An updated catalogue of Greek archaeomagnetic data for the last 4500 years and a directional secular variation curve

Abstract

National audienceWe present an updated compilation of Greek directional archaeomagnetic data for the last 4.5 millennia. The data set comprises 89 directions from archaeological artefacts and volcanic rocks. Most of the data come from the Late Bronze Age (1700-1400 BC) that is the flourishing period of the Minoan civilization in Crete, while parts of the classical (480-323 BC), Hellenistic (32-31 BC) and Roman (146 BC-330 AD) periods are also well covered. The dataset has been analysed using the Bayesian approach for curve building and a directional secular variation (SV) curve for Greece is proposed. Comparisons with regional and global model predictions show a general agreement even though some discrepancies are observed for some time intervals. The new curves together with the previously published intensity SV curve for Greece, also using the Bayesian approach, form a homogeneous set and enrich our knowledge of the full geomagnetic field vector variation in Greece during the last millennia

Archaeomagnetic study and thermoluminescence dating of Protobyzantine kilns (Megali Kypsa, North Greece)

“…Such constant declinations were already observed by De Marco et al (2014) for this period, and also in Central and Western Europe for the period 500BC-500 AD (Márton, 2010). A recent study on Italian archaeointensities supports little or no variations for the period 200BC to 400 AD, around a mean value of 63 μΤ (Tema et al, 2013b).…”

“…Despite this progress, the temporal and spatial coverage of data used to build the reference curves remains uneven, especially at the country scale (Genevey et al, 2008;Tema and Kondopoulou, 2011). Such curves are also available for Greece, both for intensities (De Marco et al, 2008;Tema et al, 2012;Fanjat et al, 2013) and directions, which were recently compiled by De Marco et al, 2014. Intensity data cover the last 8000 years, while directions extend within the last 4500 years only.…”

Archaeomagnetism of four pottery kilns in central Portugal: Implications for secular variation and dating

“…Sustained investigations, however, did not really get underway until the seminal work of Émile Thellier in France (Thellier, 1936), and its somewhat later counterpart in Britain (Cook and Belshé, 1958;Aitken and Weaver, 1962). Since then, a substantial body of data has been built up from several European countries including Austria (Schnepp and Lanos, 2006), Belgium (Hus and Geeraerts, 1998;Spassov et al, 2008), Britain (Zananiri et al, 2007), Bulgaria (Kovacheva et al, 2014), Denmark (Abrahamsen, 1996), France (Thellier, 1981;Bucur, 1994), Germany (Schnepp and Lanos, 2005), Greece (Evans, 2006;De Marco et al, 2014), Hungary (Márton, 2003), and Italy (Evans and Hoye, 2005;Tema et al, 2006). For Spain, a few preliminary data appeared sporadically, but the first systematic compilation was published by Gómez-Paccard et al (2006a).…”

Dating of ancient kilns: A combined archaeomagnetic and thermoluminescence analysis applied to a brick workshop at Kato Achaia, Greece

“…During last decades, important progress on archaeomagnetic dating has been done and it has been successfully applied in several case studies in the Mediterranean area, mainly involving the study of the direction of the geomagnetic field vector (e.g. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]).…”

“…The accumulated dose is stored by means of trapped charge in crystal defects, which is stable over long periods of time but can be released either by heating or exposing the crystal to light. This release can take place accidentally in a natural way or alternatively artificially, at the laboratory, giving thus rise to thermoluminescence (TL) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) respectively [8][9][10]. The brightness of the luminescence signal reflects the amount of trapped charge.…”