Abstract
When pottery is fired and subsequently cooled in the earth’s magnetic field it acquires a moment which for fields ≲ 2–3 Oe is proportional to the intensity. It is possible to deduce this intensity from the magnetization. If the variation in intensity is sufficiently rapid it should be possible to use the information to refine a date for a piece of pottery. Values for the geomagnetic intensity in Athens between 2000 B.C. and A.D. 400 have been obtained from sherds excavated from wells and grave sites in the ancient Agora.1 These data reveal fluctuations in intensity with values as high as twice the present day field in 600 B.C. and 450 B.C. The rate of change is sufficient to suggest the possibility of dating a piece of pottery to ± 30 years in some periods. Comparison of these data with that obtained by others for Central America and Japan indicate that the features are geophysical in origin. Thus, they may to some extent be used to predict the field at other locations on the earth’s surface. 1 D. Walton, Nature 277, 643 (1979).
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