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.