An archeomagnetic analysis of burnt grain bin floors from ca. 1200 to 1250 AD Iron-Age South Africa |
| |
| Authors: | Levi P Neukirch John A Tarduno Thomas N Huffman Michael K Watkeys Cecilia A Scribner Rory D Cottrell |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA;2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA;3. School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;4. School of Geological Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 4000, South Africa |
| |
| Abstract: | Recognition of the rapid decay of Earth’s magnetic field over the last 150 years, chronicled in magnetic observatory and satellite data, highlights the need for a higher resolution record of geomagnetic field behavior over the past millennium. Such a record would help us better understand the nature of the recent dramatic changes. A limitation of the existing database is undersampling of the Southern Hemisphere. Here we investigate the potential of obtaining archeomagnetic data from Iron-Age burnt grain bins from southern Africa. These structures preserve oriented material that can record both paleodirections and paleointensity information. Directional data collected from three sites (ca. 1200–1250 AD) fall 9–22° to the East of predictions. Thellier–Coe and Shaw paleointensity results differ from model values by ～15%. The consistency of results between the three sites suggests that further investigations of these materials with different ages could markedly improve the current spatial distribution of the archeomagnetic database. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
