A Comparison of Radiocarbon and Archaeomagnetic Dating from an Archaeological Site in Spain

Abstract

Reference archaeomagnetic secular variation (SV) curves recently have been proposed for the Iberian Peninsula and may now be used for archaeomagnetic dating. Archaeomagnetic dating is a relative dating technique that is strongly dependent on the age control of the data used to construct the reference curves. In order to test the method, an archaeological structure from central Spain has been studied. Samples have been taken for both archaeomagnetic and radiocarbon dating, and the results are compared. Close agreement is observed between both techniques, with the archaeomagnetic age of AD 603–999 overlapping the calibrated age of AD 770–890. These results demonstrate the reliability of the proposed reference curves as a dating tool within the Iberian Peninsula during this archaeological period.