170 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1771. 



That this piece was struck at Ascalon, a very ancient and celebrated city of 

 Palestine, there is, Mr. S. thinks, little reason to doubt. Dagon, or Atergatis, 

 was a deity of the Philistines, to whom Ascalon appertained, as we learn from 

 Scripture ; and therefore may very naturally be supposed to have been worshipped 

 there, as well as in the other principal cities belonging to that people. We are 

 assured by Diodorus Siculus, and Lucian, that Ascalon was famous for the 

 worship of Atergatis, or Derceto, and the superb temple of that deity there. 

 The coins of Ascalon not unfrequently exhibit Atergatis, with a pigeon, as here; 

 pigeons as well as fishes having been considered as sacred animals, bearing a near 

 relation to Atergatis, if not as objects of religious worship, in that city. 



As no chronological characters on the piece in question present themselves to 

 our view, it will be extremely difficult, if not impracticable, to ascertain, with 

 any precision, the time when it first appeared. However, Mr. S. thinks it pro- 

 bable, that the coin was struck about 351 years before the birth of Christ, when 

 the provinces of Palestine and Phoenicia were subdued by Artaxerxes Ochus, soon 

 after they had revolted from him. 



With regard to the two Phoenician letters exhibited by this coin, they seem 

 either to form the word XDj ma, which in Phoenician not improbably denoted , 

 WATER, or the sea, as in Arabic, or to be the first 2 elements of the word 

 MAivMA, in Syriac, also signifying water, the name of the port and place of 

 the magazine of naval stores, such a port and place having formerly appertained 

 to Ascalon and Gaza. 



2. The second medal also Mr. Crofts brought with him from Syria. Ater- 

 gatis, or Derceto, on this silver plate, holds a concha-marina, or sea-shell, in her 

 left hand ; but in all other respects it is so similar to the former as sufficiently 

 appears from the draughts of them both, that it may almost, if not absolutely, 

 pass for a duplicate of the same coin. The piece however has been but indif- 

 ferently preserved ; so that without the assistance of the medal already described, 

 it would have been of no great service to the learned world. 



3. The 3d medal is a very small silver piece, and was also, by Mr. Crofts, 

 brought with the other two, above described, out of the east. The reverse, 

 which exhibits the two Phoenician elements ma, and a galley, or small vessel, 

 full of rowers, on the water, almost entirely agrees with that of two Persian 

 Darics. This indicates the piece to have been struck in Palestine, or Phoenicia, 

 before the dissolution of the Persian empire, probably at the same time that the 

 two former first appeared. On the other side is a laureated ancient head, which 

 he takes to represent Jupiter Mamas, a deity worshipped at Gaza, a celebrated 

 ancient city, at no great distance from Ascalon. 



4. The 4th is a small brass medal, that may pass for an inedited coin, though 

 one not unlike it has been published by M. Baudelot. On one side is a human 



