A note on a gold ‘tali’ from Kota Cina
E. Edwards McKinnon’s brief note describes a gold tāli (a South Indian married-women’s pendant) excavated in 1976 at Location 1, Kota Cina, and identifies it as an imitation of an Egyptian Fatimid or Ayyubid gold dinar of the twelfth century (p. 117).
Summary
The tāli is a flat, coin-like disc 18 mm in diameter, made from two pieces of gold foil joined by a suspension loop and a small clasp, recovered at a depth of 0.60 m and surrendered to the Medan museum (p. 117). Michael L. Bates of the American Numismatic Society confirmed it is an imitation of a Fatimid or Ayyubid gold dinar dating to A.D. 1098–1200, with illegible Kufic inscriptions that are merely decorative lines intended to convey the impression of script (p. 117).
McKinnon situates the find within Kota Cina’s well-documented South Indian connections, noting that the tāli is a distinctly Hindu ornament of the bottu type common in Andhra, Kannada, and Maharashtra, and that Bates’ dating preference for the middle of the twelfth century helps refine the span of occupation at the site (p. 117).