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Re-evaluating archaeomagnetic dates of the vitrified hillforts of Scotland
Suttie, Neil Batt, Catherine M.
Suttie, Neil
Batt, Catherine M.
Publication Date
2020-04
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© 2020 Elsevier. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license
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Yes
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openAccess
Accepted for publication
2020-01-21
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Abstract
A re-analysis of archaeomagnetic data from seven vitrified hillforts in Scotland, sampled in the 1980s, shows excellent agreement with recent radiocarbon dates. In the past thirty years our knowledge of the secular variation of the geomagnetic field has greatly improved, especially in the 1st millennium BC, allowing earlier archaeomagnetic data to be reconsidered. We evaluate the likelihood of the data with respect to a state-of-the-art field geomagnetic model and find close coherence between the observed directions and the model for the closing centuries of the first millennium BC. A new Bayesian method of calibration gives the most likely number of separate events required to produce a series of magnetic directions. We then show that the burning of three of the four oblong forts most likely took place around the same time, and our estimate for the date of this is indistinguishable from recent radiocarbon dates from another fort of similar type.
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Accepted manuscript
Citation
Suttie N and Batt CM (2020) Re-evaluating archaeomagnetic dates of the vitrified hillforts of Scotland. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 30: 102233.
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Article