The Balkan Peninsula and archaeomagnetism – a brief review

Mary Kovacheva

Geophysical Institute, bl. 3, Acad. Bonchev str., Sofia 1113, Bulgaria; e-mail: marykov@geophys.bas.bg

Abstract: During the past few decades our knowledge of past geomagnetic field behaviour has increased significantly thanks to enhanced work undertaken in the field of archaeomagnetism. The Balkan Peninsula has a very rich cultural heritage and is therefore a perfect area for the development of archaeomagnetic studies, especially Greece. Because of its well-dated archaeological sites it has for a long time drawn special interest from geophysicists aiming to study the characteristics of the past geomagnetic field. The accumulation of archaeomagnetic determinations of the direction and intensity of the past geomagnetic field is a long and difficult task, which requires updating and validation of old results parallel to the new methodological approaches. Thus a revision of all published data is required when compiling the archaeomagnetic databases from different regions. In this paper a review of Balkan's scientists achievements in revealing the past geomagnetic field variations is presented. The Reference list contains the publications that are known to the author by Balkan's scientists in the field of archaeomagnetism.

Key Words: archaeomagnetism, directional results, palaeointensity determinations, periods in the geomagnetic field secular variation, dating.