is suggested by the recent British excavations of the famous temple of Artemis at Ephesus[667]. There, below the temple erected in the days of Croesus and to which he contributed the sculptured column now in the British Museum, the excavators found remains of three earlier structures. While clearing out these early buildings they found 87 electrum coins. Twenty of these were extracted from between the slabs of the earliest of the three buildings, five (including four of the lion type) were extracted from underneath the foundations of the second building, and all low down within the area of these three early structures. The total evidence points to all the 87 coins being not later than the time of the first of the three buildings, _i.e._ well before the time of Croesus. The series begins with the striated type (above fig. 19. _a_) that is generally regarded as the most primitive of all, while far the commonest type (42 coins) is the lion’s head of the style usually attributed to Alyattes[668]. From the latest building to the earliest coin means a considerable period, and may well take us back into the eighth century. General historical considerations are however against going back too far into the eighth century. It was only in the course of that century that brigandage and piracy gave place to trade and commerce and the first traces can be discovered of the great renaissance that led to Classical Greece. If the earliest coins were struck by Lydia they are more likely to have been issued in the second half of the century than the first, since the establishment of the second Assyrian empire in 745 B.C. probably gave a great impetus to Lydian trade. This, however, is assuming the claims of Lydia to the “invention.” They have been frequently challenged and before proceeding it is necessary briefly to examine them. [Sidenote: The evidence for attributing them to Lydia.]