Geomagnetic field intensity changes in the Central Mediterranean between 1500 BCE and 150 CE: Implications for the Levantine Iron Age Anomaly evolution

•New 37 archeointensities for the Central Mediterranean (1500 BCE–150 CE).•First evidence of a rapid intensity change between 1070 and 1040 BCE in Greece.•The Levantine Iron Age Anomaly (LIAA) is present in the Central Mediterranean.•A global analysis suggests that the LIAA vanishes to the west and to the east. The magnitude and origin of the Levantine Iron Age geomagnetic Anomaly (LIAA), which spanned the first half of the first millennium before the common era, are not yet well understood. Recent archeomagnetic studies from the Levant and Western Europe suggest a western drift of this feature, stressing the importance of investigating the temporal and spatial behaviour of this event over the Central Mediterranean area. To analyse this issue, we here present 37 new archeointensity data obtained from the archeomagnetic study of 118 ceramics and brick fragments collected in 8 archeological sites in Greece and Italy with ages ranging between 1500 BCE and 150 CE. The samples were analysed using the classical Thellier and Thellier method for paleointensity determination, including the correction for the anisotropy effect of the thermoremanent magnetization (TRM) and for the cooling rate dependence upon TRM acquisition. The results reveal the first evidence of a high-intensity peak in Greece between 1070 and 1040 BCE associated to high virtual axial dipole moment (VADM) values of around 140 ZAm2. A global analysis of available paleointensities suggests that the origin of these high values is the same to the one which produced the maximum VADM of the LIAA in the Levantine region. Our results suggest that the source of the LIAA is located in the Levantine region vanishing to the north, to the west and to the east where lower VADMs are observed. In addition, another high intensity maximum, less pronounced than the one of the LIAA, seems to be present around 500 BCE all over Europe, from the Canary Islands to Turkey showing similar VADM values (around 150 ZAm2) in the different regions. Both events seem to span over a large region at the Earth's surface covering more than 60° of longitude, verifying an Earth's outer core origin for these intensity features.