Archaeomagnetic study and dating of a Hellenistic site in Katerini (N. Greece)

Abstract Three pottery kilns from a large Hellenistic ceramic workshop at Katerini (Macedonia, Northern Greece) were studied archaeomagnetically. Palaeomagnetic investigation revealed a stable remanent magnetisation, well grouped with a mean direction of D site  = 349.3, I site  = 57.6 ( k  = 1913.0; α 95  = 2.8). A few samples exhibited anomalous results, this behaviour being related to sample locations in the archaeological feature, where the heating was probably not homogeneous. Archaeointensity determinations gave an averaged weighted result of F site  = 85.8 ± 7.8 μT. Rock magnetic analyses proved the suitability of the sampled materials for archaeomagnetic studies and revealed the presence of (metal substituted) magnetite as the main remanence carrier. Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility and, mainly, of the remanence magnetisation showed a comparatively high degree of anisotropy. Archaeomagnetic dating was performed using the three (inclination, declination and intensity) secular variation curves for Bulgaria, by applying a recently developed hierarchical Bayesian approach. The proposed age span corresponding to the most probable last usage of the kilns is from 505 BC to 287 BC, in good agreement with the archaeological estimation.