Further Evidence of High Intensity During the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly in Southwestern Europe: Full Vector Archeomagnetic Dating of an Early Iron Age Dwelling From Western Spain

Abstract

The direction and the intensity of the Earth's magnetic field (EMF) change with time at a regional scale. Archeomagnetism uses this variation to date burnt archeological materials that have registered the EMF during their last use. We present the archeomagnetic study of a house in Cerro de San Vicente, an Early Iron Age archeological site in Salamanca (Spain). Archeomagnetic dating is especially interesting because other dating techniques like 14C do not yield a precision better than 400 yr in this period. Archeomagnetic data for this period and region are scarce, and our data support the existence of an intensity peak in the EMF for this period and region. The study is focused on the central fireplace of the house, a burnt surrounding floor area, and slags which were found on the floor. The dating obtained for the central fireplace yields an age of 644–575 BCE, determining the last use and the probable abandonment of the house. The dating obtained for slags yields 912–804 BCE, indicating that they are older than the central fireplace. Additionally, we have obtained geoarcheological information related with domestic activities, such as the covering of floors with textile matting items and habitual chores like sweeping.