The Elemental Analysis of Elymais Period Coins by PIXE Technique and Their Statistical Analysis by Spss Software

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 archaeology Department, Tarbiat Modarres. Tehran

2 Archaeology, Tehran university

3 Archaeology Department, Tehran University

Abstract

Elymais had existed as a semi-autonomous and sometimes autonomous satrap, coinciding with Seleucids and the Parthians in the southwest and west Iran. This government played an active presence in political and economic domains of the region from the mid-second century BC to the advent of the Sasanian Empire. This paper tries to study the historical coins of Elymaean using archaeometry. The method is a valuable criterion for the recognition of size and weight of those coins. Elemental studies of coins give us valuable information in connection with particle size used, combinations percentage of the coins, and applied metallurgy in their manufacturing. In other words, the study provides groundwork for understanding the economic and political structures as well as commercial communications of the society. The difference in the quantity of element may provide information about the mining of these metals. As such bronze and silver coins belonging to the Elymaean have been studied using PIXE technique to know about the concentration of elements, the number of mines as well as mints through the elemental analysis and the definition of the chemical composition of metals. To achieve the mentioned goals, we analyzed 35 coins involving three periods of Elymaean (from 85 BC to 224 AD). The results showed that the percentage of elements in coins such as silver and copper in the three periods were different but have had more purity in the first period. Furthermore, the analyzed coins are minted at six places and raw materials were brought from three different mines. Lastly, the statistical analysis is performed with SPSS software.

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Main Subjects

🔓 © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Tissaphernes Archaeological Research Group, Tehran, Iran. Open Access. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeriv- archives License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The ethical policy of Persica Antiqua is based on the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) guidelines and complies with International Committee of Persica Antiqua Editorial Board codes of conduct. Readers, authors, reviewers and editors should follow these ethical policies once working with Persica Antiqua. The ethical policy of Persica Antiqua is liable to determine which of the typical research papers or articles submitted to the journal should be published in the concerned issue. For information on this matter in publishing and ethical guidelines please visit www.publicationethics.org.

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History

  • Receive Date: 16 January 2022
  • Revise Date: 15 February 2022
  • Accept Date: 04 March 2022

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