Seljuk Silver	Volume 54 Number 2, March/April 2001
by Özgen Acar

Silver coins found near Ephesus, Turkey (Özgen Acar) [LARGER IMAGE]

A hoard of 936 silver coins has been found during restoration work on a fourteenth-century Turkish bath in Seljuk, near Ephesus. Minted between 1360 and 1390, the coins date from the period when Turkish emirates were establishing their hold on different parts of Anatolia. One of these was the Ayd1noglu Emirate founded by Mehmet Bey in western Anatolia during the first half of the fourteenth century. Isa Bey, who became ruler of this emirate in 1360, moved its center to the district of Seljuk, which was known as Agia Logos in Byzantine times and takes its modern name from the Seljuk Empire. The bath and mosque he built next to the ancient temple of Artemis are the oldest examples of Islamic architecture in this town today.

© 2001 by the Archaeological Institute of America archive.archaeology.org/0103/newsbriefs/silver.html