Investigation of Coins Excavated from the Historical City of Ujan: Archaeological Finds

The historical city of Ujan, located in in East Azerbaijan northwest Iran, has been one of the most important cities of the Ilkhanid dynasty (1256 to 1335 AD). A number of coins were found during the excavation and study of the site by Tehran University’s Archaeological Board in 2017-2020. In this article, 13 coins have been analyzed and reported. The coins were cleaned as much as possible so that the inscriptions and designs were examined and read, whose results are presented in this paper. All of the 13 coins are minted in the styles attributed to the Abu Sa’id period, the last powerful Mongol Ilkhanid ruler born in Ujan. Based on elemental analysis, most coins are copper. Two of them are made of bronze alloy (copper-tin) and the other is made of brass alloy (copper-zinc). The use of lead has been reported in the composition of all alloyed coins. All the coins unearthed from Ujan excavations have been minted in the city of Tabriz. This is probably due to the commercial and economic importance of Tabriz in the Ilkhanid period, because no evidence of minting coins has been found or reported in the Ujan area so far. The analyses of the coins are indicative of important historical, cultural and political facts about the Ilkhanid dynasty.