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IGERT-TEECH: First Publication from Cyprus Archaeomagnetic Project
Description:
CISA3 Associate Director Tom Levy and IGERT Trainee Matthew Vincent and IGERT Associate Ashley Richter were part of an expedition in late August to Cyprus. The Cyprus Archaeomagnetic Project (CAMP) explored ancient metal slag heaps spanning the first millennia BC and AD. The goal was to clarify the stratigraphy and chronology, while undertaking an archaeomagnetic analysis to provide clues to the history of metallurgy on the island – and comparing the metal to remnants found elsewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean. In the journal Antiquity (vol. 85 issue 330, December 2011), Levy and co-authors Erez Ben-Yosef (UCSD alumnus), Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Ron Shaar and Lisa Tauxe, and Vasiliki Kassianidou from the University of Cyprus argue that “high resolution recording of these slag deposits, especially those threatened by development and modern mining, will help in conservation of one of the most important cultural heritages of the island.” The expedition was particularly important because Cyprus was one of the major sources of copper in the eastern Mediterranean in antiquity. Researchers are still sorting through LIDAR and other data.
