The city of Magdala (Semitic: “tower”)/Taricheae (Greek: “where fish are salted”) on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (Yam Kinneret) is mentioned in the New Testament (Matt 15:39), and was historically known as the home of the Biblical figure Mary Magdalene. The town is also mentioned in ancient Jewish literature (e.g. Tosefta Erubin 4:16) and by Roman authors (e.g. Josephus, AJ 14.120; 20.159; BJ 1.180; 2.252; Vita 32; Suetonius, Tit. 4; Cicero, Ad Fam. 12.11; for the Greek name see Strabo, Geogr. 16.2.45).[1]
Magdala’s association with Mary Magdalene is not the center of this book, but it is the reason for the book’s existence.[2] Because of the site’s association with Mary Magdalene, the Latin Patriarchate’s Custody of the Holy Land and the Israel Antiquities Authority have been conducting controlled excavations there since the 1970s. This book is a detailed catalog of all the coins found in these excavations of Magdala, with color photos, together with a long, synthetic introduction, explaining the history of the site, the history of the excavations, and the meaning and significance of the specific coin finds. The many monumental discoveries from the site—including two synagogues—are covered elsewhere.[3]
The numismatic record at Magdala starts in the third century BCE, and continues almost uninterrupted to the fourteenth century. Most of the coins are Hasmonean (140–37 BCE) and Roman (70–498), but there are coins from all periods represented in the catalog. Some modern coins—Ottoman, British, and an unlucky “Indian head” US nickel—were also found at the site.
Coins travelled to Magdala from the Phoenician cities on the coast in the Ptolemaic period to Roman Judaea/Palestine and the Transjordan. As Callagher notes, none of the coins was found in a hoard. They are random site finds, coins dropped on the ground during daily life and not retrieved, eventually finding their way under the ground. Ground conditions—limestone and water interacting with what are mostly copper coins—account for the rather poor condition in which most coins were found.
The introduction includes a history of the site and its excavation. It then moves on to a discussion of the methodology used and what the presence of coins can teach us about a site and its economy. Callagher insists that Magdala be placed in the economic and real-world context of the life around Lake Kinnereth, instead of being read as part of a mythical “holy land” on a North–South axis, exclusively west of the Jordan, and offers a study of the regional context in which historians should read Magdala.
Shifting at this point from the site to the coins, Callagher offers a historical survey of the various periods of the site as read through the numismatic record. Against the backdrop of that periodization he discusses “single finds”. These include both statistical analyses of certain kinds of coins (e.g. those of Alexander Jannaeus, the second Hasmonean king, from 103 to 76 BCE; p. 49) and a long discussion of all the corroded and illegible coins. Noteworthy single objects discussed include a Phoenician lead weight with an image of Tanit (p. 81) and a locally struck copper assarion of Gallienus (p. 72). The economy features only in the discussion of “the decline of small currency” in the Late Roman period. A discussion of Arab-Byzantine and Arabic coins, with contributions by Arianna D’Ottone, ends the chapter, with short discussions of crusader and modern coins found at the site.
Contrary to its title, this book is not chiefly about the economy of Magdala or even the role of coins within it. It is at heart a catalog of all the coins found in the digs. Each coin found is noted, the place in which it was found marked, and it is matched up with coins known from the literature. Coins are meticulously described, and the descriptions often contain information that cannot be seen in the photographs. Most of the coins are illegible and the inscriptions are reconstructed based on identical coins known from elsewhere (see e.g. p. 234). Callagher reproduces the Greek and Latin inscriptions, but not the Hebrew ones found on the Hasmonean coins, which he notes as “Palaeo-Hebrew inscription” (e.g. p. 148).
The book is handsome and well produced, with helpful charts, graphs and photographs. Specialists can use it to glimpse into the economic life and regional context of a thriving small city, over many centuries.
Notes
[1] The site, with its church dedicated to Mary Magdalene, was a stop listed in Christian guidebooks for many centuries, as well as in the present day. A Palestinian village on the site, known since 1821, was depopulated on 22 April 1948 by the pre-state Jewish forces.
[2] For a discussion of the evidence for the connection between Mary and Magdala, see Elizabeth Schrader and Joan E. Taylor, “The Meaning of ‘Magdalene’: A Review of Literary Evidence,” Journal of Biblical Literature 140 (2021): 751–73, https://doi.org/10.15699/jbl.1404.2021.6. For the occurrence of Magdala in Latin Medieval pilgrim itineraries, see ibid, pp. 766–68).
[3] For a material and literary historical study of Magdala, see e.g. Richard Bauckham, Magdala of Galilee: A Jewish City in the Hellenistic and Roman Period (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2018).