Bronze dolphin and arrowhead money, Olbia, Ukraine, 5th century BCE
Bronze dolphin and arrowhead money, Olbia, Ukraine, 5th century BCE
Depresses me to think of all the unfound but destroyed archaeology in Ukraine thanks to the Russian aggression.
Yeah. There have been a few new finds that were uncovered by the war, and preserved by Ukrainians, but the vast majority of changes will be loss rather than discovery. All for a pointless vain dictator's war.
I love these little dolphins. They're from the era when the first coins were being invented and it seems like people hadn't settled on "round, please."
They're also cast bronze, which ended up being unusual for the Greek and later Roman world. The vast majority of ancient coins were hammered by hand using dies and heated metal disks. Coins in China, however, were made by casting for thousands of years. China also had some interesting ideas about money (ant money, spade money) before they settled on the traditional "round with square hole" design.