis who is a composite of various Greek and Egyptian cults and also Osiris,
the Apis bull, Hades and Zeus. 47 of the tokens displayed fully classical imagery such as Athena
and the Dioskouroi. While 19 depicted more traditional Egyptian motifs such as animals
wearing solar discs in front of offering tables. But as we can see here, the Egyptian motifs were
definitely a much smaller group, clearly pointing to the strong Greek influence on the sanctuary,
which is to be expected given its location in Alexandria and is part of the Ptolemaic royal
quarters. Now, further breaking down the iconography of the tokens based on specific
motifs, Nilus, the personification of the Nile, was by far the most recurring motif. He was shown
in a number of different ways. Most commonly as a bearded half figure reclining with a cornucopia in
one hand, a bare chest and a variety of different attributes in the other hand, but always in a
stylistically Greek manner as opposed to the Egyptian pharaonic personification of the Nile,
which is the god Hapy. He is often shown with aquatic plants like papyrus or lotus on his head
and sometimes holding offerings of food. At other times, a Nilus was shown as a full reclining figure,
sometimes on top of a crocodile, and in other tokens, he's shown simply as a bust. His female
companion, Euthenia, was also represented a number of times, although much less often than Nilus,
similarly shown reclining with a cornucopia. The second most common motif was Serapis,
shown either as a bearded bust wearing a grain modios or as a full enthroned figure,
also with a grain modius. Other recurring motifs included Zeus-Amon, the Agathodaemon, animal figures,
inanimate motifs such as ships and buildings with some of the tokens possibly depicting
the temple itself. Worth noting here is that this chart however refers to the number of
identified motifs which is not equal to the number of tokens nor of legible tokens.
So reflecting on this breakdown of the iconography, we've seen from the charts
that most of the tokens depict religious iconography, particularly the syncretic
deities of the Greco Roman period. First and foremost, the personification of the Nile River,
Nilus, with another example of Nilus on the tokens being shown here in the left of the screen. And
I want to explore a little bit why this subject may have been so popular in what was likely
a sanctuary of Isis as sanctuaries of Nilus are relatively uncommon in this period.
Firstly, both Isis and her male companion Sarapis- Osiris became heavily associated with the Nile
flood. Both being fertility figures with Isis becoming increasingly identified as the foreign
solar goddess whose return to Egypt brings with it the fertile life-giving Nile flood. Osiris as the
husband of Isis was also connected to the rising of the Nile flood as some myths link the blood
slain during the murder of Osiris with the rising of the Nile flood. Nilus as the personification
of the Nile flood is already depicted as a motif on Hellenistic coinage though mostly only in his
bust form. In the imperial period, particularly in the first to second century CE, this motif becomes
extremely popular on coinage in Alexandria. The popularity of this imagery further extends in the
area around Alexandria. And we can see here on the left one of the most beautiful finds of the IEASM
which was a tondo of the god Nilus in a very fine greystone called greywacke at Canopus some
30 kilometers to the east of Alexandria. And this association of Nilos with the cults of Isis and
Sarapis further extended into the Mediterranean beyond Egypt as is attested by the wall painting
which you can see here on the right, where we see Nilus together with Isis shown seated. The
role of Nile water appears to have been crucial during both Isaic and Serapic rights of the period
with cult followers supposedly going so far as to even import Nile water into Italy for their
rituals. Moreover, a recurring feature of Isis and Sarapis sanctuaries for this period is the
presence of Nilometers with the level of the Nile and its flood being important features for the
cult. Evidently then there was a strong connection between the cult of Nilus who is the most commonly
depicted motif on the tokens and the cults of Isis and Sarapis in the Greco Roman period hinting
perhaps at a religious rather than a secular or mundane function of these objects. We will
now explore the possible function of the tokens within the sanctuary of Isis here in Alexandria.
So previously lead tokens in Egypt were primarily interpreted as substitute
currency. This hypothesis started with some of the earliest studies of these objects
undertaken by the numismatist Milne who published several important groups of tokens from Egypt.
And he seems to have based this hypothesis on two main strands of evidence. First of course
the coin-like appearance of many of the tokens which are disc shaped and bare images on the
obverse and reverse like coins. Secondly, the presence of lead tokens in rubbish dumps at
Oxyrhynchus in contexts where coins are rare between 180 to 260 CE. and taken together,
Milne concluded that these finds filled in the numismatic gap in which coins were scarce.
This interpretation has been largely accepted in the relevant literature but was recently
challenged by Denise Wilding in her 2020 thesis on tokens which argued that firstly many lead tokens
from Egypt do not conform to standard numismatic conventions and often they actually feature two
obverse designs such as portraits or two reverse designs. We also note that imperial portraits
which are an important feature of coinage are largely absent from tokens. Secondly,
there are lead tokens from other contexts which are also dated to earlier periods when coins were
not so obviously scarce as is indeed the case for the tokens from the Iseum in Alexandria, which
are earlier in date than the numismatic gap of Milne and are in fact associated with abundant
coinage. And thirdly, since Roman coinage under the early empire adhered to Ptolemaic standards,
we might expect that any lead substitute coinage would follow this lead standard. However,
when graphed according to weight and diameters, this doesn't seem to be the case. There doesn't
seem to be a clear weight standard, which you can see from this rather scattered plot.
Moreover, I would like to point out that here we have the largest assemblage of provenanced tokens
coming from a variety of different sanctuaries both from the temple of Isis. There were also
quite a few from the temple of Posidon also in the Portus Magnus and also excavated by the IEASM. And
there's another group of some 450 lead tokens from the sanctuary of Amun in Thonis-Heracleion. While
a substantial number of tokens were found in the rubbish dumps in Oxyrhynchus, we have here actually
doubled this number, all coming from sanctuaries, pointing perhaps rather to a relationship with
those sanctuaries than use in daily life. However, we need to of course also consider
that the tokens are highly portable, so they could end up in all sorts of secondary contexts.
If there remains the notable contextual relationship between
the tokens and religious settings, this leads us
on to explore an alternative idea that the tokens perhaps served as votives.
And an important case study which may help illuminate the function of lead tokens in Egypt
are the tokens from Qasr Ibrim now in Sudan which were found together with coins around a plinth
which is likely to have held the statue of a deity and the objects around it appear to
have been deposited in a non haphazard manner and were still in situ. And in this respect,
it's also worth noting that coins were used as relatives in sanctuaries, especially in Greece
and potentially also in Egypt, as we may hear from this passage in Pausanias, which suggests
that coins may have been used as votives in reference to an Apis sanctuary at Memphis. So
it's conceivable that the tokens could have indeed acted as a form of substitution for coinage but
not so much for commercial transactions than as votives in the religious domain and indeed
at the Serapeum which is probably the sanctuary that Pausanias refers to in Memphis lead tokens
were found. Similarly, in the so-called best chambers at Saqqara near the Memphite Serapeum
which appear to have also been cult installations, several lead tokens
featuring a bull on the obverse and Serapis on the reverse were found with a range of votive objects.
Furthermore, the discovery of the lead tokens from the Iseum mixed with animal bones and
coins would fit a votive context with the animal bones possibly deriving from sacrifice
or feasting, the coins as possible votives or as part of the treasury of the temple.
An alternative possibility is however that the tokens were used as banqueting or festival
tickets, a phenomenon which is attested in other other parts of the ancient world. For example,
in Palmyra, tokens are attested as banqueting tickets based on inscribed invitations,
often alongside depictions of reclining priests. Unfortunately, the tokens from Alexandria are
not so explicit and they lack inscriptions of the kind attested at Palmyra. However,
we know that religious banqueting was an important phenomenon for the Greco Roman period in Egypt.
The papyrological evidence references to banqueting at the Serapeum and at the sanctuary of Athena
Theeris at Oxyrhynchus, which is in fact the site where the largest collection of lead tokens was
found, otherwise. Lead tokens from Egypt bear inscriptions that may refer to the Agoranomoy,
paralleling tokens from Athens, where they have been linked to religious banquetss
in recent scholarship. Religious festivals such as the Ptolemaia and Nile flood festivals
also heavily involved banqueting and feasting as recounted by Callixenus of
Rhodes' description of the elaborate feasting during the procession of Ptolemy II. Similarly,
this scene from the Palestrina mosaic has been interpreted as a group of soldiers about
to commence with feasting stood before a temple that is quite comparable to the Iseum and also on
an island right by the water. That at least some of the lead tokens could have been entry tickets
to religious banquetss on Antirhodos Island would fit well with the abundant animal bones,
ceramics, and lamps which have been found in the area. Notably, analysis of the animal bones
from the Iseum have shown no traces of burning on the bones, though butchering marks and other traces
of preparation of the meat for consumption are present. This absence of burning on the
bones might indicate the use of animals for consumption rather than simply for sacrifice.
We may also note that many of the tokens from Alexandria carry unique motif choices
or combinations of motifs and seemingly all originate from different series. If
at least some of the tokens were used as entry tickets for specific events,
this individuality would make a lot of sense as each series was specific to a particular
event. In this way, while the tokens by nature remain cryptic with regard to their function,
both a votive function or a ticket function within the temple could be envisaged.
And lastly to conclude this assemblage of 253 lead tokens from the temple of Isis and Alexandria with
around a total of 500 from the Portus Magnus adds considerably to the corpus of provenance material
shedding light on the possible function of such objects. Either a votive or ticket function are
the most plausible within the temple at present while use of substitution coinage for daily
transaction appears rather unconvincing. However, we note that the tokens remain cryptic by nature.
They lack legends and diverge significantly from the corpus of numismatic motifs and require great
familiarity in the iconography of the time period, especially with other small media such
as intaglios and gems. Most likely, they were made for an insider audience who were familiar with
the motifs and didn't require legends to recognize the subject. The vivid culture of token use at the
temple of Isis illustrates the active use of these objects in the sanctuaries of the Portus Magnus
particularly towards the end of the Imperial Period. And hopefully we have also demonstrated
that lead tokens are an exciting object type which deserve more attention and future study. Indeed,
a major problem to the research of tokens has been the lack of detailed recording and
interest in them. Find spots are rarely known. description of motifs tend to be very schematic
and it's quite plausible that many tokens were simply not recorded at all because of
the use of lead which was not of interest to many early excavators. So, thank you very much.