04-23-2010, 10:37 AM
Quote:Interesting article ... but unless an aelia coin overstruck with kochba stamp is found, it is not conclusive at all since we dont know when these coins were lost/deposited ...Exactly my thinking, too.
As far as I can see (and maybe I've missed something?), the chronology of the Bar Kochba revolt is not at all secure. It seems to be based on a number of circumstantial observations: the caches of letters from the caves of the refugees seem to end in AD 132; previously, the latest securely-dated coin, overstruck by the rebels, was minted in 131 or 132; the newly-discovered overstruck coin was minted in 133 or 134; the rebels' own coinage refers explicitly to a first and a second year of "freedom of Israel" (and coins with no numeral are taken to imply a third year of revolt); Hebrew documents refer to "three-and-a-half" years of revolt; Hadrian was recruiting massively in late 133/early 134; Julius Severus was transferred specially from Britain to take charge, probably in 134 (definitely pre-135); Hadrian took his second imperatorial acclamation in recognition of Roman victory, but again the dating is uncertain (late 136?).
