Gravestone Attributed to an Armenian King of Commagene

According to a news report of 19 August 2019, anti-smuggling police in Turkey’s north-western province of Balıkesir, while searching two cars, seized a 2,000-year-old gravestone bearing the inscription “The last resting place of Antiochus, ruler of the Kingdom of Commagene”. The smugglers planned to sell it for 2 million lira (281,000 dollars).

According to the source, Commagene was an Armenian kingdom of the Hellenistic period, and its kings were of Artaxiad descent. The ruins of the tomb-sanctuary of King Antiochus on the summit of Mount Nemrut were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1987.

The picture shows a stone slab with a relief of human figures at the top and a two-line inscription in Greek letters beneath them. Below are images of two coins, captioned as coins of Antiochus I of Commagene and Tigranes II the Great.