No commitment necessary. It was only put out there as an anomaly that could be a clue to further understanding. Certainly it is a testable idea, that is, we have plenty of vases from differing periods of time, including the present, that could be examined. Experiments could be devised to shed some light on the intricacies of how magnetic fields are impressed on vases.macgirvin wrote:I'm not ready to commit to any stand on field reversal as per the vases mentioned. It might mean something, it might not. Not enough information.
-can we show ways in which vases could be fired that would yield remnant magnetism that is the reverse of the ambient (Earth's) magnetic field?
The idea could be falsified by firing a vase, today, that displays the properties of a reversed (with respect to the Earth's magnetic field) remanent magnetic field.
-do we know for certain the position of the ancient vases when fired in the kiln? as was stated in a previous post, the flow of the glaze indicates the orientation of the vase in the kiln.
Actually, these issues have been addressed as soon as Folgheraiter published his work, and have been discussed by researchers ever since:
If the magnetisation of the terra-cotta had in any way altered since they were broken, it is clear that the different portions would have been differently affected, and the mended vases would have shown somewhat irregular magnetisation. So far from this being the case, they were found to be as regularly magnetised as those which had been excavated entire, the opposite poles at the mouth and base being exactly 180 degrees apart.
Nature, vol. 55, March 1897 edited by Sir Norman Lockyer
http://books.google.com/books?id=50cCAA ... es&f=false
Folgheraiter's methods are considered pioneering, and he usually gets an obligatory mention as the originator of the field of geomagnetic studies:
The above source is of interest because it basically uses Folgheraiter's technique to analyze Japanese vases over the last 2000 years, to plot movements of the Earth's magnetic field, though they reveal somewhat of a sine curve (the Earth's magnetic poles drift noticeably) all the Japanese vases from this later period are all in the northern hemisphere of the magnetic field. To me this makes the reversed polarity of the 8th C BCE Etruscan and Greek vases even more interesting. Certainly, it is a subject that warrants futher study.Since Folgheraiter (1899) worked on the remanent magnetization of Greek and Etruscan vases, the study to determine the geomagnetic secular variation had been continued mainly in France (Mercanton, 1918a, b; Chevallier, 1925; Thellier, 1037).
After 1950's, it has been studied systematically at various district of the world...
Dept of Material Physics Faculty of Engineering Science, February, 1980 Osaka University
http://www.sci.kumamoto-u.ac.jp/earthsc ... Thesis.pdf
Keep in mind that the reversed polarity (ca. 8th C BCE vases) was detected in many different samples not just one vase or shard. Folgheraiter concluded that either the magnetic pole shifted by more than 30 degrees, so that Italy and Greece were then south of the magnetic equator or there was a total reversal of the magnetic field.
Vases are arguably a better source for information (on the orientation of the magnetic field) than rocks because we have a better idea of the time frame involved. Radiometric dating of rock is of dubious value in the Electric Universe, as it is a technique based on uniformitarian assumptions.
Nick