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Archaeomagnetic Research in Italy: Recent Achievements and Future Perspectives

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The Earth's Magnetic Interior

Part of the book series: IAGA Special Sopron Book Series ((IAGA,volume 1))

Abstract

During the last two decades, important advances in archaeomagnetic research in Italy have been made, both in the acquisition of new data and in the improvement of methodologies and data elaboration techniques. Nowadays, 73 directional and 23 intensity results are available, mainly obtained from archaeological sites situated in southern Italy. Most of the data come from the study of ancient kilns and ceramics and their ages range from 1300 BC to 1600 AD. The quantity and quality of the available Italian directional data have permitted the construction of reference secular variation (SV) curves for declination and inclination, using the latest improvements on curve building techniques. These curves describe, with reasonable accuracy, the variations of the Earth’s magnetic field in Italy for the 600 BC to 600 AD period, for which many data are available. For older BC periods and for the Medieval times data are still very scarce. Archaeomagnetic dating of in situ archaeological materials is now possible but still caution is needed for the time periods where the reference SV curves are accompanied by large error envelopes. Certainly more new, high quality directional and intensity data of well dated archaeological material are necessary to better describe the variations of the Earth’s magnetic field during the past and to make reliable archaeomagnetic dating possible, based on the full description of the Earth’s magnetic field vector.

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Acknowledgments

Elena Zanella is highly acknowledged for her useful comments on an early version of the manuscript. I would also like to sincerely thank Roberto Lanza for his precious advices and for continuously encouraging me to work on archaeomagnetism. Two anonymous reviewers are acknowledged for their useful remarks and Emilio Herrero-Bervera is greatly thanked for inviting me to participate in this IAGA Special Series Book.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università degli Studi di Torino, Via Valperga Caluso 35, 10125, Torino, Italy

    Evdokia Tema

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  1. Evdokia Tema
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Correspondence to Evdokia Tema .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Geophysical Institute, ASCR Praha, Bocni II / 1401, Praha 4, 141 31, Czech Republic

    Eduard Petrovský

  2. School of Mathematics & Statistics, Dept. Pure Mathematics, University of Sydney, Sydney, 2006, New South Wales, Australia

    David Ivers

  3. National Geophysical Research Institute, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500007, India

    T Harinarayana

  4. School of Ocean & Earth Science &, Technology (SOEST), University of Hawaii, East-West Road 1680, Honolulu, 96822, Hawaii, USA

    Emilio Herrero-Bervera

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Tema, E. (2011). Archaeomagnetic Research in Italy: Recent Achievements and Future Perspectives. In: Petrovský, E., Ivers, D., Harinarayana, T., Herrero-Bervera, E. (eds) The Earth's Magnetic Interior. IAGA Special Sopron Book Series, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0323-0_15

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