Archeometric analysis of roman denarios of the treasure of Llíria (Valencia, Spain) through portable XRF spectrometry

Abstract

The Treasury of Llíria (Valencia, Spain) is probably the largest treasury of denarii in Spain and one of the most important in Europe. In this set of coins are represented the emissions of various emperors, mainly from 2nd century AD. This work focuses on the denarii coined under the reign of the Emperor Hadrian (AD 117-138) and one of its objectives is the characterization of the surface alloy and the study of the percentage variation of silver in the denarii emitted during that period. For this purpose, we analyze through X-ray fluorescence (XRF) 50 silver denarii selected from those issued during the reign of Hadrian. The nondestructive analyzes carried out provided information on the alloys and suggest a superficial enrichment in silver. Along with silver, the majority of the alloy, copper, lead, gold and other trace elements have been observed. The silver concentrations obtained vary between 89% and 97% and indicate a certain uniformity in the alloys, according to the period of economic and political stability of Hadrian’s reign.