Archaeomagnetic results from mural paintings and pyroclastic rocks in Pompeii and Herculaneum

Physics

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Scientific paper

This work investigates the magnetic remanence associated with red pigments from murals at Pompeii and compares their directions to those of the pyroclastic rocks from the Vesuvius AD 79 eruption. The remanence of the murals is shown, using X-ray analyses, to be carried by haematite. Murals in Thermae Stabianae, known to have been painted a few years before AD 79, yield an archaeomagnetic direction (D=1.2°, I=58.0° α95=5.5°) indistinguishable from that of a nearby kiln (D=358.0°, I=59.1° α95=1.7°) ([Evans and Mareschal, 1989]) probably last used immediately prior to the eruption. The directions are also consistent with those of fine-grained pyroclastic rocks from the eruption (D=351.2°, I=57.9° α95=3.4°) and lithic and tile fragments embedded within them (D=358.5°, I=60.4° α95=8.5°). Other paintings of the 1st century AD yield similar directions, with a lower statistical definition. This study shows that murals can retain their remanent magnetization for centuries and demonstrates the viability in principle of pictorial remanence as an archaeomagnetic tool.

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