Elemental Analysis of Silver Coins of the Hormizd IV Sassanids, Issued in Bishapur by PIXE Method

Author

Assistant Professor, Archaeological Department, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran.

Abstract

The reign of Hormizd IV Sassanids (579-590 AD) should be considered a period full of wars and conflicts with other governments and tribes. Here the coins can be considered a valuable document in archaeological data that were not created like the texts for the purpose of re-reading, hence the elemental analysis of coins of this period, especially using the PIXE method, can provide valuable information about the political-economic situation to provide a better analysis of the situation at that time. Since the city of Bishapur is an important and stable city in that era and has one of the most active mints, it was selected as a sample in this study. The coins of the Hormizd IV were Issued in Bishapur in 10 different years, so from each date, 2 coins were selected for testing, and in addition, 2 coins from Khosrow I (531-579 AD) and 2 coins from Khosrow II (591-628 AD) was also added for comparison. The main questions of this research are: 1- Elemental analysis of the coins of Hormizd IV, multiplied by Bishapur, what analysis of the elemental structure of the coins provides? 2- How was the economic power and monetary policies of the Hormizd IV period compared to the reigns of Khosrow I and Khosrow II, relying on Bishapur coins? As a result, it was found that the average amount of silver purity of these coins was 95.25% and the amount of 3.08% copper was added to the metal of the coins to grade it, and also due to the presence of lead (0.05%) and gold (0.90%) in These coins indicated that the silver mines used were in fact lead mines of the Cerussite type. In addition, the lower purity of silver, the high amount of copper and the greater elemental diversity of the coins of Hormizd IV, showed that the quality of coins of that period was lower than the coins of Khosrow I and Khosrow II.

Keywords

References

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pazhoheshha-ye Bastan shenasi Iran
Volume 12, Issue 34 - Serial Number 34
January 2023
Pages 215-240

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