Resumen de Neue Überlegungen zur Chronologie und historischen Einordnung der hasmonäischen Münzprägungen - Zugleich eine verspätete Würdigung der 'Häresie' Ya'akov Meshorers
Most scholars have traditionally ascribed the beginning of Hasmonaean Bronze issues (Prutot) to John (Yehohanan) Hyrkanos I as of 129 BCE, to be followed by his sons Judas (Yehuda) Aristobulos I and Jonathan (Yehonatan) Alexander Jannaios, as well as by the latter’s two sons Hyrkanos II and Aristobulos II, and grandson Antigonos (till 37 BCE). Ya?akov Meshorer (1966; 1982) suggested instead to attribute all Yehohanan coins to John Hyrkanos II and those of Yehuda to Judas Aristobulos II; he dated the earliest Prutot to the rule of Alexander Jannaios. But Meshorer changed his mind, when a hoard with over 700 Prutot issued in the name of Yehohanan was found in 1988. He then endorsed what has become the new ‘orthodoxy’ of Hasmonaean coinage (Meshorer 1990/91; 2001). In contrast, the present article tries to demonstrate that a return to Meshorer’s earlier chronology has the potential of better explaining the many numismatic and historical difficulties. The naming practices among the Hasmonaeans, the development of their titulature and the historical context of the aforementioned bronze hoard all seem to be pointing to around 90 BCE for the beginning of Prutot. If this is accepted, the long-disputed legend ‘hever ha Yehudim’ probably denotes a council introduced by Alexander after 90 BCE, and the title ‘roš ha hever ha Yehudim’ marked the grant of the ethnarchy to John Hyrkanos II by Caesar in 47 BCE.
