Gallet, Y, Fortin, M, Fournier, A et al. (2 more authors) (2020) Analysis of geomagnetic field intensity variations in Mesopotamia during the third millennium BC with archeological implications. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 537. 116183. p. 116183. ISSN 0012-821X
Abstract
We present new archeointensity results obtained at two multi-layer archeological sites, Tell Atij and Tell Gudeda (northeastern Syria), dated from the Early Bronze Period in the third millennium BC. The archeointensity data were obtained using the experimental protocol developed for the Triaxe magnetometer. In total, 68 fragments (204 specimens) of 151 fragments analyzed passed our selection criteria, allowing average intensity values to be estimated for 14 archeological layers, nine at Tell Atij and five at Tell Gudeda. Based on the available archeological constraints, the different archeological layers of Tell Atij and Tell Gudeda were dated between ∼2900 BC and ∼2600 BC and between ∼2550 BC and ∼2325 BC, respectively. The Tell Atij data show a significant increase in intensity over the dated period, while the results from Tell Gudeda exhibit a V-shape evolution. Using high-quality data available from Syria, the Levant and Turkey, a regional geomagnetic field intensity variation curve spanning the entire third millennium BC was constructed using a trans-dimensional Bayesian method. It clearly shows two intensity peaks, around 2600 BC and at ∼2300 BC, associated with variation rates of ∼0.1-0.2 μT/yr. This indicates that the occurrence of century-scale intensity peaks with rates of variation comparable to or even slightly higher than the maximum rates observed in the modern geomagnetic field is an ubiquitous feature of the geomagnetic secular variation. From an archeological point of view, the new archeointensity data strengthen the hypothesis that the successive occupation of Tell Atij and Tell Gudeda was synchronous with the two first urban phases of Mari, making possible a sustained trade network between these settlements during the third millennium BC. We further suggest that the end of Mari's first urban phase, contemporaneous with the abandonment of Tell Atij, might have been caused by a regional drought episode around 2600 BC. More generally, the Bayesian approach used to estimate the new reference intensity variation curve offers promising chronological constraints for archeological purposes.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | ©2020 Elsevier B.V. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | archeomagnetism; archeointensity; Near East; third millennium BC; variation rates; archeological implications |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst of Geophysics and Tectonics (IGT) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Mar 2020 14:26 |
Last Modified: | 03 Mar 2021 01:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.epsl.2020.116183 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:158126 |