Full vector archaeomagnetic records from Anatolia between 2400 and 1350 BCE: Implications for geomagnetic field models and the dating of fires in antiquity

Three archaeointensity methods: thermal IZZI-Thellier, microwave Thellier and the multi-specimen protocol (MSP) produced virtual axial dipole moment estimates (9.0-10.9×1022 Am2) that are somewhat higher than contemporaneous (regional and global) data and model predictions suggesting that the field was already substantially stronger than today more than 800 years prior to the reported peak. In addition to constraining geomagnetic variability, our data also allow us to assign relative dates to inferred fire events in the Assyrian Trade Colony Period sites. This allows us to conclude that the fire events at the largest site, Kültepe, were not all contemporaneous with one another and with the abandonment of the site as has been previously hypothesized.