An Official Hellenistic Inscribed Disk from Ascalon

Abstract

A copper-alloy disk recently acquired for the Israel Museum bears inscribed Greek legends
on both sides. These mention the people of Ascalon, the year (150/49 BCE) and the name of
an astynomos, a function that appears for the first time on an instrumentum of the Hellenistic
Levant. Astynomoi appear on weights and measures in places in the Black Sea region and
elsewhere, implying that astynomoi were able to fulfill the same functions as agoranomoi did
in the southern Levant. The paper also includes two metallurgical discussions that shed further
light on the source and authenticity of this unique object.