Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Universitá degli Studi di Torino, Italy (TORI)
Role in the Network
  • Main speciality research areas: New materials in archaeomagnetic studies; geomagnetic secular variation, historical volcanism, magnetic fabrics of natural and artificial materials; magnetic prospection of archaeological sites.
  • Other factors: Access to microprobe, X-ray diffraction and TEM facilities. Very low electromagnetic noise laboratory, full equipped for magnetic measurements.
Research Linkage
  • Links with various Archaeology Departments in Italy
Senior Scientist
Prof. R. Lanza (e-mail: roberto.lanza@unito.it, Tel.:0039 11 670 5165, Fax:)
Young researcher
Evdokia Tema
Project
Archaeomagnetic data from archaeological artifacts are still very scarce in Italy and often volcanic data are used for archaeomagnetic dating. However, as the reliability of these data on tracing back the secular variation of the Earth’s magnetic field is not a posteriori proved a control of their accuracy could provide some important check points. Therefore, archaeomagnetic data from historical lava flows from Vesuvius and Etna were compared with direct measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field during last four centuries in Italy, and the results could be used to estimate the real error likely to affect the data from older lava flows, for which no direct check is possible. Nevertheless, the enrichment of the Italian  archaeomagnetic  database  could mainly be achieved by the sampling and  measurements  of  new  archaeological structures.  Up  to  now,  material  from  different   archaeological   sites (Vagnari, Ascoli Satriano, Canosa, Rome) representing various time  periods, has been sampled and measured, obtaining new directional results, while  new sampling  sites  are  always  of  great  interest.  Furthermore,  systematic measurements of the anisotropy of  magnetic  susceptibility,  anisotropy  of isothermal remanent magnetisation (IRM) and anhysteretic remanent magnetisation (ARM) are in progress in order to better understand and to estimate  the effect  of  anisotropy  on  archaeomagnetic  direction  and  subsequently  on archaeomagnetic dating.
Recent Publications
Lanza, R., Meloni, A. and E. Tema, Historical measurements of the Earth's magnetic field compared with remanence directions from lava flows in Italy over the last four centuries, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 148, 97-107, 2005.

Lanza, R. and E. Zanella, Paleomagnetic secular variation at Vulcano (Aeolian Island) during the last 135 kyr, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 213, 321-336, 2003.

Zanella, E., Gurioli, L., Chiari, G., Ciarallo, A., Cioni, R., De Carolis, E. and R. Lanza, Archaeomagnetic results from mural paintings and pyroclastic rocks in Pompeii and Herculaneum, Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 118, 227-240, 2000.

Chiari, G. and  R. Lanza, Remanent magnetization of mural paintings from the Bibliotheca Apostolica (Vatican, Rome), Applied Geophysics, 41, 137-143, 1999.
Web-Link
http://www.dst.unito.it/laboratori/paleomagn.htm