Version 1.7.0: Location and Minting Updates

Updates are provided of the polis locations for Rhodes, Symi, Tilos, Kalymnos, Leros, Patmos and Ikaria. Additionally, a comprehensive review of coinage in the Inventory was performed which resulted in updates to the app catalog.

The following article desribes changes to the app catalog for the locations of polies associated with the islands mentioned above and changes resulting from a comprehensive review of silver and bronze mints, as recorded in the Inventory.

Location Updates

This year we visited the Greek Dodecanese islands of Rhodes, Symi, Tilos, Kalymnos, Leros, and Patmos, and the Eastern Aegean island Ikaria.

In addition to the usual relaxing island activities of swimming, trekking, reading, dining and visiting archeological sites, there was opportunity to review the polies located on each island, as described in the Inventory, and to reevaluate their locations, similar to the exercise described in last years blog on the Cyclades islands.

Except for Rhodes, archeological ruins were mostly sparse to non-existent, though most islands had a local archeological museum. All the islands visited have been inhabited since pre-historic times and the lack of ruins are a result of time, unknown whereabouts, minimal to no excavation, and / or being located beneath their modern equivalents.

Based on this review, 7 of 11 polis locations have been adjusted. The following describes the rational for these adjustments.

Rhodes

Rhodes is the 4th largest Greek island by landmass. Eight (8) polies are associated with the island of Rodes, five (5) located polies, Brikindera, Kamiros, Ialysos, Lindos and Rhodes (proper) and three (3) unlocated polies, Diakrioi, Oiai and Pedeis. The following concentrates on the five (5) "located" polies.

Brikindera:

The inventory provides a rough location for Brikindera on the northeast side of Rhodes in an area named Βρυγνδαρα located within the territory of Ialysos. There are no confirmed ruins or other evidence of location and so there is no reason to adjust the coordinates provided by the Inventory.

Ialysos:

Ialysos is located on the north end of the island, west of Rhodes (proper). The Inventory location of Ialysos lies within the modern town, but the ancient center of of Ialysos is considered to reside in and around the ancient acropolis which is now called the hill of Filerimos, just to the south of the modern town.

Prior Polis Location: The center of modern Ialysos.

New Polis Location: On the hill of Filerimos, at the temple of Athena Polias, located just south of the modern town of Ialysos.

Kamiros:

Located on the northwest coast of Rhodes, Kamiros possesses extensive ruins and the current Inventory location coincides appropriately within them. Therefore there is no reason to adjust the current location for this polis.

Lindos:

Perched on top of a tall, seaside acropolis looking over the central-south eastern sea, Lindos is one of the more pictureque ruins in Greece. Apart from the acropolis, the ancient city is unexcavated, being located benenth the modern village which lies just west and below the acropolis. The current Inventory location of Lindos corresponds to the acropolis and so there is no reason to relocate it.

Rhodes:

In 408 BCE the polies of Ialysos, Kamiros and Lindos united politically and otherwise and founded a new city, Rhodes, to represent their unison, a process Strabo described as "synoecism". Newly founded Rhodes was located on the northernmost tip of the island, strategically located near to neighboring island and mainland polies. Few classical ruins exist, primarily due to a lack of investigation, and the primary available ruin, the temple Athena Polias and Zeus Polieus, is located too far away from the presumed ancient center located underneath the modern city. So while there are many options to place the location of ancient Rhodes, the current Inventory location lying within the medieval walls of the current old town is as precise as any, if not more so.

Symi

Today, as most likley in ancient times, the island of Symi is rugged and largely unaccessible except for foot or boat. The modern town occupies the ridge line and river mouths between Symi Bay and Pediou Bay. Ancient Syme is presumed to lie underneath modern Symi. The current Inventory location sits somewhat haphazardly near the modern ferry port in Symi Bay. A more representative location would be on the acropolis, centrally located and looking over each bay, and which has been a long standing location of strategic importance for millennium.

Prior Polis Location: Along the water at the modern ferry port.

New Polis Location: On the ancient acropolis of Symi.

Tilos

The island of Tilos is located west of Symi and has a polis associated with it by the same name, Telos. Tilos possesses a fine and recently completed archeological museum in the town of Megalo Chorio. There is evidence of ancient inhabitation on most of the island with the ancient polis considered to underly the modern village of Megalo Chorio. The acropolis looming above Megalo Chorio is also associated with the polis. The current Inventory location lies north and away from this center and so it makes sense to relocate it to Megalo Chorio.

Prior Polis Location: In the mountains of northern Telos.

New Polis Location: Centered within the modern village of Megalo Chorio.

Kalymnos

Moving further north of Tilos, just beyond Cos, lies Kalymnos. The Inventory mentions it's postulated there were up to 3 polies on Kalymnos, but concentrates on one, Kalymna, well attested as a polis in C4. The location of it's urban center is not established, but is assumed to be located at the modern town of Emborios or nearby Sykia, both located on the northern end of the island facing the Arginonta Bay. The current Inventory location lies in a large valley in the middle of the island and so it seems logical to improve its accuracy by moving it to either Emborios or Sykia. Emborios has the better harbor and possesses classical remains, yet we saw a local placard while dining in Sykia proudly stating they were the rightful location. As tempting as it is to pick Sykia, we will relocate the polil center to Emborios.

Prior Polis Location: Middle of the island in no position of prominence.

New Polis Location: Centered within the modern village of Emborios.

Leros

Continuing just north we come to the island of Leros, which has one polis of the same name and spelling. The ancient center is assumed to lie beneath the modern city of Agia Marina, which is where the archeological museum may be found. Modern Agia Marina draps over a hillside saddle beween the Alinda and Panteli bays, a similar configuration as found on Symi. The current Inventory location sits nowhere in particular near the current Agia Marina port and it makes sense to relocate it slightly to the top of the saddle of Agia Marina at the modern village center.

Prior Polis Location: Near Agia Marina Port

New Polis Location: Town center of Agia Marina on the hillside.

Patmos

Northwest of Leros lies the island of Patmos. Patmos is included for completeness as the Inventory does not assign it a polis but mentions Patmos as contemporarily inhabited. There are no classical ruins available nor is there an archeological museum.

Ikaria

Leaving the Dodecanese island group we move north into the Eastern Aegean island group and the island of Ikaria. Two polies are identified with the island of Ikaria, Therma, located on the southeast portion of the island and Oine, located on the northwest portion.

The main archeological museum for the island is located in the port town of Agios Kirkos. It is excellent and covers the entire island. There is also a very small archeological museum in the town of Kampos, presumably containing a few finds related to Oine, but it was never open the few times we checked, so we missed it

Therma

Modern Therma is located just east of Agios Kirkos on the southeast side of the island, famous for its thermal baths since ancient times. There are no ruins associated with the ancient Therma, with a large portion of the polis assumed undersea due to a large earthquake in 198 BCE. An increase of the precision of the location can be obtained as described below, a minor adjustment:

Prior Polis Location: In the mountains above, but not very far from modern Therma.

New Polis Location: Moved to the small port of modern Therma.

Oine

Ancient Oine is located on the north coast of the island along the Kompos river and near the modern village of Kompos. There are no specific ruins, but there is a small archeological museum in town. Other ruins exist, notably the remains of a small Roman Odeon. The Inventory dataset locates Oion incorrectly on the south coast of the island so we will move it to where the Inventory describes, near to the beach where the Kompos river empties into the Aegean.

Prior Polis Location: Incorrectly located on the south-central coast of Ikaria.

New Polis Location: An area near the beach adjacent to the modern village of Kompos and the Kompos river.

Coinage Updates

While reviewing the polies Oine and Therma, on Ikaria, it was noticed the app catalog did not associate minting with either polis, but the archeological museum on Ikaria provided information on coins minted in Oine and Therma.

Having recently worked with new Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, the data discrepancy at Oine and Therma sparked the idea to perform a comprehensive review of the Inventory data using these new tools in an attempt to improve the accuracy of the app catalog. The first attempt focussed on Silver and Bronze mints.

In the end, ChatGPT did not work as magically as expected (yet), with the final process being more manual than hoped, but it did aid in extracting a complete set of coinage data from the Inventory that was used to cross reference the app catalog. The analysis resulted in 41 changes to the app catalog data as described below.

It's worth reminding the reader that that app catalog is a result of reading the Inventory in a methodical way to extract cross-polis data sets, such as coinage, city grids, and so forth, for the purpose of performing qualitative and quantitative analysis of the polies as a group. However, the data in the Inventory is quite dense and not entirely free of conjecture or errors. Systematically reading it is very laborious. Judgement is sometimes required when extracting data in a consistent fashion, and, also, there is ample opportunity for clerical errors.

As mentioned in other blogs, most of the current app catalog comes from the painstaking work by Dr. Joseph Ober and his team at Stanford University. Over time, I have worked to improve the app catalog in incremental ways such as described here and in previous blogs.

The process adopted for this analysis is the following. First ChatGPT was used to parse and organize the coinage data presented in Chapter (Index) 26 of the Inventory.  The result was a spreadsheet that details the time periods for silver and bronze minting of coins for all polies that minted coins during the timeframe covered by the Inventory, namely, the Archaic and Classical periods and the Hellenistic period up until approximately 300 BCE. Chapter 26 is a summary of all coinage mentioned in the text that accompanies each polis in the Inventory catalog. It's organized by region, then polis, to account for polies that have the same name.

Then this data was cross checked against the app catalog and the following cases where identified: (1) Chapter 26 states a silver or bronze mint existed and the app catalog does not and (2) the app catalog states a sliver or bronze mint existed and the newly extracted coinage catalog does not. Each case was then evaluated one by one by first reading the corresponding text for each polis regarding coinage. If a resolution was not immediately clear from the text, a web search was performed (using ChatGPT and otherwise) in an attempt to resolve the discrepancy.

This resulted in a total of 83 polies analyzed resulting in 41 changes to the app catalog. Previously, 340 of 1035 polies were recorded as minting Silver coins and now 346 (+4) of 1035 polies are recorded as minting Silver coins. Similarly, 285 of 1035 polies were recorded as minting Bronze coins and now 301 (+16) of 1035 polies are recorded as minting Bronze coins.

The modifications are tabulated below.

Number	Name	Modification
20	Herakleia (1) (Herakleotes)	Removed Bronze minting
117	Derion (Derieus)	Removed Silver minting
139	Thyrreion	Added Bronze C4
180	Elateia	Removed Bronze minting
207	Hyettos	Added C5 Silver, C4 Bronze
215	Pharai	Changed C5 Sliver to C4
349	Halieis (Halikos)	Removed Silver minting
352	Methana (Methanaios)	Added C4 Bronze
387	Skarpheia	Added Bronze C4
411	Phaloria (Phaloriastes)	Removed Silver and Added Bronze C4
438	Melitaia (Melitaieus)	Added Silver C4
439	Peuma (Peumatios)	Added Bronze C4
441	Proerna (Proernios)	Added Bronze C4
475	Andros (Andrios)	Added Silver C6
480	Oine (Oin(o)aios)	Added Silver C4
482	Ikos (Ikios)	Removed Bronze minting
521	Skyros (Skyrios)	Removed Silver minting
610	Skithai (Skithaios)	Added Silver C5
631	Galepsos (Galepsios)	Moved Silver C5 to Bronze C4
658	Aigos potamoi (Aigos po(-))	Added Silver C5
659	Alopekonnesos (Alopekonnesios)	Added Bronze C4
698	Karkinitis (Kerkinites)	Changed Bronze C5 to Bronze C4
748	Lampsakos (Lampsakenos)	Added Bronze C4
756	Parion (Parianos)	Added Bronze C4
817	Kyme (Kymaios)	Added Bronze C4
818	Larisa (Larisaios)	Added Silver C4
819	Leukai (Leokates)	Added Silver C4
823	Nasos (Nasiotas)	Added Silver C4
829	Perperene (Perperenios)	Added Bronze C4
830	Pitane (Pitanaios)	Added Bronze C4
832	Temnos (Temnites)	Added Bronze C4
833	Teuthrania	Added Silver C4
834	Thebe	Added Bronze C4
835	*Tisna (Tisnaios)	Added Bronze C4
837	Airai (Airaios)	Added Bronze C4
866	Sidousa (Sidousios)	Removed Bronze C4
963	Hyrtakina (Hyrtakinios)	Added Bronze C4
996	Kamiros (Kamireus)	Added Bronze C5
1005	Aphrodisias	Added Silver C6
1023	Naukratis (Naukratites)	Removed Silver minting
1029	Taucheira (Taucheirites)	Added Silver C5

A final note: While the Inventory is silent regarding minting at Oine, Oine was included in the app catalog due to evidence from the archeological museum of Ikaria that demonstrating silver minting around 340 BCE (via a dated physical coin on display). However, while Oine certainly did mint coins, silver and bronze production largely came after 300 BCE and it's for this reason its minting is excluded from the Inventory. The same reasoning applies to Therma, which did mint coins, but outside the timeframe of interest of the Inventory, and remains excluded in the app catalog.