Hellenistic Tetrobol of Histiaea

197 BCE-146 BCE

1/2 in. (diameter) x 1/16 in. (1.3 cm x 0.2 cm)

This object has the following keywords:

• bows - The fronts or forwardmost ends of watercraft or airships.
• coins - Pieces of metal stamped by government authority for use as money.
• female - Referring to the sex that normally produces eggs or female germ cells.
• Hellenistic - Refers to the ancient Greek period, culture, and art of ancient Greece that lasted from about 330 BCE to 31 BCE, when Augustus defeated Cleopatra and Mark Antony. It is characterized by an international culture that was ushered in by Alexander the Great's conquest of India, Egypt, and the Near East. In architecture and art, the style is marked by greater sophistication, complexity, and diversity than was known in earlier Greek styles. Architecture diverges from strict rules of earlier periods. Sculptors emphasized more realistic figures in a greater variety of poses than in earlier Greek art.
• Satyrs and Maenads - Maenads are human female followers of Dionysus (sometimes called Nymphai) - Note added June 2010 by M. Weldon.
• silver - Pure metallic element having symbol Ag and atomic number 47; a malleable, ductile, white metal with characteristic sheen, considered a precious metal. Silver is widely distributed throughout the world, occurring rarely as metallic silver (in Peru, Norway) but more often as silver-gold alloys and silver ore. Today silver is obtained as a byproduct in the refinement of gold, lead, copper, or zinc ores. Silver was smelted from the ore galena as early as 3800 BCE. As a pure metal, silver is second to gold in malleability and ductility, can be polished to a highly reflective surface, and used -- typically in an alloy -- in jewelry, coinage, photography, mirrors, electrical contacts, and tableware.