High quality absolute paleointensity data from Santa Fe, New Mexico

Abstract:

Preliminary paleointensity experiments were conducted using the IZZI protocol on one hundred and fourteen specimens from fifty-seven baked pottery fragments collected from nine archaeological sites near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Twenty of these fragments passed our weakest selection criteria. Seven additional specimens were made from each passing fragment for further paleointensity experiments. The results of these second experiments indicate that the samples are mildly anisotropic, so anisotropy experiments were conducted to correct for this behavior. Experiments to determine the cooling rate correction will be completed to ensure the robustness of the dataset.

Stylistic evidence, historical documentation, dendrochronology, and ¹⁴C analyses provide age constraints with up to decade resolution for the VADM results. The twenty pottery fragments analyzed span five distinct time periods between 1300 and 1900 AD. Our new results for each fragment differ slightly from those predicted by the cals3k.4b and arch3k models, suggesting the models require refinement. This is expected because there are few archaeomagnetic constraints on the models from this region.

Future pottery fragments and burned adobe fragments from the New Mexico area will be analyzed for paleointensity and combined with our pottery fragment data set to create a high-resolution paleointensity curve for the recent archaeological time in the American Southwest.