Further Evidence of High Intensity During the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly in Southwestern Europe: Full Vector Archeomagnetic Dating of an Early Iron Age Dwelling From Western Spain

Abstract

We report an archeomagnetic study from the Early Iron Age archeological site of Cerro de San Vicente (Salamanca, Spain). The studied materials were sampled from one roundhouse and its central fireplace, a surrounding burnt floor, and slags with a twofold objective. First, to archeomagnetically determine the last use of the central fireplace, because dating with other methods was imprecise. Second, to retrieve information about the Earth's magnetic field in Western Europe from a period when the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly (LIAA) has been occasionally reported. This study includes mineralogical, archeomagnetic directional analyses, and multimethod archeointensity determinations. Paleomagnetic analyses of the central fireplace yield a mean direction: declination D = 15.1°, inclination I = 52.5°; k = 477.1, and α95 = 5.6°. Archeointensity determinations yield a mean anisotropy‐corrected archeointensity of 72.4 ± 2.0 μT (74.7 ± 4.3 μT if a pTRM‐check correction is applied) on the central fireplace and 48.2 ± 2.0 μT on slags. A full‐vector archeomagnetic dating was performed with the SHA.DIF.4k geomagnetic field model which yielded an age interval of last use of the central fireplace between 644 and 575 BCE (654–575 BCE with the pTRM‐check corrected data) at 95% confidence level. This date agrees with the archeological context. Results allows to place the high paleointensity obtained near the maximum observed in Iberia at this age, confirming the existence of this peak related to the LIAA in Western Europe where records of this feature are still scarce.

Exploring geomagnetic variations in ancient Mesopotamia: Archaeomagnetic study of inscribed bricks from the 3rd–1st millennia BCE

“…1050 to 550 BCE, consisting of extremely high-intensity values-virtual axial dipole moments (VADMs; 30) higher than 160 ZAm 2 -and rapid changes in Earth's magnetic field, now known as the Levantine Iron Age geomagnetic Anomaly, (LIAA, [10][11][12]. Recent research has corroborated the existence of the high-intensity values (above 150 ZAm 2 ) of the LIAA as far as Turkey (29), Georgia (31), Bulgaria (32), Italy and Greece (33), Spain (8,34,35), the Canary Islands (36), the Azores (37), and China (38). Based on this evidence, the question of the geographical extent and spread over time of the LIAA has been the subject of discussion and debate (6,8,10,12,32,39,40).…”

Iron Age Connectivity Revealed by an Assemblage of Egyptian Faience in Central Iberia

“…House 1 was a remarkable roundhouse, as indicated by its ritualized destruction and its mudbrick furnishings and contents. It was filled with the mudbricks from its walls after a violent and purposeful conflagration that took place in c. 650-575 BC (García-Redondo et al, 2021). Instead of the single bench common in other houses, it contained two continuous benches (over 3 m long) that could accommodate twenty people, a trampled-earth floor periodically refurbished and covered with matting, and a central fireplace unparalleled in the region with an ox-hide-shaped plan echoing Tartessian examples and much larger than the ordinary rectangular hearths.…”

Mobile craftspeople and orientalising transculturation in seventh-century BC Iberia

“…Unlike the other contemporaneous dwellings, this house featured two benches suitable for up to 20 individuals and an unusual central fireplace, with an ox-hide-shaped plan echoing examples known from Tartessian sites (Celestino & López-Ruiz 2016: 238–53; Figure 2c). The trampled-earth floor of the house was periodically refurbished and covered with matting (García-Redondo et al 2021). All interior surfaces were also periodically replastered, while walls displayed brightly coloured coatings in red, white and black.…”

“…This burning has been accurately dated to c . 650–575 BC by combined dating methods (García-Redondo et al 2021). After the fire, the house's burnt exterior walls were dismantled and the adobes used to infill the interior space.…”