Variations in geomagnetic field and temperature in Spain during the past millennium

Abstract

The archaeomagnetic studies are conducted for the collection of coated ceramic samples from the Albarracin archaeological monument in Spain dated to the 10–20th centuries A.D. The pattern of variations in geomagnetic field intensity during this time interval is identified. The behavior of geomagnetic intensity is dominated by a decreasing trend (from ∼80 to 40 μT). The variation with a characteristic time of a few hundred years is the most striking one. Investigation of the material from this collection by the method of rehydroxylation provided the temperature estimates for this region of Spain for the time interval of pottery production. The temperature variations generally tend to increase, while the main trend in the variations of geomagnetic intensity is decreasing. The time series of temperature and intensity of the main magnetic field contain variations with close characteristic times shifted in time so that the changes in temperature go somewhat ahead of the changes in the geomagnetic field. It was previously suggested to improve the accuracy and resolution of the obtained variations in the past magnetic field using the method of archaeomagnetic dating of the material from archaeological monuments. The method was tested by dating the pottery kiln material from the El Molon monument, Spain, with the use of the virtual geomagnetic pole curve based on the past magnetic field in the East Europe. The method proved to be quite efficient and promising for dating the archaeological material from all over Europe.