Article

Archéomagnétisme à Mishirfeh-Qatna: Nouvelles données sur l'évolution de l'intensité du champ magnétique terrestre au Moyen-Orient durant les derniers millénaires

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Abstract

We present new archeointensity data obtained from two groups of jar pottery fragments found in Mishirfeh-Qatna (sectors T and O), respectively dated to the Late Bronze I (~1550-1350 bc ; archeomagnetic site SY99) and Iron II (destruction of Qatna probably by the troops of Sargon II around 720 BC ; archeomagnetic site SY01) periods. The analyses carried out using an experimental protocol involving high-temperature magnetization measurements allow one to obtain the following mean intensity values: SY01 : 72.7±2.8 pT ; SY99 : 61.3±1.3 pT. These results do confirm the occurrence of very high geomagnetic field intensity values during the beginning of the first millennium BC and might further indicate the occurrence of another peak in intensity, but with a much more reduced amplitude, around the middle of the second millennium BC. This study therefore gives us the opportunity to present our project in Syria, which aims at recovering the geomagnetic field intensity variations over the past millennia from the archeomagnetic analyses of dated archeological baked clays. This record will allow one to constrain the regional behavior of the Earth’s magnetic field during the Holocene and it could also be used as a dating tool for archeological purposes.

How to Cite:

Gallet, Y., (2010) “Archéomagnétisme à Mishirfeh-Qatna: Nouvelles données sur l'évolution de l'intensité du champ magnétique terrestre au Moyen-Orient durant les derniers millénaires”, Akkadica 131(1), 29–46. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/akkadica.99597

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