Possible impact of the Earth's magnetic field on the history of ancient civilizations

• Published in: Earth and Planetary Science Letters
• Main Authors: Gallet, Yves, Genevey, Agnès, Le Goff, Maxime, Fluteau, Frédéric, Eshraghi, Safar Ali
• Other Authors: Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Université de La Réunion (UR)-Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPG Paris)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France (C2RMF), Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7), Geological Survey of Iran
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2006
• Subjects: Keywords: Archeomagnetism; climate change; environmental impact; ancient civilizations; Eastern Mediterranean; Mesopotamia; [SDU.STU.PG]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Paleontology; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00150023; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2006.04.001

International audience We report new archeointensity results from Iranian and Syrian archeological excavations dated from the second millennium BC. These high-temperature magnetization data were obtained using a laboratory-built triaxial vibrating sample magnetometer. Together with our previously published archeointensity results from Mesopotamia, we constructed a rather detailed geomagnetic field intensity variation curve for this region from 3000 BC to 0 BC. Four potential geomagnetic events (“archeomagnetic jerks”), marked by strong intensity increases, are observed and appear to be synchronous with cooling episodes in the North Atlantic. This temporal coincidence strengthens the recent suggestion that the geomagnetic field influences climate change over multi-decadal time scales, possibly through the modulation of cosmic ray flux interacting with the atmosphere. Moreover, the cooling periods in the North Atlantic coincide with episodes of enhanced aridity in the Middle East, when abrupt societal changes occurred in the eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamia. Although the coincidences discussed in this paper must be considered with caution, they lead to the possibility that the geomagnetic field impacted the history of ancient civilizations through climatically driven environmental changes, triggering economic, social and political instability.