HR: 0800h
AN: GP21A-0007    [Abstracts]
TI: The Intensity of the Geomagnetic Field During the Last 6 Millennia as Recorded by Slag Deposits From Archaeological Sites in the Southern Levant
AU: * Ben-Yosef, E
EM: erezby@hotmail.com
AF: The Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91904 Israel
AU: Tauxe, L
EM: ltauxe@ucsd.edu
AF: Geosciences Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0220 United States
AU: Hagai, R
EM: hagairon@vms.huji.ac.il
AF: The Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91904 Israel
AU: Hagai, R
EM: hagairon@vms.huji.ac.il
AF: Western Galilee College, P.O.B 2125, Acre, 24121 Israel
AU: Agnon, A
EM: amotz@earth.es.huji.ac.il
AF: The Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91904 Israel
AU: Levy, T
EM: tlevy@ucsd.edu
AF: Department of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0532 United States
AU: Avner, U
EM:
AF: Arava Institute for Environmenal Studies, D.N. Hevel Eilot, Kibbutz Ketura, 88840 Israel
AU: Kessel, R
EM: kessel@vms.huji.ac.il
AF: The Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91904 Israel
AU: Najjar, M
EM: najjar_m@yahoo.com
AF: Department of Antiquities of Jordan, P.O. Box 88, Amman, 11110 Jordan
AU: Holtzer, A
EM:
AF: Arava Institute for Environmenal Studies, D.N. Hevel Eilot, Kibbutz Ketura, 88840 Israel
AU: Steindorf, J
EM:
AF: Geosciences Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0220 United States
AB: Copper-slag material from archaeological sites is a novel and highly promising medium to be used in paleointensity experiments. Its magnetization is carried by ultra fine grained magnetite and was acquired during fast cooling, often behaving nearly ideally during the paleointensity experiment. One of the richest archaeometallurgical regions in the eastern Mediterranean is located in the southern Levant, straddling the `Arava valley, the natural border between the modern states of Israel and Jordan. Metalworking activities cover a time span of more than six thousands years, beginning in the 5th millennium B.C., a date that coincides with innovations in metallurgy in many parts of the Old World. Here we will present results from 77 copper-slag samples from 28 archaeometallurgical sites from the `Arava valley plus several from other locations in Israel. We employed the alternating Infield-Zero field/Zero-field infield (IZZI) cooling method of Yu et al. 2004 on up to 10 specimens from each sample. We also performed anisotropy of anhysteretic remenance experiments. Using strict data selection criteria, 35 samples yielded acceptable results for about a 45% success rate. Moreover, we re-melted slag material and cooled it by exposure to laboratory air in a known field. The intensity results of this re-melted slag recovered the applied field lending confidence to the archaeointensity results. The data gained hitherto shows a fluctuating field behavior, with relatively low field intensity during the 6th millennium B.P. and a conspicuous peak around 3,000 B.P. These trends agree with the global world-model of Korte and Constable (2004), and are in excellent agreement with data from northern Syria (Genevey et al. 2003). Finally, we obtained results from archaeological sites with poor or disputed dating. These results suggest that certain localities were used over a long period of time, potentially reconciling the age disputes amongst archaeologists. Genevey, A.; Gallet, Y.; and Margueron, J. C., 2003. Eight thousands years of geomagnetic field intensity variations in the eastern Mediterranean. Journal of Geophysical Research 108. doi: 10.1029/2001JB001612. Yu, Y.; Tauxe, L.; and Genevey, A., 2004. Toward an optimal geomagnetic field intensity determination technique. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 5/2:1525-2027.
DE: 1503 Archeomagnetism
DE: 1521 Paleointensity
DE: 1522 Paleomagnetic secular variation
SC: Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism [GP]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005