Mesopotamian King Names and the 3,000-Year Anomaly
Three thousand years ago, there was a mysterious anomaly in the Earth’s magnetic field. The source of this information comes from ancient bricks inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings.
A century ago, Iraq was a true El Dorado for researchers of the past. Archaeologists from many countries explored the traces of one of the world’s oldest civilizations there. Now, due to the complex political situation in the country, this is no longer possible.
However, researchers obtained numerous artifacts decades ago, which are now housed in various museum collections worldwide and in Iraq. New research methods allow for the reanalysis of artifacts. This includes bricks that do not seem particularly interesting at first glance.
What is enchanted in ancient bricks?
The results of the analysis were published in the scientific journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences” (PNAS). It described how changes in the Earth’s magnetic field affected iron oxide, a component of ancient clay bricks.
The Earth’s magnetic field weakens and grows over time. These changes strongly impact minerals sensitive to the magnetic field. Researchers from the USA, Israel, and England analyzed the “magnetic signature” in iron oxide. The samples were 32 clay bricks from archaeological sites in Mesopotamia.
The Earth’s magnetic field at that time was “trapped” when the bricks were fired thousands of years ago. But when exactly?
How to determine the age of a brick?
Archaeologists use various methods to determine the age of objects unearthed from the ground. Among them is radiocarbon dating, but it requires organic material. In the case of ceramic vessels, this is not possible unless a fragment with organic material is preserved.
In the case of bricks examined for their “enchanted” magnetic field, radiocarbon dating was not necessary because each brick bore an inscription. The inscription contained the name of the ruler under whose reign the brick was made. This greatly facilitated dating the building material because, after decades of analysis, archaeologists know quite precisely when individual Mesopotamian kings ruled.
According to researchers, mapping changes in the Earth’s magnetic field over time can be a good additional method for dating artifacts. It was noted that radiocarbon dating is quite inaccurate and estimates the age roughly within a few hundred years. Meanwhile, magnetic field studies can be more precise.
Although the length and sequence of the rule of individual Mesopotamian rulers are well known, there is no consensus in the archaeological community about the exact years they ascended the throne. This is due to incomplete historical records. The measurements of the bricks align with the so-called low (late) chronology used by historians of ancient Near East.
With all this information, researchers were able to examine the bricks for what they themselves termed “archeomagnetism.” To do this, experts chipped off small fragments from the bricks and, using a magnetometer, conducted precise field measurements.
The Levantine Iron Age Anomaly
Scientists have confirmed the existence of the “Levantine geomagnetic anomaly of the Iron Age.” The Earth’s magnetic field was exceptionally strong around present-day Iraq from around 1050 to 550 BCE. The cause? It remains somewhat unclear to this day. Evidence of the anomaly during the same period was also detected elsewhere: in China, Bulgaria, and the Azores. Until now, data from the southern part of the Middle East had been scarce.
“The geomagnetic field is one of the most enigmatic phenomena in Earth sciences. Well-dated archaeological remains of rich Mesopotamian cultures, especially bricks inscribed with the names of specific kings, provide an unprecedented opportunity to study changes in the field’s intensity with high temporal resolution. They allow us to track changes that occurred within a few decades or even less,” notes co-author Professor Lisa Tauxe from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (USA).
The team also discovered that in five samples taken from bricks dating back to the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II from 604 to 562 BCE, the Earth’s magnetic field changed dramatically in a relatively short time. This suggests the possibility of abrupt spikes in its intensity.
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