Secular variation of the geomagnetic field direction recorded in lavas from Etna and Vesuvius during the last two millennia

High precision methods of sampling and measurement developed at Saint-Maur laboratory added to a critical examination of written documents pertaining to the history of Etna and Vesuvius enable us to reconstruct the path of th e geomagnetic field direction in southern Italy for the past 2 000 years. T his curve agrees well with that obtained from archaeomagnetism in France an d may confidently be used either for geophysical purposes or for dating hig h-temperature-emplaced volcanic products and archaeological structures in t he time span considered. ((C) 1999 Academie des sciences / Editions scienti fiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.).