The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 2, January 8, 2006, Article 15

TURKISH MUSEUM PONDERS MYSTERY OF GOLD COINS OF PERGAMAN

Arthur Shippee forwarded the following from The Explorator
Newsletter: "One of two surviving golden coins stamped
during the period of the foundation of the Kingdom of
Pergamon is being exhibited at the Eregli Archaeology
Museum in Konya."

"Pergamon was an ancient city founded on the Aegean coast
of Anatolia at the site of the present-day city of Bergama.
Located 100 kilometers north of Izmir in the Bakirçay River
basin, Bergama is one of Turkey's oldest civilized settlements,
inhabited from pre-historic times through the periods of the
Ionic, Roman and Byzantine civilizations."

"Stressing that only two golden coins remain from that time,
Bilici said the one exhibited in the Eregli Archaeology Museum
was unearthed from a tomb on a hill located five kilometers
east of Eregli during excavations in the region in 1974.

"This golden coin, along with some other finds from the
same tomb, is being exhibited at our museum. It'll be worthwhile
to put these coins and the other unearthed items under
comprehensive technical observation, as according to the age's
religious beliefs coins were put into tombs for the dead as a
gift to be given to the keeper of the Sirat Bridge," he said.
"However, it's a great secret as to how the coins came from
Bergama to a central Anatolian settlement."

Bilici said Eregli will also be a place of major interest
for archaeologists and art historians from all around the
world if the body found in the tomb is proven to be one of
Alexander the Great's commanders, as some archaeologists presume."

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  Wayne Homren, Editor

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