Elemental Analysis

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.

During the surveys to 2014-2019, Northern Kuhdasht county was studied with the aim of identifying the potential of ancient metalwork and the existence of sites related to the metalworking activities. These Surveys have yielded eighty sites containing slag and or possible places related to industrial activities. In this research, the physical and chemical properties of slags recovered from ten places in four sites, namely Changari, Chalghesholeh, Sargiz, and Dalab, have been studied. The main purpose of this study has been to identify the type of smelting and melting techniques used in the past. For this aim, petrographic and elemental analyses have been done on the slag samples to investigate the mineralogical and chemical compositions.