New magnetic mineralogy and archaeointensity results from greek kilns and baked clays

Seven archaeological sites in Northern Greece and a pottery assemblage from Ithaki Island (Ionian Sea) have provided material from kilns and a collection of baked clays. The whole dataset consists of 69 samples and covers a period of almost 4000 years. Although the majority of the samples was oriented, only few directions could be obtained, mostly due to small sample size and fragility. Detailed rock magnetic experiments identified magnetite/titano-magnetite and substituted magnetite as the main magnetic minerals. Variable amounts of haematite were detected in some cases. In three out of eight sites, multi-domain grains prevail, whereas single-, pseudo-single domain or mixtures are detected in the remaining five. The classical Thellier-Thellier palaeointensity method was applied to 94 specimens. Following stringent acceptance criteria, 66 results from the 8 sites were considered successful and retained. These new results show a convergence with regional and global compilations and improve the knowledge of the past geomagnetic field behaviour in Greece.