Geomagnetics

Vom 07. Juni bis 15. September 2016 ist im Staatlichen Historischen Museum Moskau die Sonderausstellung »Die Griechen der Antike zwischen Pontos Euxeinos und Maiotis« zu sehen. In ihr werden zehn Jahre internationale und interdisziplinäre Forschung zur sog. Griechischen Kolonisation auf der Taman'-Halbinsel durch das archäologische ‘Bosporos Projekts’ präsentiert, das vom Staatlichen Historischen Museum Moskau und der Eurasien-Abteilung des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts in Berlin getragen wird. Im Begleitkatalog zur Ausstellung werden neben archäologischer Feldforschung und dem (Arbeits-) Leben aus den letzten 10 Jahren, auch Einblicke in interdisziplinäre Teilprojekte gegeben, ohne die aktuelle archäologische Projekte nicht mehr denkbar sind.
Am Anfang werden Impressionen der Ausstellungseröffnung am 07. Juni 2016 im Staatlichen Historischen Museum gezeigt (5-7). Darauf folgt ein Überblick über die Geschichte des ‘Bosporos Projekts’ auf der Taman'-Halbinsel, wobei ‘Highlights’ der Grabungstätigkeiten und der naturwissenschaftlichen Untersuchungsmethoden vorgestellt werden (8-20). Auf den allgemeinen Überblick folgen detaillierte Einblicke in die naturwissenschaftlichen Teilprojekte und der Bearbeitung ausgewählter archäologischer Funde. Die Paläogeographie hat die antike Landschaft rekonstruieren können, wie sie sich den Griechen dargestellt hatte. Völlig überraschend wurde dabei ein zweiter schiffbarer Wasserweg östlich der heutigen Straße von Kerč (dem antiken Kimmerischen Bosporus) aufgedeckt: der sog. Kuban-Bosporus (21-27). Diese Erkenntnis führte zur Zusammenarbeit mit Historikern und Philologen: archäologische und geomorphologische Erkenntnisse werden mit der historischen Geographie und Topographie abgeglichen (28-34). Im Rahmen des Projekts dienten zudem archäologische Surveys der Untersuchung des antike Siedlungssystem auf der Taman'-Halbinsel (35-39). Dann werden die zwischen 2006 und 2015 in der griechischen Siedlung Golubickaja 2 aufgedeckten Fundgattungen erläutert: die früheste griechische Importkeramik, die bis in das 1. Viertel des 6. Jh. v. Chr. zurückreicht (40-44); Terrakotten, die nach Herkunft, Datierung, Bedeutung und ihre Verwendung in der Antike dargestellt werden (45-51); Transportamphoren verschiedener Herstellungszentren, die aus einem Amphorenkomplex des 5. Jh. v. Chr. stammen (52-55); Amphorenstempel werden im Kontext des Bosporanischen Reichs nach Herkunft und Datierung vorgestellt (56-58); attische und attisierende schwarzfirnis Keramik aus dem 6. - 2. Jh. v. Chr. werden in ihrem Typenrepertoire erklärt (59-61); handgeformte Keramik wird im Bilde der Analogien aus den Nachbargebieten der indigenen Völker besprochen (62-64); Fundmünzen aus dem späten 6./Anfang 5. Jh. bis ans Ende des 2. Jh. v. Chr. erlauben einen Vergleich im Kontext des Bosporanischen Reichs (65-70); technische Geräte wie Reibsteine waren zur Herstellung des Grundnahrungsmittels Getreide notwendig (71-73); Knochenfunde geben Auskunft über die Zusammensetzung von Nutz- und Haustiere sowie des Speiseplans der Bewohner (74-76); ein ungewöhnliches Bodenobjekt neben der Siedlung gehört vermutlich zu einer Tonabbaugrube (77-79). Zuletzt werden noch zwei weitere Grabungsprojekte auf der Taman'-Halbinsel vorgestellt: Die Fortifikation der im 6. Jh. v. Chr. am Ufer des Kuban-Bosporus gegründeten griechischen Siedlung Strelka 2 (80-84) sowie das Heiligtum der Artemis Agrotera auf dem Berg 'Boris und Gleb' (85-89). Abschließend gewähren lokale chemische Gruppen sowie die Lokalisierung hellenistischer Keramik aus der sog. Kirbei-Werkstatt im kleinasiatischen Kyme einen Einblick in die laufenden archäometrischen Untersuchungen zur Herkunftsbestimmung der Keramik (90-93).

The Roman city of Balsa: new data and some problems of geophysical prospecting in very humanized environments. From May 2016 to May 2017, archaelogical work was carried out in the ancient Roman city of Balsa, a classified site located in the vicinity of Luz de Tavira. Systematic archaeological surveys, geophysical surveys and archaeological surveys were conducted in a large área. After a brief introduction to the importance and potential of the archaeological site, object of several destructions, we presente the results of the developed field work, focusing on the geospatial contextualization of the archaeological data, being later approached the chronoestratigraphic information. This sequence is dictated by the methodological consistency applied in the terrain and results obtained, by the scale of the áreas probed in relation of the size of the territory of the city of Balsa, and by the high archaeological-patrimonial relevance of the site. Finally, an approach is taken to some problems arising from the application of the diferente geophisical methods in abandoned urban sites, but with na intensive agricultural use of the soils for more than a Millennium, as is the case of the lands where the Roman city of Balsa was implanted.

In spring 2015, the Cucuteni sites of Scânteia (Iași County), Izvoare, Răucești (both Neamţ County),
Ţigǎnești, Stănișești and Fulgeriș (all Bacău County) where surveyed by gradiometer. At Scânteia, more than 50
burned houses, ordered in parallel lines, as well as a threefold ditch system were encountered. The magnetograms from
Fulgeriș, Izvoare and Răucești revealed also the typical, massive ditch systems, which were used on most Cucuteni sites
for the settlement's delimitation. To a certain extend, at Fulgeriș the spatial order of a settlement, aligned along a
central pathway is visible, while the other sites where not similarly informative. As a multi–layer settlement Izvoare
exhibits a condensed picture of overlying structures, while Răucești, Ţigǎnești and Stănișești show different stages of
destruction by erosion, caused by modern land–use. These range from disarticulated, but still present features up to the
presumably complete annihilation of any archaeological substance. The results show the extraordinary potential of the
Cucuteni sites for future, extensive landscape–archaeology, but they also indicate the probably short time during which
these unique sources of archaeological information will remain intact for analysis under the circumstances of today’s
more and more mechanized agriculture

The site Războieni-Cetate comprises a Roman auxiliary castle of an ala and a civil settlement. Inscriptions testify to the presence of the ala I Batavorum milliaria at least for the period 136-253. Gradiometer surveys and the analysis of air photography show the unusual structure of the castle’s barracks the living and stable units of which were significantly larger than at comparable sites. Partly stone-built areas with ovens in the vicus further indicate the intensity of the civil use of the settlement.

The paper deals with the second campaign of the Armenian-German Artaxata Project undertaken in 2019. The classical city of Artashat-Artaxata was founded in the 2nd century BC as the capital of the Armenian kingdom. The city stretches over the 15 hills of the Khor Virap heights and the adjacent plain in the Ararat valley. The new project, started in 2018, focusses on Hill XIII and the Lower city to the south and the north of it. This area was investigated by magnetic prospections in 2018 and on the basis of its results, in total eleven 5 × 5 m trenches were excavated. On the eastern part of Hill XIII several structures of possibly domestic function were uncovered. They were laid out according to a regular plan and in total three phases could be determined. According to C14 data, the first phase already dates to the 2nd-1st centuries BC while the subsequent two phases continue into the 1st century AD. In the 2019 campaign, the overall layout and exact function of the structures could not be determined and more excavations will be undertaken in the forthcoming years. North and northwest of Hill XIII the foundations of piers of an unfinished Roman aqueduct on arches were excavated. This aqueduct is attributed to the period 114-117 AD when the emperor Trajan in vain tried to establish the Roman province of Armenia with Artaxata being its capital. The excavated aqueduct is a unique architectural structure in Armenia and adjacent regions of the Near East.

The Roman villa rustica of Cham-Heiligkreuz (Canton Zug, Switzerland; see https://goo.gl/9qtK7w for its location on a map) was partly excavated in the 1930ies. The exact position of the excavation trenches has been debated for a long time and was only reconstructed in 1993 using archival data. This placement has now been verified by a combination of geomagnetic survey and aerial infrared photography even though the location of the villa's pars urbana is still unknown. Furthermore, numerous snow marks seem to show a network of (mostly undated, presumably post medieval and/or modern) paths and tracks in the area.

J. Reinhard, Chr. Rinne, R. Huber, Spurensuche mit Infrarotkamera, Metalldetektor und Magnetometer. Zur römischen villa rustica von Cham-Lindencham, Heiligkreuz. Tugium 34, 2018, 117-122 (for an additional 3D model see https://skfb.ly/6BRQP).

An electro-optical solar compass, designed and developed at the Frascati Research Centre of the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development
(ENEA), has been tested for geomagnetic measurement at the Concordia Station polar observatory. This device, compact, not expensive, fast and very accurate, is able to measure the Sun direction and, consequently, the North Pole direction, within 1/100 of degree.
It is extremely more accurate and reliable than a magnetic compass and its performance is comparable with that of the expensive modern GPS and gyroscopic systems, without the drawback of long measuring time and/or latitude-dependency.
The ENEA compass provides the direction of the true (geographic) North and can be used to determine the exact orientation of solar concentrating power plants as well as to calibrate other compasses or for topographic surveying and, finally, for geomagnetic measurements.
The ENEA compass has been used during the last Antarctic campaign, in December 2017, carried out by the italian ‘Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia’ (INGV)and aimed at magnetic declination measurements. The results show that at a very high latitude the measurements done with the solar compass are much more reliable than those obtained with GPS sensors.

Сборник утвержден на заседании Проблемного совета отдела археологических памятников Исторического музея 10 февраля 2014 г. Рецензенты: канд. ист. наук Г.А. Ломтадзе, канд. ист. наук Н.А. Хайкунова УДК 902/904 ББК 63.4 Г72 Г72 Государственный исторический музей и отечественная археология: к 100-летию отдела археологических памятников. -М., 2014. 304 с.: ил. ISBN 978-5-89076-285-6

The Prut–
Q1
Q3 Dnestr region is characterized by a multifaceted
cultural pattern during many archaeological
periods. The diverse settlement landscape in the
Copper Age reflects the specific situation in the region,
with cultural influences from the Carpathians, the
Buh-Dnipro interfluve and the northern Pontic area, as
visible in the medium-sized settlement of Petreni.
Between 2009 and 2011 the Romano-Germanic Commission,
in cooperation with Moldavian partners from
the National Museum of Archaeology and History of
Moldova and the State Pedagogical University (Ion
Creanga) in Chişinău, conducted three geomagnetic
surveys and field surveys on Copper Age sites and
settlements of the younger Sântana de Mureş Culture
(Popa et al., 2010).

Between 7 and 20 November 2017, ten high intensity seismic events (M6+) were recorded on our planet. The authors, analyzing the characteristics of solar ion flux and terrestrial geomagnetic activity, found that the ten potentially destructive seismic events were preceded by solar wind proton density increases and by increases in terrestrial geomagnetic activity.

On March 14, 2021, at 12:05:13 UTC, an M6.0 earthquake was recorded in the South region of the Sandwich Islands. The analysis of the modulation of the solar ion flux and of the Earth’s geomagnetic activity showed that the M6.0 earthquake was preceded by a solar wind proton density increase and by an increase in the Earth’s geomagnetic field. This type of correlation was observed for the first time by the authors in 2011 [20] [23] and currently has allowed the development of a new seismic forecasting method that is able to provide (with an average advance of 108.4 hours) when it is possible to expect a resumption of M6+ seismic activity on a global scale [24].