16B.6
Sensitivity of ancient humans to the local geomagnetic field when choosing their stand locations nearly 60,000 years ago
Oleg I. Shumilov, Polar Geophysical Institute, Apatity, Russia; and A. V. Chramov, E. A. Kasatkina, and O. M. Raspopov
In the paper we present the result of analysis of ancient human stand locations depending on the intensity of local magnetic anomalies. For analysis 235 ancient people stands in the region of Kursk magnetic anomaly (one of the strongest anomaly all over the world) were chosen. All stands were dated by radiocarbon method and are placed in the State List of Archaeological Monuments of Belgorod Region. The oldest stands were radiocarbon dated to 70,000-50,000 years before present (kyr BP). All stands are located along the 300 km valley of Oskol river, having got a homogeneous climatic conditions. At the half of the valley the intensity of local magnetic field is rather low (0-1000 nT), so the region should be considered as the most comfort area for human occupation. The distribution of human occupation at this site looks as follows: 100% at 50-10 kyr BP, 94% at 6-4 kyr BP, 87% at 4-2 kyr BP, 83% at 3-2 kyr BP and 64% at 2-1 kyr BP. At ancient time humans preferred to occupy the sites with low magnetic field intensity. The spreading of human occupation outside of the comfort zone (more than 34%) began at Iron Age (2-1 kyr BP). Thus it may be concluded that in Palaeolithic age (50-10 kyr BP) humans avoided the area with enhanced level of local magnetic field. This seems to be connected to the bad influence of the factor on human health, to the high level of directional sense of ancient human, and may be to the different plant distribution features. The spreading of human occupation out of the comfort zone at rather recent time seems to be caused by social-economic activity.
Session 16B, Radiation and Magnetism Impacts on Human Physiology
Friday, 1 November 2002, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
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