Published this week in PNAS and reported on by Phys.org as well as mass media, a new paper describes the use of geomagnetic field data to “reconstruct biblical military campaigns” – an interesting study, and one in which our Model 8604 VSM was used for certain supporting measurements.
Involving researchers from different countries and disciplines, the joint study by Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University introduced an approach that applies archaeomagnetic investigation to the remains of ancient towns that were destroyed by fire. According to the authors, “the new magnetic data provided chronological insights that enabled linking archaeological contexts with specific military campaigns, shedding new light on the history of the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah.”
As part of the study, researchers conducted archaeointensity experiments primarily on burnt mud brick specimens unearthed in archaeological excavations, utilizing their new approach to date the samples to times of “very high geomagnetic field intensity.” Lake Shore’s VSM was specifically used for magnetic hysteresis and first-order reversal curve (FORC) measurements of the samples, with further FORC diagram analysis done using FORCinel.
You can read the entire paper here.
