Estudio arqueomagnético de un horno excavado en el yacimiento romano de Mérida (Extremadura, España)

Abstract

We present the archaeomagnetic results from a Roman oven excavated in an archaeological site in Extremadura, (Southwestern Spain) called Mitreo’s house. Before the construction of the house, the site wasused as an artisanal installation. For this reason, its archaeomagnetic dating can yield information about theabandonment of the artisanal installation and the onset of the construction of the house. We have carried outdirectional studies (thermal demagnetization –TH- and stepwise alternating field –AF-), archaeointensityexperiments with the Thellier-Coe protocol and rock-magnetic analyses. The mean direction obtained forthe oven is: declination = 0.8°; inclination = 53.8°; (N = 32; k = 425; α95 = 1.2°). The archaeointensity determinations have been obtained from 26 of 28 samples and a correction has been applied taking into accountthe effect of anisotropy. The corrected archaeointensity mean value yields 56.6 ± 5.4µT. The mean directionand archaeointensity mean values were compared with the geomagnetic model SHA.DIF.14k. Two possibletime intervals appeared to match the results obtained: 42 BC – 151 AD and 296 – 516 AD, both at the 95%confidence level. Taking into account the archaeological context, the most coherent chronological intervalis 42 BC – 151 AD (95%). This date is in agreement with the pottery associated with the oven, whose mostmodern fragment of sigillata itálica tipology dates between 40 – 80 AD. Thus, we can affirm that the lastuse of the oven and the onset of the construction of Mitreo’s house was between the 1st and 2nd century AD.