Abstract:

A very accurate archaeological dating of a Roman site in NE Spain (El Vila-sec) has been undertaken based on the typology of ceramic artifacts. Three different phases have been identified with activity ranging from the last quarter of the 1st century BC to the early-3rd century AD. Analyses on bricks from kilns of El Vila-sec produced data on their stored archaeomagnetic vector. These data were compared with the secular variation curve for the Iberian Peninsula and the regional archaeomagnetic model SCHA.DIF.3K. Both, the reference curve and the model, produced probability distributions of the age of last use fortwo kilns used in the second archaeological phase and without activity during the third phase. At a 95% confidence level, both time distributions cover a wide time range including the presumed archaeological age. Both the Iberian secular variation curve and the regional model SCHA.DIF.3K has proven to be suitable models for dating the site though alone they do not produce a single unambiguous solution. The undertaken archaeomagnetic approach could be applied to neighboring archaeological sites that have an imprecise archaeological age.