Tracking the magnetic mineralogy and thermal stability of ancient pottery from Japan: Insights on the success of Thellier archaeointensity experiments

Japan is a country with very rich cultural heritage and long-lasting volcanic activity, providing an ideal place for the reconstruction of the Secular Variation (SV) of the Earth’s magnetic field in East Asia. In fact, since the ’60, several studies have been carried out and a large number of directional and intensity data from both volcanic rocks and archaeological artifacts are available for the Japanese archipelago, covering almost continuously the last two millennia. However, even though such data consist of a very important contribution in archaeomagnetic research worldwide, most of them come from studies published over 20 years ago, thus, missing recent advances in experimental protocols and laboratory techniques, such as anisotropy and cooling rate corrections. This project aims to investigate the geomagnetic field intensity variation in Japan during the last millennia through the study of pottery collections coming from the archaeological sites of Shikata (Okayama prefecture) and Kawaminetsuji (Tokunoshima Island), with particular emphasis on the magnetic mineralogy thermal stability of the investigated samples.