Iranian Huns, page 1

h e p h t h a l i t e s

This page is about the Hephthalites (and peoples confused with the Hephthalites). Or the Ephthalites or Epthalites or Hephtal or Hunas or White Huns or Hayathelites or Ye-tai or He-ta or Cao, depending what circles you crawl in. The Hephthalites, as everybody knows, were bloodthirsty gangs of cone-headed, polyandric, Buddhist-hating, sun-worshiping maniacs.*

A few links: 'Ephthalites' by Richard Heli; includes a timeline; The White Huns at Silk Road Foundation; Wikipedia: Hephthalite; Wikipedia: Huna; The Hephthalites at the University of Washington/Silk Road Seattle website; The Hephthalites: Archaeological and Historical Analysis PhD thesis by Aydogdy Kurbanov (Berlin, 2010) (pdf [305 pages])

Map of Central Asia circa 100 - 600 AD
(144K GIF)
(I made this 15 years ago as an experiment; the bottom image is a 'tile.' Just shrink your browser window so you only see one map.)

In short: there are tendencies in art and numismatics, in the face of conflicting information, to lump together certain objects and cultures and call them... SOMETHING. And is certainly the case with regard to the coins of, and the peoples known as, the 'White Huns', most of whom were probably not white nor huns. Why has this happened? Several groups of loosely-related tribes settled in, traveled through, fought over and disappeared from Central Asia during the 4th - 7th centuries. At least one of these tribes has garnered a bad reputation as destroyers of Buddhist culture throughout Gandhara and Northern India. Another may have just been the indigenous culture already there. One look at the coins with the legend 'nspk' or 'napki' or 'nezak' (take your pick), and it's obvious that at no place on earth during the 6th and 7th century were coins being minted showing a bust with this level of sophistication. On many it looks as if the image was lifted from any number of 2nd or 3rd century Gandharan sculptures (see Gobl Hunnen Em. 225 below). Even the Sasanian coins of the period look like two-dimensional cartoons, comparatively. The folks minting these coins were not bloodthirsty nomads living in the saddle. On the contrary, they must have come from an important political and artistic center.

The sad tale is suppose to go something like this: Groups of Iranian and/or Altaic-speaking nomads (somewhat or maybe not at all related to the Mongolian Huns) have been slowly moving into Sogdiana, Bactria and Iran since the beginning of the 2nd century AD. The Sasanians invade eastward (233 AD), defeat the Kushans and install the Kushanshahs in Bactria. The first of four distinct groups of 'Huns', the Kidarites, take over northern Pakistan pushing the remaining Kushans out (340 AD). The next wave of Alchon Huns push the Kidarites and perhaps another tribe or branch of the Alchon southward (390 AD); they invade India (430 AD) wreaking havoc. At about the same time, a different group in western Khorasan is fighting the Sasanian king Yazdgard II and later, Peroz (440-480 AD), the so-called 'genuine' Hephthalites. Yet another group, close on the heels of the Alchon, settles in and around Kabul and Ghazni, the Nezak Huns. Or maybe they've been there all along. Circa 560 AD the Sasanians and Western Turks gang up on the 'genuine' Hephthalites (?) and obliterate them. Shortly after, what remain of the Alchon that invaded India limp northwestward into Zabulistan. And throughout this entire period there are numbers of splinter groups and tribes that also minted coins and imitations of coins.

In 644 A.D. the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang remarks seeing a small settlement of 'White Huns' by Kunduz in the Hindu Kush. He calls this area Himatala, originally part of Tukhara and says that it once was a powerful country with a royal lineage of Saka stock. He also calls the inhabitants 'short and ugly in their features'. This goes directly against Procopius who wrote in 550 A.D. that the 'Ephthalitae' were 'the only ones among the Huns who have white bodies and are not ugly' and 'are not nomads like the other Hunnic peoples, but for a long period have been established in a goodly land'. These are probably two completely different peoples.

[ * this is sarcasm...]

Note: March 12, 2013. I've changed the initial kings a bit.
Thanks to Hakan Fransson at Zeno.

r e f e r e n c e s

Kushano-Sasanian Governors (?)
(Göbl Hunnen 1 - 10)

Go to the kidarite page.
'Varhran' types and others

Kidarites and Intermediate Groups Around Kabul (or possibly Chionites)
(Göbl Hunnen 11 - 32A; 177 - 193)

Go to the kidarite page.
Coins of Peroz, Kidara, Varo and successors; imitations of the coins of the Sasanian kings Shapur II, Shapur III and Varahran IV.

Alchon Huns
(Göbl Hunnen 33 - 176)

Anonymous Clan Chiefs
(Göbl Hunnen 33-39)

AE Unit
Göbl Hunnen Em. 26A variant (Iranica Artiqua XVI (1981)
13 mm.
1.04 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=12 mm.; diameter of reverse dotted border=n/a
Die position=4h
Obverse: Bust right; legend.
Reverse: Bust right; legend.

AE Unit
Göbl Hunnen Em. 37v.
13 x 12 mm.
0.67 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=n/a; diameter of reverse dotted border=n/a
Die position=6h
Obverse: Bust right; stylized flames emanating from shoulders.
Reverse: Tamgha with crescents to either side.
Note: Ex-Spengler Collection.

AE Unit
Göbl Hunnen Em. -
17 x 19 mm.
1.87 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=none; diameter of reverse dotted border=13 mm.
Die position=9h
Obverse: Bust right; Brahmi legend [see: Gobl Hunnen 60-74].
Reverse: Samarkandian/Sogdian tamgha [see: Gobl Hunnen Em. 34 and 35].

AE Unit
Göbl Hunnen Em. -
12 x 12 mm. square
0.77 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=10 mm.; diameter of reverse dotted border=9 mm.
Die position=9h
Obverse: Standard (as depicted on Gobl Hunnen 49, 50, 51 and 56).
Reverse: Legend (Brahmi (?)).

________________________________

AE Unit
Göbl Hunnen Em. -
17 mm.
1.90 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=12 mm.; diameter of reverse dotted border=11 mm.
Die position=10h
Obverse:
Reverse:

AE Unit
Göbl Hunnen Em. 35
13 mm.
0.91 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=12 mm.; diameter of reverse dotted border=12 mm.
Die position=12h
Obverse:
Reverse:

AE Unit
Göbl Hunnen Em. -
16 x 17 mm.
1.95 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=n/a; diameter of reverse dotted border=13 mm.
Die position=3h
Obverse: Bust 3/4 left.
Reverse: Altar.

Khingila (c. 430/440 - 490 CE)
(Göbl Hunnen 40-8, 52-61, 64-70, 75-8, 80-1, 83-9, 91-95, 112)

AR Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 60
30 mm.
3.24 gm.
Diameter of reverse border=n/a
Die position=?h
Obverse: Tall, deformed-skull type of bust right, wearing close fitting headdress; diadem end behind. Flames emanating from shoulders. Bactrian legend'ShOYO ALChONO' (?).
Reverse: Traces of fire altar.
Note: Courtesy Dr. David Kaplan collection.

AV Stater
Göbl Hunnen Em. 85 type
34 mm.
6.95 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=n/a; diameter of reverse dotted border=__ mm.
Die position=12h
Obverse: Figure standing left.
Reverse:

Javukha (c. mid 5th - early 6th CE)
(Göbl Hunnen 49-51, 82, 117-118, 140)

Mehama (fl. 461 - 493 CE)
(Göbl Hunnen 62-3, 71-74)

AR Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 73 (or variant of 50 (?))
27 mm.
2.69 gm.
Diameter of reverse border=n/a
Die position=3h
Obverse: Tall, deformed-skull type of bust right, wearing close fitting headdress with two crescents and two diadem ends (Gobl crown 17v. (?)). Flames emanating from shoulders. Standard in front, tamgha behind; Brahmi legend'ShaHi_MePa' (?).
Reverse: Traces of fire altar.

AR Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 74
29 mm.
2.89 gm.
Diameter of reverse border=25 mm.
Die position=4h
Obverse: Tall, deformed-skull type of bust right, wearing close fitting headdress with one crescent and two diadem ends (Gobl crown 15). Tamgha in front; Brahmi legend'MePaMa'.
Reverse: Traces of fire altar.

Lakhana Udayaditya (c. 490's CE)
(Göbl Hunnen 79)

AR Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 79 type
26 mm.
3.71 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=n/a; diameter of reverse dotted border=n/a
Die position=3h
Obverse: Bust right.
Reverse: Traces of altar.

AR Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 79 type
25 x 27 mm.
3.73 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=23 mm.; diameter of reverse dotted border=n/a
Die position=3h
Obverse: Bust right.
Reverse: Traces of altar.

"Zabocho" (maybe Khingila or Javukha), (c. late 5th - early 6th CE)
(Göbl Hunnen 96-107)

Billon Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 99v.
23 x 24 mm.
2.96 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=n/a; diameter of reverse dotted border=n/a
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right; tamgha.
Reverse: Traces of altar.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 98 - 104 types
23 mm.
2.93 gm.
Diameter of reverse border=n/a
Die position=3h (?)
Obverse: Tall, deformed-skull type of bust right, wearing close fitting headdress with one large crescent containing a trident and two smaller crescents; two diadem ends (Gobl crown 32v.). Figure/trident/flower/tamgha (?) in front; unknown Bactrian legend.
Reverse: Traces of fire altar.

AR Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 105
22 mm.
2.98 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=n/a; diameter of reverse dotted border=n/a
Die position=n/a
Obverse: King on horseback right; tamgha.
Reverse:

Toramana (c.490 - 515 CE)
(Göbl Hunnen _____)

AR Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 113v. (crown and legend variations)
22 mm.
3.11 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=22 mm.
Die position=none
Obverse: Tall, deformed-skull type of bust right, wearing crown of two lunar crescents, the front one containing a trident; band made of pellets (Gobl crown 33v./Em. 115). Tamgha in front; Brahmi legend'Tri-Lo' in front. Two or three (?) Brahmi/Bactrian/Karosthi (?) letters/control marks behind bust.
Reverse: Blank, but traces of striking around edges.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 146 type
22 x 21 mm.
2.55 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=n/a mm.
Die position=none
Obverse:
Reverse: Blank.
Note: Courtesy Haroon Tareen collection.

Mihirakula (c.515 - 540 CE) and successors
(Göbl Hunnen _____)

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 135v.
25 x 23 mm.
2.83 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=n/a mm.
Die position=2h
Obverse: Bust right, standards in both fields; legend at top.
Reverse: Altar and attendants (double-struck).

Billon Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. -
19 mm.
2.68 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=none; diameter of reverse dotted border=12x17 mm. (oval)
Die position=6h
Obverse: Bust right, wearing necklace of pellets; tamgha in front. Traces of Brahmi legend.
Reverse: Humped bull right (?).
Note: This may be overstruck on a coin of Toramana (?)

AE Stater
Göbl Hunnen Em. -; Mitchiner 3780
22 mm.
8.48 gm.
Diameter of obverse border=n/a; diameter of reverse dotted border=n/a
Die position=12h
Obverse: King standing left
Reverse: Ardoxsho facing.

Toramana II (c.530 - 570 CE)
(Göbl Hunnen -; Mitchiner ACW 3792-3799)

AE Stater
Mitchiner NIS 151, Mitchiner ACW 3792, Göbl Hunnen Em. -
20 mm.
6.63 gm.
Die position=12h
Obverse: King standing.
Reverse: Goddess seated.

AE Drachm
Mitchiner ACW 3792-3799
21 mm.
7.24 gm.
Die position=12h
Obverse:
Reverse:

AE Drachm
Mitchiner ACW 3792-3799
20 x 19 mm.
7.10 gm.
Die position=12h
Obverse:
Reverse:

AE Drachm
Mitchiner ACW 3792-3799
20 x 21 mm.
6.97 gm.
Die position=11h
Obverse:
Reverse:

AE Drachm
Mitchiner ACW 3792-3799
20 x 21 mm.
6.86 gm.
Die position=12h
Obverse:
Reverse:

Narana/Narendra (c.570/580 - 600 CE)
(Göbl Hunnen 147-151)

The figure on these coins is holding grain plants; the upright stalk may be rye (genus Secale) or wheat (genus Triticum); the bent-over stalk looks very much like barley (genus Hordeum). The plants also appear occationally with 'berries' or 'cones' to each side; this could be hops (genus Humulus). [Special thanks to Dr. Kevin T. Smith, Research Plant Physiologist]

Billon Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150v.
26 x 27 mm.
3.19 gm.
Die position=3h
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding spear (?).
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
24 mm.
3.85 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
25 x 26 mm.
3.34 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
23 mm.
3.55 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
23 mm.
2.91 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
23 mm.
3.30 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
27 x 26 mm.
3.36 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
26 mm.
4.51 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
24 mm.
3.60 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
25 mm.
3.26 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150
25 mm.
3.36 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants. Brahmi letter (?) in right field.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150.4
24 mm.
4.36 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150.7
25 mm.
3.84 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150.10
25 mm.
3.37 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150 type
25 x 24 mm.
3.38 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse:
Reverse:

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150 type
24 mm.
3.68 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants. Brahmi letter (?) in right field.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150 type
24 mm.
3.47 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants. Brahmi letter (?) in right field.
Reverse: Blank.

AE Drachm
Göbl Hunnen Em. 150 type
24 mm.
2.42 gm.
Die position=n/a
Obverse: Unusually small bust right, wearing trident crown and large earring; arm holding grain plants.
Reverse: Blank.

g o  t o  a n c i e n t  c o i n s