The strength of the Earth’s magnetic field from Pre-Pottery to Pottery Neolithic, Jordan

<p>Constraining the secular variations of the Earth&#8217;s magnetic field strength in the past is fundamental to understanding short term processes of&#160;the geodynamo. Such records constitute a powerful and independent dating tool for archaeological sites and geological formations. In this&#160;study, we present 10 new and robust archaeointensity results from Pre-Pottery to Pottery Neolithic and, for one of the first times, flint (burnt&#160;chert) from Jordan. Two of these results constitute the oldest archaeointensity data for the entire Levant, ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia&#160;extending the archaeomagnetic dating reference for the Holocene. Virtual Axial Dipole Moments (VADM)s show that the Earth&#8217;s magnetic&#160;field in the Southern Levant was weak (about half the present field) at around 7,600 years BCE, recovering its strength to greater than the&#160;present field around 7,100 BCE and gradually weakening again around 5,200 years BCE. In addition, successful results obtained from burnt&#160;flint demonstrate the potential of this rarely used material in archaeomagnetic research, in particular for prehistoric periods from the first use&#160;of fire to the invention of pottery.</p>