Charon Coins Found in Parion Chamber Tomb 5

The subject of this article is the Charon coins found in Chamber Tomb 5 in the Eastern Necropolis of Parion. Fourteen coins belonging to Coela (2), Perinthos (1), and Parion (11) were found in Parion Chamber Tomb 5, where 33 individuals were buried. There is a wide date range of about three centuries between the earliest and latest mints of the 14 Charon coins found in Chamber Tomb 5. All 14 Charon coins dated between 45 BC and 253–268 AD are Roman provincial coins. The first remarkable point about the 14 coins found in Room Tomb 5 is that 11 are Parion’s own mints. An analysis of the Charon coins found in the other Chamber Tombs and Necropolis areas in Parion revealed that almost 90% of the coins are Parion’s own mints. This indicates that the Parionites mostly preferred to leave their own coins in the tomb as Charon coins. Another remarkable point about the coins of Parion Chamber Tomb 5 is that although the coins represent a period of three centuries, the coins of Iulius Caesar and Claudius I, which are the earliest dated coins found in the tomb, were quite worn compared to the other coins. Therefore, these coins may have been placed in the tomb after being in circulation for a long time. Except for these two coins, the other coins found in Chamber Tomb 5 are dated between the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Gallienus. When the anthropological, archaeological and numismatic data from Chamber Tomb 5 are evaluated together, it becomes evident that 33 individuals were buried in the tomb at different times over about a century.