The Apadana hoard is a hoard of coins that were discovered under the stone boxes containing the foundation tablets of the Apadana Palace in Persepolis.
Foundation tablets
The gold and silver tablets retrieved from the stone boxes contained a trilingual inscription by Darius in
Old Persian,
Elamite and Akkadian, which describes his Empire in broad geographical terms, and is known as the DPh inscription:
Foundation hoard
The coins found in the hoard were:
The Croesids were found in very fresh condition, confirming that they had been recently minted under Achaemenid rule.
Symbolism
According to numismatist Martin Price, the coins in the hoard were probably selected not for the location they represented, but for the symbolic significance of their type. The lion attacking the bull in the Lycian coinage of the
had obvious symbolism for the Achaemenids, the
griffin on the coin of Abdera may have been used as the symbolic guardian of gold, and the turtle of the coin from
Aegina may have been chosen as a symbol of maritime power.
===Other coin types of the Apadana hoard===
double Siglos from
Lapethus found later near the hoard. Late 6th-early 5th century BCE]]
coin from an uncertain mint, found in the hoard. 5th century BCE]]
See also
