Ash Trees

Ash: Akkadian aṣu and ašu meaning “expelled thing” via Middle English asshe, Old English æsce, Old High German asca, German asche, Middle Dutch asche, Gothic azgo "ashes." Fires expel ashes. The ash tree was the expeller tree due to its clumps of flying seeds. Because creation was thought to be the manifestation of invisible forms expelled by the divine realm, the ash tree was also the Yggdrasil creation tree of Norse myth. Christian Ash Wednesday is a time of expelling sinful behaviors prior to Easter.

Southern British Celtic Gold Coin Showing Ash Tree Leaf and Horse 500-400 CE

(April 18, 2024, updated June 15, 2025) Gold Iron Age stater. Weight: 5.26 grams, Diameter: 17.26 mm. This attests to the wealth of the area due to tin mining in Cornwall.

Letter assignments by Olmsted. Image from British Portable Antiquities Scheme at https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/record/id/1107712

The text style is Aegean Island which would normally date it to between 500 to 400 BCE in the Mediterranean although this style seems to have been preserved longer in the north. This coin does not show the lordification/personification influences of the Hellenstic empire and it does not yet shows the abstraction phase of celtic coins so it must date to between 400 and 500 BCE.

This coin was discovered by a metal detectorist on Saturday 15th April 2023 in southern Britain (exact location not provided). Its dimensions are: Thickness: 3.2 mm, Weight: 5.26 g, Diameter: 17.26 mm.

Left image is an ash tree which is associated with the magical motion powers. Consequently, the ash tree is unlike the life power trees of oak, thorn, and yew tree with their broad crowns which correspond to the life network (Thorn and yew also have red berries). Together with the oak and thorn, the ash tree was part of a magical trilogy in fairy lore. Ash seedpods may be used in divination, and the wood has the power to ward off fairies, especially on the Isle of Man. In Gaelic Scotland children were given the astringent sap of the tree as a medicine and as a protection against witch-craft.

The right image is a winged horseman.

Left Side Translation in Akkadian (Med Text 116)

(read left to right! Capital letters on object. Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)

UYa ReYu
Bu Ya'u
PaYu

In English

Fate-cursed are the shepherd-priests (who do astrology-magic)
Nourish Yahu's (Y')
network-birds

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_sacred_trees