1. Discover
  2. The Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BC
  3. Week 6 - Imperial Connectivity

BSH19: Fragment of silver sheet, from the Black Sea hoard

Commentary
BSH19: Fragment of silver sheet, from the Black Sea hoard
Accession number: 
AN1970.1106
Collection: 
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Oxford

BSH19 
Fragment cut from thin silver sheet (c. 2mm thick), upper edge original, other edges chisel-cut; inscribed on the upper edge in Babylonian cuneiform, -ri-ia-muš šarru, “[Da]rius the king”.  
c. 0.047m square; 34.9g. 
Kraay and Moorey 1981, no.137 (Ashmolean 1970.1106).

Commentary
This unique object appears to have been cut from a larger silver sheet, originally bearing an inscription which may have read e.g. “made at the palace of Darius the king”.  The king concerned is presumably Darius I.  Herodotus tells us that “The Persian king stores the [precious metal] tribute in the following manner: he melts it down and pours it into ceramic vessels.  Once the vessels are full he breaks away the surrounding earthenware.  When he needs money, he cuts off (from these ingots) as much as he needs” (Hdt. 3.96.2).