The numismatic chronicle and journal of the Royal Numismatic Society

18 J. MAVROGORDATO.
erection were recorded, and that of the Chians stood
at the head of the list. Constant communication must
have been maintained between Egypt and Chios, for
commercial activities were growing fast. It is not
surprising, then, that, as stated above, some of the
island's earliest coins should have been found in Lower
Egypt. In fact, up to the present, the site of Naukratis
has, so far as we know, been the only source of supply
for the early silver didrachms.
As regards artistic development it is well known how
advanced Chios had already become. The seventh
century saw the rise there of a whole school of early
sculpture. The names of Malas, Mikkiades, and
Archermus, members of a single family of sculptors
who followed each other in direct line, have been pre-
served for us by Pliny. 32
Glaucus, the metal-worker,
who was patronized by Alyattes, was also a native of
the island. It is tempting to think that some of these
men, whom we associate with the dawn of art in the
Greek world, may have influenced the die-cutters of
the first Chian coins.
The coins which I would assign to this period are
the following, and I should like to remark here once
for all that the lists of the various types given below
do not aim at being exhaustive.
When a type is rare I have recorded particulars
of every specimen known to me either through publications
or through having been able to examine the
collections containing them.
32 Hist. Nat., xxxvi. 11. Commenting on Jex-Blake's translation,
Dr. H. L. Urlichs remarks that Malas was not the great-grandfather
of the sons of Archermus, mentioned later, but the point ia
only of secondaiy importance here.