Three millennia of directional variation of the Earth’s magnetic field in western Europe as revealed by archeological artefacts

Abstract

Directional secular variation of the geomagnetic field over the last 2000 years has been defined in western Europe from numerous archeomagnetic studies. However, the number of archeomagnetic results for older periods is much more limited. For this reason, we present new data obtained from fired archeological structures found in two French sites (Loupiac and Aspiran) dated within the first millennium b.c. (latest Bronze-earliest Iron Age transition, ∼850–700 b.c. and Iron Age, ∼525–475 b.c., respectively). From a compilation of archeomagnetic results from western Europe (Great Britain, Italy and France) and northern Africa (Tunisia), we propose a directional secular variation curve for western Europe that covers the entire first millennium b.c. This curve exhibits a large clockwise motion with rapid changes during the first half of the millennium, while the last four centuries b.c. are characterized by weak variations.