Coin of Ptolemy IV from a Ptolemaic hoard

Coin of Ptolemy IV from a Ptolemaic hoard

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A hoard of 162 Ptolemaic coins that contained issue of Ptolemy II, III, and IV, but apparently no later king, was discovered in a jar buried in a pit in front of a large Ptolemaic tomb in Thebes. Accumulations of coins were not usually burial offering; these coins were likely buried in order to be hidden by someone who failed to return to recover them. The dates of the coins suggest they may have been hidden at the time of a major native uprisings in the north and in the south at the end of Ptolemy IV's reign and into the reign of Ptolemy V. The uprising lasted in the south of the country for 20 years from 206-186 B.C., and saw the establishment of nativer rulers Herwennefer and Ankhwennefer. It is reasoned that the uprising was a response to excessive taxation and manpower demands for Ptolemaic wars in Syria.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Coin of Ptolemy IV from a Ptolemaic hoardCoin of Ptolemy IV from a Ptolemaic hoardCoin of Ptolemy IV from a Ptolemaic hoardCoin of Ptolemy IV from a Ptolemaic hoardCoin of Ptolemy IV from a Ptolemaic hoard

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.