Studies on rock magnetic and paleointensity of some archaeological artifacts from Tamilnadu,India

This study investigates the magnetic mineralogy and paleointensity values of a collection of archaeological artifacts(pottery) . The actual magnetic carriers and their domain states present in the archaeological pottery were obtained using the low field susceptibility,thermomagnetic curves and acquisition of isothermal remanence. The magnetic mineralogy of all the samples was dominated by ferrimagnetic mineral(magnetite/magnetite with low titanium content) ,which was suitable for paleointensity measurements. The geomagnetic paleointensity value obtained by subjecting them to modified Thellier and Thellier method,is found to be(48.81±0.15) μT.