Sogdian Leontomachia Ae 360 To 500 Ad

Some of you know that I have been dabbling in pre-medieval coins lately and so here is a recent pick-up for me. I'm definitely a student of the Dark Ages, so I would welcome any corrections or suggestions from anyone here on this subject.

The coins of South Sogdinana (also spelled Soghd), a Principality of Nakhshab, are not well described in the English literature. Sogdiana is in present day Qarshi, Uzbekistan. Unsurprisingly, these coins were first described in the Russia numismatic literature. When I searched CCF, I found only a few appearances of Sogdian coins (by @finn and @daviduk):

http://goccf.com/t/328580

http://goccf.com/t/255825

http://goccf.com/t/257235&whichpage=8#2365886

I should point out that there was also an interesting thread from @bobL on countermarked coins by the Sogdians:
http://goccf.com/t/275070

and Ron mentions them in his opus-in-progress, "Ancient Coin Reference Guide": https://www.coincommunity.com/pdf/A...ce-Guide.pdf


From what I gather, the coins of Soghd are found in both Silver and Copper, with the copper ones generally depicting an archer or a king stabbing an upright lion. Dating of them is uncertain due to the same designs being used for long periods of time and the inscriptions on these coins seem to have been badly blundered. I did reach out to Prof. Naymark at Hofstra University to get a copy of his recent paper, "The Coinage of Nakhshab during the First-Fourth Centuries CE. Towards a New Systematization of Sogdian Coinages and the Political History of Sogd during Antiquity" As with so many folks in academia, he was eager to share his knowledge. From this paper, the timing of the transition between coins depicting an archer and the "lion-stabber" or Leontomachia is pinpointed to the 360s AD. The end date seems to be less certain, perhaps into the 6th Century. The attribution of my coin is Rtveladze #39 and zeno.ru #165642.