Variations of Geomagnetic Paleointensity Recorded in the Archeological Ceramics of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in the Central Russian Plain

Abstract

Astract—The paper reports petromagnetic and archeomagnetic studies of ceramic fragments of the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages from archeological sites of the Grishinskii Istok III, Tyukov hillfort, and Shishkino hillfort, which are located in the Oka River basin, Ryazan district, Russian Federation. In total, 43 determinations of geomagnetic field intensity were obtained for the time interval of 1500–400 B.C., including 10 determinations for ceramics of the Grishinskii Istok III, 11 determinations for ceramics of the Tyukov hillfort, and 22 determinations for ceramics of the Shishkino hillfort. The studied time interval is characterized by the elevated values of the geomagnetic field intensity of 55–59 μT, which are much higher than the average field intensity for the Russian Plain in the IV–first half of III millennium B.C. Obtained VADM values for central Russian Plain fall in a wide range of values obtained on the Georgian archeological sites located in the same longitudinal sector. A large scatter of data can be related both to the large error in 14C determination, which is comparable with the duration of the best studied time interval, and with the high rate of magnetic field variations within this time interval.